Modern photogrammetry software has teamed up with drone technology and ordinary camera equipment to revolutionize several industries in recent years, while making huge inroads in other industries.
The efficiency, accuracy, and ease of use of photogrammetry software, and the ability of drones to get shots never before possible and transmit them instantaneously to computers for analysis and use, is undeniably a major tech development.
Some of applications these new developments have been put to are obvious, while others you might never have thought of unless someone told you. Here are 5 top new uses photogrammetry is finding in the business world.
1. Land Surveying
The images that can be captured by aerial drone photography and processed via photogrammetry software are typically far superior to those obtained by satellite imagery. It’s no surprise that surveyors are making extensive, even routine, use of this modern technology.
Land surveying requires high-precision detail that can focus in to the point of a thousandth of an inch in many cases, while Internet-based satellite imagery sometimes fails to be accurate within even a full foot.
Plus, rotary drones give you images of landforms and contours from numerous different angles and perspectives and in a minimal amount of time.
2. Engineering
Be it building a bridge, building a house, or measuring materials deposited at a mine, there are a multitude of engineering uses of photogrammetry today.
Construction contractors can get a good look at the land they will be building on, and this can help with drainage and landscaping issues. But they can also give clients in-progress views of their projects in real time.
And measurements extracted from photographs by photogrammetry software can be safely used to guide the construction process and to evaluate it step by step all along the way.
3. Real estate
Realtors have also latched onto modern drone and photogrammetry technology to produce extremely striking photos of the properties they want to sell.
Properties can be viewed online now by potential buyers from every conceivable angle as well as from overhead.
And all of this can be done in a very cost-effective manner and in very little time. Compared to paying professional photographers to take exhaustive shots of for-sale houses, again and again over a course of many years, realtors get better and more affordable results.
4. Forensics
Law enforcement has extensively adopted photogrammetry and drone-based photography for crime forensics in some locales. And the trend is growing. The same goes for traffic accident scenes and for forensic investigation related to accidental injury lawsuits.
UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) can examine the exact size and contours of a crack in a parking lot or sidewalk, for example, over which a plaintiff claims to have tripped. Or, an accident scene can be photographed in 10 minutes instead of 4 hours – and without stopping traffic and endangering workers for any significant period of time.
The photographs obtained can be examined in the office later on, with all measurements taken based on photography. Documentation is sped up and simplified as well as on-site investigation.
5. Remodeling
You might not have thought that drones and photogrammetry would impact remodeling businesses, but they have.
This new technology enables contractors to gather all information necessary for measuring counters and cabinets in kitchens and bathrooms, for example, so they can be cut off-site.
Staircases with lifts, or extremely ornate, winding staircases, can also be measured in this manner. The cost and time investment for measuring and manufacturing them is thus greatly reduced without sacrificing precision.
There are a host of business uses for modern photogrammetry software and accompanying drones and other equipment. But these 5 industries have probably been the most deeply affected. Only the future will tell what new developments and applications photogrammetry technology will find.