Aerial Photography Mapping Patrick Coyle, P.E. – Belize Open Source This session will demonstrate Simple Aerial Photography Mapping with Balloons or Kites. Aerial photomaps can be very useful for EWB teams for their projects and the communities they work with. Example applications include: community planning, site planning, land boundary adjudication, agricultural planning, ecological evaluations, and documenting changes such as cutting of rain forest, clearing of land, etc. Weather permitting, we’ll meet outside and discuss how to do the mapping, covering what’s needed to take the photos and use software to stitch them together into a single georegistered photomap. We’ll fly kites or balloons to take pictures and afterwards make and share the map. We’ll briefly discuss advanced topics including integration of gps data, dual-camera based multispectral imagery, 3-D Digital Elevation Models, UAVs and automated image processing. Participants are making map from photos taken during session.

1. Simple,
Inexpensive
Aerial
Photography
Mapping
with
Balloons,
Kites
or
UAVs
Engineers
Without
Borders
West
Coast
Regional
Workshop
2012
Patrick
Coyle,
EWB-­‐SFP;
PLOTS,
Belize
Open
Source
-­‐
Sustainable
Development
October
20,
2012

2. Agenda
• Why
bother?
Aerial
photomaps
can
be
very
useful
• Community,
Site
and
Project
Planning;
Agricultural/
Ecological
planning,
evaluaIon
• How?
In
summary,
what’s
needed?
• Equipment,
SoMware,
Supplies,
Materials
• Step-­‐by-­‐step
guide
• Examples
from
community
of
users
• What’s
new
• Jeff
Warren,
PLOTS,
produced
• DemonstraIon
–
let’s
fly!
community
maps
in
Lima,
Peru
• See
results,
Q&A
with
children
and
adults

3. Step-­‐by-­‐step
guide
• Decide
what
you
want
to
do,
produce
and
deliver;
thinking
this
through
will
help
to
define
the
requirements
For
example,
here
is
Coyle’s
preliminary
set
of
requirements:
• Take
detailed
aerial
photos
of
the
Belize
Open
Source
Sustainable
Development
40-­‐acre
property
with
enough
detail
that
individual
trees
are
clear
• Cover
the
site
with
overlapping
images
and
use
soMware
to
sItch
them
together
into
a
single
photomap
and
georegister
it
to
Google
Earth
imagery
of
the
property
• Tag
the
individual
photos
with
GPS
data
to
geo-­‐reference
them
for
viewing
on
Google
Maps,
Google
Earth,
or
for
use
with
other
applicaIons
• Develop
methods
to
use
the
photomaps
for
work
planning,
tracking
progress
and
communicaIng
results
to
encourage
parIcipaIon
in
the
iniIaIve.
Document
the
approach
and
techniques
• Apply
the
method
to
other
community
mapping
iniIaIves
and
make
it
available
to
EWB
teams
and
schools
and
communiIes
in
Belize

4. What’s
needed?
• Digital
camera
with
ability
to
take
photos
automaIcally
(at
few-­‐second
intervals
or
conInuously
(~1
per
second))
• (advanced:
pair
of
cameras,
shooIng
vis
and
IR
in
synch)
• GPS
tracking
unit
(opIonal,
where
needed)
• Package
to
house
and
protect
the
camera
and
GPS
unit
• Balloon
or
kite
with
enough
liM
capability
to
carry
the
camera,
GPS
unit,
housing
and
sufficient
tether
line
to
reach
height
of
interest
for
the
photographs
(or
UAV)
• Safe
area
to
test
the
system
and
process
• Safe
approach
to
use
the
process
in
the
field
• Capability
to
process
the
data
and
present
the
results
• Approach
to
discuss
and
use
the
results

5. A
complete
grassroots
mapping
kit

6. Illustrated
Guide
(By
Jeffrey
Warren)

7. Illustrated
Guide
(cont.)

8. Illustrated
Guide
(cont.)

9. Illustrated
Guide
(cont.)

10. Illustrated
Guide
(cont.)

11. Illustrated
Guide
(cont.)

12. “Neogeographic”
approach
to
inexpensive
oil
spill
mapping
• In
April
2010,
the
Deepwater
Horizon
oil
rig
exploded
and
sank
in
the
Gulf
of
Mexico,
iniIaIng
what
may
be
one
of
the
worst
environmental
disasters
in
U.S.
history
• As
the
spill
grew
in
size,
Jeffrey
Warren
and
Stewart
Long
collaborated
with
the
Louisiana
Bucket
Brigade,
a
New
Orleans-­‐based
environmental
non-­‐profit
group,
and
began
a
volunteer-­‐led
aerial
mapping
project
to
document
the
spill’s
effects
• The
maps
use
orthorecIfied
photographs
of
key
affected
sites
processed
into
GeoTIFFs
and
Iled
map
services
(TMS)
-­‐
the
public
domain
photographs,
taken
from
balloons
or
kites,
are
among
the
highest
resoluIon
imagery
available
of
the
spill

