Tools – Photogrammetry

Photogrammetry provide 3D measurements from photographs. Photogrammetry can be done using photos taken by investigators (such as by the police, or even on passerby’s cell phones), by journalists, in archives, etc. This tool’s ability to capture measurements after the fact is one of its main strengths.

Photogrammetry can also be done even more accurately using photos that were taken with that purpose in mind from the outset. For instance we take all of our inspection photographs using specially calibrated cameras and can then create very accurate and detailed 3D models at a later date. The resulting models are typically accurate to within a few millimeters and often to within a fraction of a millimeter.

The photogrammetric analysis is done at the office hours (or years) after the photos were taken. This is a huge advantage because separating the data capture from its analysis means that evidence can be preserved quickly and inexpensively, but then the more time-consuming analysis can be delayed until there is a need to do it.

Photogrammetry offers benefits such as:

• Cost-effectively capturing a large amount of evidence
• Avoiding detailed analysis until it is required, but retaining the ability to do that analysis with full confidence in its accuracy
• Measuring structures that cannot be touched (if for instance, they are too far away or too sensitive)
• Very high accuracy
• Creating 3-D models
• The ability to analyze projects of any scale, from details a few millimeters large, to vehicles to buildings