Measurements from a digital photo

[carsco]

Has anyone used this http://www.stickyyard.com or have suggestions for similar applications?

[Mark Parlee]

I just saw this and it does look interesting

[Ed the Roofer]

I will check out your link later, but I currently own www.iPhotoMeasure.com which has been renamed to www.uPhotoMeasure.com

Nice guy that owns the company too.

It uses either a fixed hand taken measurement or a predesignated sized "Digi-Target" to calculate the size of the surfaces being measured.

The main pain in the butt, is that you have to get the entire view in your lens of the photo and also re-do the digi-target or hand measurement on each elevation photographed.

It is very accurate though.

Ed

[jstoddard]

I saw this and have been trying to get them to send me an NFR for review - but to be honest, it looks like they're selling you an expensive measuring tape coupled with some digitizing software and are making their money on the 'reusable' tapes.

There are several ways now to take a photo of something that is a known width/ht ... and digitize the rest of the picture to scale. SketchUp for instance allows you to lay a photo on a SU model and adjust to perfect scale. CADEstimator has done this for years (of course it's not free, but you get a killer estimating app as the back end to the digitizer) You can just use your regular tape measure as a reference in the picture - so I'm not sure what the hardware part of their package is for or how it is unique. Will investigate and post back.

JLS

[Ed the Roofer]

Joe,

With the uPhotoMeasure software, it is your option to use their pre-measured Digi-Targets or to take one manual measurement per photo foe scale.

If you would like to speak with the developer, please e-mail me through this forum for his personal contact information.

Ed

[NW Architect]

For measurements within a single plane on a photo, look for measuring tools in pdf software. (I don't know if all have them). Here's what I do:

Take a picture straight on.
Measure something in the photo and make a note (window is 3 feet wide)
Insert the photo into a blank pdf page in Bluebeam pdf revu
Using the measurement calibration tool, draw a dimension line across the width of the window.
Input 3'-0" as the length of that dimension line. (This calibrates the measuring tool for whatever scale the photo happens to be)
Using the measuring tool, draw dimension lines on whatever else I need a measurement on. The software calculates the dimension.

Accurate enough for my needs.
Same tools can calculate linear measure, areas, and cumulative measures.

[Ed the Roofer]

For measurements within a single plane on a photo, look for measuring tools in pdf software. (I don't know if all have them). Here's what I do:

Take a picture straight on.
Measure something in the photo and make a note (window is 3 feet wide)
Insert the photo into a blank pdf page in Bluebeam pdf revu
Using the measurement calibration tool, draw a dimension line across the width of the window.
Input 3'-0" as the length of that dimension line. (This calibrates the measuring tool for whatever scale the photo happens to be)
Using the measuring tool, draw dimension lines on whatever else I need a measurement on. The software calculates the dimension.

Accurate enough for my needs.
Same tools can calculate linear measure, areas, and cumulative measures.

Is that software open source and free?

Does it calibrate angled roof slopes, such as the view of a roof, where the visual seems to get smaller and smaller as the rows of shingles progress upwards to the ridge from a ground eyeball perspective?

Interesting?

For more information about this technology and other related sources, research photogammetry and oblique aerial images.

Other external measuring products and software services are also available for satellite and aerial imagery measuring.

I will get my list of sources available and paste them in later.

Ed

[NW Architect]

Ed - Revu is not free and won't measure in perspective.

Lots of folks have pdf annotation software, though, so the price has already been paid. Thought it worth advising that the in-plane measurement capability was there in at least one such annotator.

[jstoddard]

FWIW - the "RapidSketch" app I posted about above actually does have a couple advanced capabilities - one is the ability to sketch on top of a photo (and therefore digitize it to known dimensions). The feature is called "Photometrics" - took me a while to find it b/c it seems to be available only from an icon - it's not in the menu items.

You import a photo, and then draw a single line on it, telling the software how long the line you just drew is. So, you'd have to know at least one accurate measurement... width or ht. of a front door, etc.

Other onscreen digitizers like CADEstimator use two lines (horizontal and vertical) to do the same thing.

JLS

[Ed the Roofer]

Joe,

Are you aware if that measuring capability can measure in perspective, for angled section that 3 dimensionally move farther away, rather than the 2 dimensional photograph allows for?

Ed

[jstoddard]

No - no way it could mathematically with only one reference line, to my knowledge. But - if you took your pics pretty much straight on for each elevation - it would be close enough.

Multi-point systems (like CADEstimator) can do that by comparing the X,Y and Z and calculating the vanishing points.

No need to multi-post... I see everything via email.
JLS

[Ed the Roofer]

I just figured that the RapidSketch question was more relevant in the other thread.

I already read your other response.

Are your User Settings set for Instant Alert to all threads subscribed to?

Dang, I would never leave the office that way, LOL.

Ed

[jstoddard]

No biggie - just letting you know. Every post on the board comes to my email, as well as any complaints, moderator stuff, etc. I've gotten pretty good at keeping one eye on them during the day and responding as-necessary. I usually like to knock 'em down as they show up though vs. saving everything up until the end of the day. You can tell how busy I am with client work by the length and time it takes me to respond. At the moment... long boring tomes, coming across the wire immediately... :-)

Would much rather be on the road and responding only at night, so let's get this recovery happening !

[Allan Edwards]

At the moment... long boring tomes, coming across the wire immediately... :-)

Hey if you really get bored you can come over to Building Science and debate if green building is really worth it or even Trade Talk, where we’re solving all the world’s problems plus David M is starting a collection for Dick’s upcoming nursing home days.