13. Oil
Spill
Mapping
Kits
• The
mapping
kits
themselves,
assembled
for
less
than
$300
each,
consisted
of:
•
an
8-­‐foot
weather
balloon
•
a
tank
of
helium
•
2000
feet
of
string
•
an
inexpensive,
consumer
grade
digital
camera
•
half
of
a
soda
bople
•
a
large
kite
•
GPS
logger
(opIonal)

14. Oil
spill
mapping
approach
• ParIcipants
visit
an
affected
area,
fill
a
balloon
or
prepare
a
kite
depending
on
wind
condiIons,
and
send
the
camera
in
its
homemade
protecIve
enclosure
up
to
2000
feet
in
the
air
• By
walking
along
the
beach
or
moving
in
a
boat,
• Some
maps,
at
~
2-­‐3
cm
several
kilometers
of
nominal
resoluIon,
can
count
coastline
may
be
imaged
in
birds,
plants
and
other
features,
just
a
few
hours
even
idenIfy
bird
species

15. Oil
spill
mapping
trips
and
data
• Between
May
7
and
July
22,
2010
dozens
of
parIcipants
made
36
trips
to
gather
mapping
data,
averaging
almost
one
trip
every
other
day
• Only
one
trip
failed
to
return
with
imagery,
56%
of
the
trips
returned
with
"excellent"
or
"usable"
• This
is
a
case
where
the
low-­‐cost
data,
and
over
11,000
mapping
techniques
were
images
were
taken,
applied
to
a
real-­‐world
problem
mapping
conInued
of
immediate
importance
through
January
2011

16. OrthorecIficaIon
(sItching)
techniques
• Two
different
manual
processing
methods
have
accounted
for
the
bulk
of
the
mapping
for
Public
Laboratory
for
Open
Science
and
Technolgy
publiclaboratory.org
to
date:
• Gonzo
Earth
Image
Processing
is
a
workflow
of
different
commercial
off-­‐the-­‐shelf
(COTS)
and
open-­‐source
GIS
and
digital
image
soMware
packages,
which
has
been
used
to
generate
dozens
of
maps
from
balloons,
kites,
remote
controlled
and
manned
aircraM
• MapKniper,
mapkniper.org,
is
web-­‐based
soMware
for
users
to
upload
and
recIfy
images
from
a
web
browser
• Both
export
finished
maps
in
standard
formats
that
can
be
viewed
in
common
GIS
tools
and
integrated
into
exisIng
workflows

23. A
Grassroots
Mapping
collaboraIon
in
Georgia
• In
the
country
of
Georgia,
Grassroots
Mapping
techniques
were
used
alongside
more
tradiIonal
GPS-­‐based
approaches
by
the
OpenMapsCaucasus.org
effort
to
produce
a
public
domain
map
of
the
enIre
country

24. • A
map
of
MesIa,
in
the
SvaneI
region
of
Georgia.
The
map
spans
5.5
kilometers
and
was
captured
in
just
3
days
of
balloon
and
kite
mapping
with
local
OpenMapsCaucasus
staff
and
parIcipaIng
students

25. • Flight
paths
of
several
balloon
mapping
flights
in
MesIa,
Georgia,
during
a
3-­‐day
project
to
map
the
enIre
city
• The
pictured
flights
reached
1.4
kilometers
above
ground
level

26. Grassroots
Mapping
Belize
• Grassroots
Mapping
Belize
-­‐
Pat
Coyle
of
Belize
Open
Source
Sustainable
Development
is
planning
to
apply
these
techniques
to
detailed
mapping
of
a
40-­‐acre
property
in
northwest
Belize
and
for
other
community
mapping
iniIaIves
• To
date,
I
have
commissioned
the
mapping
tools
and
am
conInuing
to
pracIce
the
techniques
in
the
Bay
Area

27. Site:
Belize
Open
Source
Sustainable
Development
• This
40-­‐acre
rural
property
is
located
in
northwestern
Belize
near
the
Mexican
and
Guatemala
borders
about
16
miles
from
Orange
Walk
Town,
between
the
villages
of
August
Pine
Ridge
and
San
• Google
Maps
shows
it,
but
unIl
Felipe
and
3.5
miles
to
Rio
recently,
two
more
clicks
in
and
Hondo
Belize/Mexico
you
ran
out
of
pixels
–
it’s
beper
border
now
belizeopensource.org

