Architectural Photogrammetry: basic theory, procedures, tools

Handbook of Research on Emerging Digital Tools for Architectural Surveying, Modeling, and Representation, 2015

means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without written permission from the publisher. Product or company names used in this set are for identification purposes only. Inclusion of the names of the products or companies does not indicate a claim of ownership by IGI Global of the trademark or registered trademark.

International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Science, 2003

Commission VI, WG VI/4 KEY WORDS: convergent multi-images, automatic correlation, DSM.

The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2019

Cultural heritage includes several cases of missing architectural element or entire buildings, due to destruction, replacement or radical changes caused over time by other structures. The investigation of these lost elements aimed at their virtual reconstruction, for both scientific and cultural-leisure applications, is therefore a topic of great interest. To this purpose, methodologies for surveying and photogrammetric processing provide a very powerful tool, extracting descriptive and geometric information, both 2-and 3-D, using diverse archive images. This paper presents the issues related to the use of archive images in photogrammetry, pointing out the need for an integrated approach to operations of virtual reconstruction of lost volumes. This approach provides a multidisciplinary effort, in order to evaluate all iconographic sources, of which images processed by geomatics techniques are a component. The paper also presents the early results of a reconstruction project of the Palazzo di Cosimo de' Medici, in the Fortezza Vecchia site (Livorno, Italy), heavily damaged by World War II bombings and subsequently razed.

Cultural heritage is an invaluable example of human culture and creativity. The majority of them can become unstable or can be destroyed due to a combination of human and natural disturbances. In order to restore, preserve, and systematize data about architectural heritage objects, it is necessary to have geodetic, photogrammetric measurements of such data and to constantly monitor condition of the objects. The data of immovable cultural objects for many years are stored in photogrammetric data archives. Such archives have Germany, Lithuania, England and other countries. The article gives a brief introduction of the history of data archives formation and presents a photogrammetric and modern methods of modelling the spatial geometric properties of objects currently used to reveal immovable cultural properties and to evaluate geometric sizes. The pilot work was done with the Concept Capture simulation program that was developed by the Bentley company with photos of the Blessed Virgin Mary painting in Pivašiūnai of Trakai district. A shot from the ground with 12.4 MP resolution Pentax K-x camera was done using lenses with different focal lengths. The painting of the Blessed Virgin Mary is coordinated by 4 reference geodesic points and therefore after the modelling work it was possible to evaluate the accuracy of the created model. Based on the results of the spatial (3D) model, photo shooting and modelling recommendations are presented, the advantages of the new technology are distinguished.

2000

This paper describes and illustrates with examples, the continuous evolution in methods and tools used at the Institute of Photogrammetry of the University of de Los Andes, for applications of Terrestrial Photogrammetry in Architectural Restoration, and Archaeological Surveys. Since the late seventies, when this branch of photogrammetry was initiated at our institute, a series of works have been realised, each time with more complexity. Actually we are using techniques involving the use of CAD software for the 3-D representation of objects, and image processing to incorporate photographs of facades in the restitution, archaeological surveys using small format aerial photographs and terrestrial cameras, and self developed software for the image treatment. The combined use of those techniques, allows to conduct its applications in the field of architecture and archaeology to vanguard levels, according to the actual trends in photogrammetry.

Studies in Digital Heritage, 2018

This paper presents a methodological contribution in the field of the archaeological restitution’s process. This latter is based on virtual anastylosis, which concerns the reconstruction of fragments of the ruins of the nameless Temple of Tipasa in Algeria. We have to mention that our work focused more particularly on the virtual restitution of the three access doors of the sacred courtyard of the temple. Here, we have found many fragments including the voussoirs, which were revealed during the excavation work, encouraging the proposition of our hypothesis on the initial state of the temple. The protocol followed is based on the photogrammetric survey of the blocks which has allowed us to generate 3d models of the elements constituting the entrance facade to the sacred courtyard. The historical documentation as well as the architectural treatises made it possible to fill the gaps with the aim of communicating the most relevant image of our temple. The main objective of the research ...

Handbook of Research on Emerging Digital Tools for Architectural Surveying, Modeling, and Representation, edited by Stefano Brusaporci, 2015

The goal of this paper is to focus on multi-image monoscopic digital photogrammetry, illustrating several types of applications used in a single case study chosen for its unique characteristics: Palazzo dei Capitani del Popolo in the main square in the old town centre of Ascoli Piceno. The description of this experimentation will be illustrated in the paper not only to assess the potential and limits of these systems, but also to place them in a scientific context and recall the theoretical fundamentals of this method, since we believe these in-depth studies to be increasingly necessary in order for these digital technologies to be used properly.

ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2016

Studies on the architectural heritage can now be supported by three-dimensional reconstruction of actual buildings. The 3D digital model can be an effective medium for documenting the current state of historic buildings but also to create a resource for researchers who conduct their analysis on historical evolution. Architectural photogrammetry has its own specifications in relation to other photogrammetric applications, however it meets these expectations. <br><br> The traditional approach requires the use of metric cameras but with the development of computational techniques, this requirement is overcome and opens the way for the use of non-metric camera. <br><br> The use of the shots that is no longer restricted to the parallel configuration of bundles, the images may be convergent, horizontal or oblique. Combining and modelling several cameras increasingly powerful in resolution and stability, has great scope and the same workflow can be used in varied ap...

