CORRELATOR3D™ MODULES & TOOLS

Processing Modules

• EXTERIOR ORIENTATION REFINEMENT
  • Fully automated process eliminating the need for traditional aerial triangulation (AT)
  • No user interaction required at any step during processing
  • Highly robust selection of image tie points and control points
  • Ground control points (GCP) can be imported to ensure absolute accuracy
  • Direct support of pre-processed GPS/IMU information
  • Statistics on the quality of results automatically generated

• DSM GENERATION
  • Extremely high resolution/quality digital surface models (DSM) generated from stereo imagery
  • Patented technology based on advanced computer vision algorithms utilizing 3D graphics cards to accelerate processing
  • Images are processed on a pair-by-pair basis significantly reducing memory/system requirements and eliminating project size constraints
  • DSM results from individual image pairs are automatically merged to improve overall data quality and allow parallel processing on multiple PCs
  • 3D constraints (e.g. points, vectors and polygons) can be imported as Shapefiles or DGN files to force particular elevation values in final DSMs such as water bodies (optional input)
  • Results are outputted in standard formats (e.g. GeoTIFF, ASCII Grid) with accuracy statements

• DTM EXTRACTION
  • Automatic filtering of DSMs to extract digital terrain models (DTM)
  • Unique algorithms that identify 3D features, remove associated elevation points and interpolate from neighboring regions for filling removed areas
  • Capability to export DSM features removed during DTM extraction
  • Users only required to set a single parameter value corresponding to the largest features (horizontally) to be removed from the input DSM
  • 3D constraints (e.g. points, vectors and polygons) can be imported as Shapefiles or DGN to force particular elevation values in the final DTM

• DEM EDITING
  • Features powerful monoscopic editing functions to alter DEMs according to specific user requirements
  • Provides highly intuitive user interface to visually interact with elevation data and specify polygonal selections
  • Supports several operations including crop/delete, set/offset elevation values and filter regions
  • Advanced “Delete and Fill” function for deleting elevation points and filling resulting gaps
  • Touch-up tool for very fast improvement of small areas

• ORTHORECTIFICATION
  • Very fast production of individual orthorectified images
  • When used in conjunction with other Correlator3D™ modules, horizontal accuracies of final orthophotos are of less than a pixel
  • Results outputted in standard formats including GeoTIFF and TIFF World Format (TFW)

• MOSAIC CREATION
  • Fully automated merging of individual orthorectified images for the generation of mosaics
  • Final mosaics featuring smooth and seamless transitions between adjacent images
  • Based on advanced algorithms for local intensity adjustments and automatic generation of seamlines
  • Color balancing option that includes brightness / contrast adjustments of each image, inter-image equalization, independent channel analysis for hue equalization and photometric constraints to maintain global information of brightness, contrast and hue
  • Capability for automatic tiling or for importing tile definition files

• MOSAIC EDITING
  • Allows modifying mosaic seamlines through a highly intuitive visual interface
  • Real-time updating of final mosaic during modifications
  • Smooth interaction with data
  • Minimum number of manual operations required, significantly increasing overall productivity
  • Virtually no setup time necessary
  • No limit on project size

• FEATURE EXTRACTION
  • Semi-automatic creation of 3D polygons from photogrammetric / LiDAR DSMs describing buildings, roads, waterbodies and forests
  • 3D information is automatically extracted by intelligent analysis of the elevation data as the user adds feature details
  • Provides an intuitive interface with simple click-and-drag commands
  • Features an automatic contour detection tool

Additionnal tools

• 3D CHANGE DETECTION
  • Based on a robust approach that compares DEMs instead of images
  • Performs a comparative analysis and determines the importance of changes in 3D
  • Results outputted as a DEM corresponding to the differences in elevation between the two input DEMs
  • Capability to display detected changes as color information superimposed on a mosaic of orthophotos

• SCRIPT MODE & COMMAND LINE INTERFACE
  • Batch processing facility for advanced users desiring to fully automate their processing tasks
  • Only requires a simple text file as input, containing a series of instructions that the software executes sequentially

• DEM MERGING
  • Allows combining DSM or DTM results that were created separately
  • Essential for users who wish to process a project in multiple parts (e.g. at different times or in parallel on multiple machines)

• DATA VALIDATION
  • Useful for a quick verification of input data or to assess the overall quality of a dataset

• FIDUCIAL DETECTION
  • Automatic tool for detecting fiducials in traditional scanned films
  • Quickly extracts the position of marks, which are necessary for film processing

• DEM VISUALIZATION & PROFILES
  • Highly intuitive tool to visualize DEMs, including real-time zooming and panning capabilities
  • Features different visualization modes and styles such as color / greyscale, DEM shading and color stretching
  • Includes a profile tool for generating and exporting vertical profiles of DEMs over user-specified paths