Creating Architectural Photo Models using Close Range Photogrammetry

Virtual 3-D models of architecture featuring metric surface texture originating from photographs are becoming wanted data sets, combining the geometric and photographic documentation of building conditions. Whenever demands on quality shall be complied with, these must be considered from data capture on. Objective quality measures have to be generated then, which should at best be presented together with the model itself. With increasing project size, production time and automatic error detection become crucial. The author Wilfried Karel presents a way to meet these requirements, with a conducted project serving as example. Considerations concerning amateur camera calibration and on-site data capture are illustrated, followed by adjustment techniques integrating photogrammetric, geodetic, and parameter observations into a hybrid block, and placing special emphasis on quality estimation. For a waterproof model and a faster production, fictitious observations are introduced, regarding similarities and symmetries of construction. Finally, methods are illustrated to present the achieved quality using VRML97. The work is addressed to all quality-aware people dealing with spatial data.