VITRUVIO - International Journal of Architectural Technology and Sustainability

The recovery of past architecture through 3D modelling is an important challenge today to the preservation of heritage. Decisive support for the interpretation of architecture can certainly come from historical images and old photographs that fix a portion of space at a specific time, keeping it unchanged over the years. This acquisition is decisive for studying architectures of the past that can be reinterpreted and analysed. Photos, in fact, capture the advance of time and the life of a building at a precise historical moment, becoming essential documents for the study and knowledge of heritage. An additional advantage is when these old images can be processed through Structure for Motion procedures and, the results obtained, used as support for a 3D model of buildings that no longer exist. The work shows an interesting pipeline applied to the Caltanissetta Centrale Station and the possibility of “recovering”, even if virtually, a phase of its architectural evolution through the i...

There exist many archeological objects which are broken in pieces. It is always important to find the neighbouring pieces so that different parts of the object can be put together and the original object reconstructed. Direct evaluation of broken objects has several disadvantages, such as being difficult and time-consuming. As an alternative, indirect techniques like photogrammetry and laser scanning can be applied, in which measurements of object pieces can be made and the overall shape of the object constructed by inspection of the relation between models of object parts. When compared with direct techniques, such methods enjoy being fast and non-contact so leading to the increased safety of the objects under reconstruction. In this project, photogrammetry is used to extract edges of the broken parts. The mathematical relations between the edges are then examined, the neighbouring parts are found and the model of the object is formed. This paper studies various parameters each of which defines some mathematical relation between parts of an object. The experiments carried out show that the radius of curvature is a suitable parameter which can be used to find the neighbouring pieces of the modelled object. The results show enough accuracy for 3D modelling of the object with the specified dimensions in our experiments. But in order to verify the validity of this method, it should be applied to a wide range of archaeological objects.

2010

The 3D reconstructionof an archaeological site is a difficult task, taking into account the available documentation. Our team, supported by the TGE Adonis, is specialized in 3D reconstruction and conservation of 3D data. We already use numerous sources, like excavation documentation, ancient texts, any kind of representation, land surveys, in-situ pictures, laser or time of flight scannography, and experiments of archaeologists, anthropologists and architects. Since the 80’s, each model we produce are scientifically checked by specialists, and regularly updated to follow new knowledges and investigations. In this paper, we present the use of photogrammetry to reconstruct a 3D model of an archaeological site, as a new source of data, less expensive and more accessible than scanners. We present concrete cases: a chapel (12 century p.C., Moissac, France), catacombs of St Pierre et Marcellin (250 p.C., Rome, Italy) and a roman coin (5 a.C., Loron, Croatia). The question of scale and tex...

Geomatics and Environmental Engineering, 2021

This research attempted to determine the optimal photo overlap, number of con‐ trol points and method of camera calibration for a photogrammetric 3D model reconstruction of an object of cultural heritage value. Terrestrial images of the object were taken with a hand‐held digital camera and processed in the Con‐ textCapture software using the Structure‐from‐Motion (SfM) algorithm. A total station was used to measure ground control points (GCPs) and check points. Here, the research workflow, methodology, and various analyses concerning different configurations of the aforementioned factors are described. An at‐ tempt to assess the parameters which should be implemented in order to pro‐ vide a high degree of accuracy of the model and reduce time‐consumption both during fieldwork and data processing was taken. The manuscript discusses the results of the analyses and compares them with other studies presented by dif‐ ferent authors and indicates further potential directions of studies wi...

2008

Nowadays, historical artifacts are very valuable to our country. Most museum in Malaysia keep the high value historical artifacts in two dimensional (2D) recorded documentation and cannot give the specific measurements for reconstruction or research purposes. The main ...

Archaeometry, 2009

Ortho-photo is one of the most important photogrammetric products for archaeological documentation. It consists of a powerful textured representation combining geometric accuracy with rich detail, such as areas of damage and decay. Archaeological applications are usually faced with complex object shapes. Compared with conventional algorithms, ortho-projection of such rough curved objects is still a problem, due to the complex description of the analytical shape of the object. Even using a detailed digital surface model, typical ortho-rectification software does not produce the desired outcome, being incapable of handling image visibility and model occlusions, since it is limited to 2.5-dimensional surface descriptions. This paper presents an approach for the automated production of true ortho-mosaics for the documentation of cultural objects. The algorithm uses precise three-dimensional surface representations derived from laser scanning and several digital images that entirely cover the object of interest. After identifying all model surface triangles in the viewing direction, the triangles are projected back on to all initial images to establish visibilities for every available image. Missing image information can be filled in from adjacent images that must have been subjected to the same true ortho-photo procedure.

2003

The ultimate purpose of this work is to reconstruct photogrammetrically a distinguished building in the centre of Athens, which has been torn down years ago. Five old photographs were available taken apparently with the same camera, the nominal calibration parameters of which could be somehow 'guessed'. As a first step, it was decided to employ our own bundle-adjustment software, which works within a commercial CAD environment. Besides, unlike most commercially available 3D reconstruction software, it allows full control over the whole adjustment process (by presenting individual image point residuals, producing RMS errors for check points, accommodating additional calibration parameters etc.). A second task was to compare these results with PhotoModeler, in order to evaluate this widely used (but in certain aspects 'obscure') tool against a rigorous photogrammetric approach. Besides solutions with no control information, a few full and partial control points were established from existing architectural drawings, allowing self-calibration procedures. The two software tools produced essentially equivalent results, thus validating the precision of the PhotoModeler approach. However, certain additional features of a proper bundle adjustment program (e.g. recovery of radial lens distortion, self-calibration with minimal or unconventional control), discussed here, may allow a fuller exploitation of the powerful reconstruction and visualisation tools of the PhotoModeler type. It was confirmed that, using suitable software, rigorous approaches can be applied to historic images, and results of reasonable precision may be expected, limited only by possible inaccuracies in scale.