Ortho-correction of Aerial Photos

One of the age-old problems in forest inventory has been the transferring of timber typelines from uncorrected photo prints to the final inventory basemap. Before the introduction of GIS, instruments like the zoom transfer scope or stereo plotter were used to project the stereo images onto a flat basemap. Then the lines were transferred to a mylar basemap for general use. The process was time consuming and not very accurate. GIS has greatly increased accuracy and efficiency, but those typelines have to be transferred into a digital format before these advantages can be realized.

Ortho32^® is an affordable software product developed by Digital Mapping Systems Pty Ltd to address this need. It's easy to use, fast, and results in ortho-corrected imagery that can be displayed in your GIS with typelines included. From there it is a simple process of "heads-up" digitizing to modify the timber type layer. Ortho32^® uses your current basemap, a DEM, and a camera calibration file to correct distortions caused by terrain height, camera tilts, and the camera's distortion model. Ortho32^® can use standard 9x9 photo prints or pictures taken from a digital camera as the photo source.

This is the time and money-saving solution that inventory foresters have been waiting for.

Ortho32^® is supported and distributed by Coastline Forestry Consultants. The price for the full program is $1,500.

Click here to visit the Digital Mapping Systems website, where you can read more about the product or download a 30-day free trial version.

You can also contact us for more information about this valuable product.