Category Photography

Capturing Ancient Remains in Kenya with a Remote Octo-Copter

Jambo!
Gonzalo Martinez and myself (Shaan Hurley) are currently in the extremely remote Turkana Basin of Kenya where many of the hominin fossils (our human ancestors) were found along with a great deal of other fossils and tools. We are researching aerial video and photo capture with Louise Leakey using a state of the art eight bladed remote copter mounted with lots of high tech equipment and cameras that we have named the Autodesk Octo-Copter for many exciting potential uses.

DIY Camera Rig for 123D Catch

Autodesk and Gian Pablo Villamil “GP” have now published the 123D Catch Camera Rig design as an Instructable and on Thingiverse. This Do It Yourself camera rig can used for capturing objects in 3D by mounting your digital camera and then rotating the camera around the object you wish to capture in 3D. You then use 123D Catch to upload and process the photos to a resulting 3D textured mesh. The 123D Catch Camera Rig design by GP was created to be low cost with parts from almost any hardware store and several of the components provided as STL files ready to be 3D printed.

My Big Fat 3D Head

A fun Friday project to share and something you can do as well. I captured my own head in a 3D model using the free Autodesk 123D Catch software which takes a series of photos from a regular camera and generates a 3D mesh. It is quite simple as long as you read the instructions on how to take your photos. Since glasses are thin featured and also have transparent glass they should be removed. The most difficult part is sitting completely still for about 2 minutes as someone takes photos of your head from different angles.

Autodesk Octo-Copter Testing

As I mentioned in a recent post (Aerial Capture of 3D Geometry), I was hoping to attend a test flight of the remote controlled Octo-Copter that captured photos that were then used to automatically generate a 3D model using Autodesk 123D Catch. Last Thursday the weather and my schedule aligned and I joined Autodesk employee Gonzalo Martinez Director of Strategic Research in San Rafael California for test flight of the 8 bladed aerial copter. The eight bladed craft can operate 100% autonomous based on a programmed GPS route and patterns or if you are skilled you can run in manual pilot mode.

This Week in Pictures

I spent the last week in the San Francisco Bay area Autodesk offices. It is always great seeing colleagues of mine. Here is my quick visual story of this week captured with my mobile phone.

Aerial Capture of 3D Geometry

In a technology research project Autodesk employee Gonzalo Martinez Director of Strategic Research in the office of the CTO has built and modified an Octo-Copter uav (unmanned aerial vehicle) to capture both video and photos to generate a 3D model using 123D Catch. The eight bladed copter craft is 100% autonomous based on a programmed GPS route or if you are skilled you can run in manual mode. The craft can reach an astounding altitude of 1000 meters and can carry a payload such as cameras.