IMAP3D: LOW-COST PHOTOGRAMMETRY FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE

In the new Digital Era the rapid development of digital technology allows us to obtain easily the high resolution images through Digital Photogrammetry or the detailed 3D data of the object by the technique of laser scanner. Nevertheless, both techniques present several drawbacks: in the case of aerial photogrammetric applications, image acquisition is one of the most expensive steps. Especially if aerial images must be taken, the expenses are always high because of the high-cost of aircraft flight. In the case of laser scanner, the own cost of the material is one of the main problems. Furthermore, to obtain a final product is yet something difficult to overcome and a time-consuming activity. The research group IMAP3D has developed a low-cost methodology based on shutting photographs from an unmanned aerial platform completed by terrestrial exposures. The system is constituted by a helium zeppelin and a digital camera fixed in a specific device equipped with servomechanisms, video and radio control which allow to obtain video signal of camera view over a monitor in real time, as well as to control the two main different rotations of the camera. These types of solutions can be used for the documentation, reconstruction and visualization of historical buildings or archaeological sites where the area of interest is small, with a difficult access and a large scale is required. This methodology is complemented with the development of different tools that enable us to process the input data captured by the zeppelin: from the camera self-calibration and 3D reconstruction of the model to the automatic generation and visualization of Digital Elevation Models (DEM) and ortophoto in GeoVRML. Particularly, the methodology developed has been tested over the emblematic archaeological settlement of Clvnia situated in Castile (Spain).