NGA posts RFI for Single Photo Close Range Photogrammetry

On October 23, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency posted a request for information for Modernization of Single Photo Close Range Photogrammetry Capabilities. Questions are due no later than noon ET on November 15; responses are due no later than 5:00 p.m. ET on December 8.

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to gain information on current industry practices and state-of-the-art capabilities regarding: 1) Close range photogrammetric exploitation (dimensional analysis) of objects depicted in image scenes where only a single image (hand-held / ground based photo or video still) exists. Application of computer vision technologies to close range photogrammetry (CRP).  2) Automated image data discovery capabilities to quickly provide analysts with relevant images that contain object(s) of interest that could be fed into single/multi-photo close range photogrammetric tool(s) to produce accurate dimensional and/or 3D visualization products.

Single photo close range photogrammetry is the art and science of extracting GEOINT or 3D ground space relative measurements from “single” close range photo or video still.  These single images may or may not have metadata and may be cropped.  Typically, graphical techniques are employed using one, two, or three-point vanishing point techniques to setup a camera model for the goal to extract ground space mensuration results of an object of interest in the image.

Scaling techniques are also employed along with any known metadata regarding camera and/or control dimension(s) in the image scene.  You may have a situation where you do not have control and therefore only can provide scaled measurements for the item of interest.  One may ask, “Why don’t you take more pictures of the item so you can use one of the Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) multi-photo tools available today to generate a point cloud and/or bundle adjustment report?”  Answer: Analysts may only have one photo, no control over planning the image collection scenario, the item of interest may not exist anymore, item may have moved, or site may be inaccessible for a follow up, planned, multi-photo collection.  This ground photo collection problem necessitates the need for single photo CRP tools in the long term since customers continue to need these type of products.

Full information is available here.

Source: FedBizOpps