Category Archives: Aerial/UAS
Embrace the Mesh
Above: A full 3D textured model of San Francisco produced through Skyline’s PhotoMesh 3D Reconstruction software and streamed for visualization and analytics in Skyline’s TerraExplorer. Surveyors and photogrammetrists capture reality data. But to model, manage, and provide access to massive and complex datasets—to provide your clients with true 3D mesh reality capture—you’re going to need...
Nighttime Imaging
An airport-mapping project indicates that a new set of applications may soon be served with airborne imagery collected under low-light and nighttime conditions. A geospatial services firm that specializes in building geographic information systems for airports (aka Airports GIS) faced a mapping challenge it had encountered before that’s common to airfields. Geopro Consultants, LLC, based...
UAS + Lidar = “X-ray” Vision
Image above: The same area as shown in the picture to the right with the ground extracted and the trees filtered out. A construction/survey project proves that UAS-borne lidar can penetrate tree cover to yield accurate ground data with improved post-processing times compared to photogrammetric solutions. I’m the VP of remote sensing at Morris P....
Point Clouds for Water Conservation
Image above: The Lake Mead region of Las Vegas, Nevada. A project to identify and quantify irrigated landscapes in Las Vegas demonstrates the advantages of using lidar to save precious natural resources. Persistent drought conditions in the western United States are dramatically reflected in the steady diminution, over the past 15 years, of Lake Mead,...
Mobile Mapping Evolves
Image above: A colorized point cloud from a subway collect in Los Angeles, California. Credit: Joe Feyder, PLS, R.E.Y Engineers, INC., and John Jaramillo, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. While lidar has been a standard geospatial tool for many years, the requirements of companies using it have been rapidly changing and evolving. Therefore, lidar...
Airports GIS
The history and complexities of AGIS from the expertise of a small aerial mapping company. This story started when a small group of mapping professionals were left without a company. In 2013, after their employer participated in a merger, the Seattle-based staff had their office shut down. It was an office that had been in...
