Sunday, April 12, 2009

3D mapping system with integrated GPS

3-D mapping company earthmine, Inc., has developed a stereo-panoramic camera array that generates full 360-by-180-degree spherical imagery. The array uses four camera pairs (eight cameras total) mounted vertically and spaced horizontally 90 degrees apart.

Images are typically captured at 10-meter intervals as the vehicle-mounted system is driven down a street or road. After post processing, each pixel in the earthmine digital images has an accurate 3D position — reportedly at the meter level for points 20 to 30 meters from the camera.

The camera system incorporates NovAtel SPAN inertial/GPS technology and 3D data generation software and algorithms created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and used on the Mars Exploration Rover missions.

The integrated GPS/INS provides accurate position and orientation information for each capture event, says John Ristevski, earthmine’s co-founder and co-CEO. "This is all post-processed differentially and supplemented with additional data from the imaging systems to get very accurate position and orientation information for the data."

The earthmine camera system is able to operate for limited periods of time using the inertial measurement unit alone when sufficient GPS signals are unavailable, but Ristevski says he’d be interested in enhancing the system with GLONASS capability as well for deep urban environments. [via]

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