Application of action camera video for fast and low-cost photogrammetric survey of cultural heritage

Abstract

The research work focuses on the growing of fast and low-cost data surveying methods (both in the acquisition and processing phases), to be used mainly as a support for the management and enhancement of architectural heritage. Attention is paid on the diffusion of action cameras, characterized by wide-angle lenses and 4K video shooting, with more and more affordable prices and on the elaboration of the data with photogrammetry software. The high-resolution videos captured by these tools, in fact, allow the selection of frames characterized by sufficient overlap, necessary for point cloud generation through Structure for Motion (SfM) processes. The focus is on indoor environment characterized by architectural value and on the data processing not only with professional photogrammetric application but also with cloud server-based system. Hence, the frames extracted from the video have been processed with different, both professional, economic, and user-friendly software tools, achieving several results. Finally, the output data have been compared with a survey method now well established in this field, such as laser scanning. The results of the analyses will be critically discussed in the paper to highlight the great potentialities and the possibility to apply this methodology in the future for heritage preservation.