Acceleration

Acceleration and semi-automatic rectification and geo-referencing of aerial imagery

The main objective of this LBI ArchPro research topic is to accelerate geo-referencing and ortho- rectification of newly acquired aerial imagery. This is achieved via the construction of novel hand-held calibrated camera-systems with attached global positioning systems (GPS) and low-cost Inertial Measurement Units (IMU), as well as with the development of software for the approximate geo-referencing of the oblique images relative to existing orthophotos of the respective area. The GPS and IMU data are used as initial input values for the outer orientation of the photograph. Using a DTM, orthophotos, and the approximate geo-referencing information provided by GPS and IMU, the detailed geo-referencing of the images and image blocks can be performed by matching of corresponding control points determined in the orthophoto and the oblique photographs.

Large numbers of vertical and oblique images are stored in archaeological archives. They have a great archaeological potential, but contain only vague information about their outer orientation. The developed matching strategy can also be used for geo-referencing and rectification of historical aerial imagery.