Скачать или смотреть Tampa Water Tower Photogrammetry Project

By Natalie Eiland

The University of South Florida’s new Access 3D Lab helps conduct research in the digital realm and is open to all faculty and students of USF.

People can use 3D scanners in the lab. The lab also works on projects like digital sculpting, photogrammetry, creation of virtual museums and forensic analysis.

Dr. Laura Harrison, director of the Access 3D Lab, is a research assistant professor at USF. She was inspired to create the 3D Access Lab due to her interest in cultural heritage preservation. Originally trained as a Bronze Age archaeologist, Harrison became more interested in 3D virtualization while doing research at a threatened site in Turkey. She aims to educate non-specialists and children in archaeological heritage.

Students and faculty can use the 3D Access Lab’s equipment for their own research. The lab offers training and workshops on equipment. Individual or group lessons are available along with courses that range from three to five days. In order to complete the course, it takes about 10 to 20 hours of hands-on training. The lab is currently working on several project collaborations.

USF’s video production instructor, Ryan Watson, is experienced in videography and drone flying. He worked with the 3D Access Lab on a photogrammetry project. Watson flew his drone around the Sulphur Springs Water Tower located in Tampa. He took hundreds of pictures from different heights and angles. These pictures were then taken back to the 3D Access Lab and were stitched together using the photogrammetry software at the lab’s computer workstations.

To achieve the most detailed and high-quality finished product, the computer software Agisoft PhotoScan generated a texture map. The map contains the 2-dimensional layout of the landscape around the water tower, incorporating color information used to make the 3-dimensional model. This texture map applied that information to the water tower model which contributed to creating the finished model with the highest quality of detail. The lab was able to get the most accurate data from the finished product.

Watson also has a drone course at USF that teaches students how to fly drones to take pictures and videos. The class will be working with the 3D Access Lab by conducting the same kind of project as the Tampa water tower but will fly around a building of their own choice. Before taking the pictures with their drones, the students will sit through a lecture given by some of the instructors of the 3D Access Lab on how to take the best pictures to get the most detailed finished product. The pictures that the students take will be brought back to the 3D Access Lab where the students themselves will learn how to stitch the pictures together using the photogrammetry software.


This story was created by USF student Natalie Eiland for Jeanette Abrahamsen's Advanced Reporting class in 2018.