28. Planned
grassroots
mapping
program
in
Belize
• Start
with
iniIal
1-­‐2
week
trip
to
engage
schools,
develop
capabiliIes
and
make
iniIal
set
of
maps
(Belize
Open
Source
property,
August
Pine
Ridge
school
classrooms
and
surrounding
community,
and
others
associated
with
parIcipaIng
schools)
• Do
a
video
and
web
documentary
as
we
go,
in
context
of
a
plan
to:
• develop
capabiliIes,
• archive,
access
and
communicate
with
the
images,
• implement
training
through
classes
in
local
schools,
• with
ongoing
workshops
for
future
visitors
to
extend
techniques
and
map
more
of
the
country's
sites
of
interest
with
emphasis
on
community
needs
and
benefits
to
local
users,
as
well
as
some
the
gorgeous
sites
• Muffles
College
Environmental
Sciences
program
is
interested
in
parIcipaIng.
Jeff
Warren
and
Stewart
Long,
Public
Laboratory
for
Open
Technology
and
Science,
have
parIcipated
in
planning

29. Blanca Torres, principal of the August Pine Ridge school, wrote, “The aerial photo
mapping seems very interesting. I shared with my children and sisters the images
of our village … and they just loved them. … I welcome these opportunities where
I can involve my students in new learning experiences. I am very interested in
exposing them through your mapping project. We feel pride in having our
community appear in internet pages and more if we are involved in getting those
images.”

30. • In progress and completed new classroom building
• Richard Obratil, Chapter President, Project Manager/Site Engineer
EWB-Cleveland State University Chapter, wrote, “... Here are pictures of the
building…”

31. • Balloon
test
flight
in
the
front
yard
with
neighbors

32. • Niles,
CA:
Google
Earth
imagery
shows
center
under
construcIon,
the
sItched
map
shows
completed
facility

33. • PracIce
flight:
Angel
Island,
CA

35. • PracIce
flights:
Livermore,
CA

36. • Sunol,
CA:

37. • “Personal aerial photo-mapping session with balloons or kites,”
a fundraising auction item, was successful
• 7/22/12, Nile Runge, who had bid on the item at a Livermore
Rotary Club fundraiser, and I flew two mylar sleeping bag balloons with
a Canon A1200, shooting in continuous mode in a juice-bottle rig.
• We flew at Shadow Cliffs Regional Recreation Area, Pleasanton, CA,
a part of the East Bay Regional Park District

38. Advanced
topics
• We’ll
briefly
discuss
advanced
topics:
• IntegraIon
of
gps
data
• Dual-­‐camera
based
mulIspectral
imagery
• Automated
image
processing
and
3-­‐D
Digital
ElevaIon
Models
• UAVs

39. IntegraIon
of
gps
data
Groundbased photos geotagged with gps data, displayed in Picasa map view

40. IntegraIon
of
gps
data
Screenshot of aerial photos geotagged with gps data, displayed in Google
Earth

41. Dual-­‐camera
based
mulIspectral
imagery
• Dual cameras, visible and IR synched with timer controlled CHDK
• Multispectral image processing and rectification – automated with Ned
Horning’s software

42. Automated
image
processing
and
3D
Digital
ElevaIon
Models
• On
PLOTS,
Ned
Horning
recently
summarized
several
cloud-­‐
based
or
desktop
soMware
packages;
some
free
with
limits,
some
open
source,
which
use
structure
from
moIon
(SFM)
soMware
to
provide
automated
image
processing,
including:
• Online:
www.hypr3d.com,
dronemapper.com,
pix4d.com,
photosynth.net,
www.terrapanlabs.com
• Proprietary
soMware:
www.123dapp.com/catch,
www.agisoM.ru/products/photoscan
• Open
source:
VisualSFM,
homes.cs.washington.edu/
~ccwu/vsfm/

43. 3-­‐D
Digital
ElevaIon
Models
Clockwise: Bay area examples using pix4d.com, dronemapper.com,
www.hypr3d.com

44. UAVs
Wired magazine, “The drones are coming”…..

45. R/C aircraft testing in San Diego with pilot John Shultz

46. • Tested Swann "thumb" camera strapped under the AR Parrot 2
• "Training wheel" settings are still on, so altitude is low, maybe 15-20 feet
• The AR Parrot 2 is a toy, it also brings the drone "baggage”
• The cautionary notes, especially those of lost, fly-away drones are sobering
• I'll proceed with caution. But, it is fun!

47. hIp://mapkniIer.org/
• MapKniIer
is
a
free
and
open
source
tool
for
combining
and
posiPoning
images
in
geographic
space
into
a
composite
image
map

48. Get
Involved
• publiclaboratory.org
provides
techniques
and
tools,
case
studies
• ParIcipate:
join
the
mailing
list
• Start
a
grassroots
mapping
project
• Apply
the
techniques
to
your
project

49. Grass
Roots
Mapping
Supporters
and
Collaborators
The Design Ecology group
at the MIT Media Lab
You

50. Let’s
fly,
Q&A

51. • Weare outside flying, catch up with us
• We’ll come back and try to make map
• Look at the rest of the talk