Author: Alyssa Kaewwilai

I truly can not believe that my internship as a Digital Technology Fellow is almost over – this Friday will be my last day. I feel as though I just arrived on campus for this internship! What will I do when I return home and am no longer spending most of my days at The Hub in West Building?

The Final presentations went very well! Despite the fact that it was raining, there was a nice crowd that came to listen to our presentations. I was very proud to present my project to everyone! The other DTSF fellows and I spent many hours with Director Remy rehearsing and perfect our presentations. I’m very glad that those hours paid off! Because the camera in the lyceum room was having a view technological issues, I rerecording my speech so that my family back home could also watch me present. An entire version of my speech is posted online!

This summer I accomplished my goal of earning my FAA license as well as creating photogrammetry models and using a CNC machine to create wooden replicas of the models. I am even working with Gettysburg College on emergency protocol and flood management which was my stretch goal! However, I did not get to use the total station to double check my elevation levels as planned but that is completely okay!

It is very bittersweet to say that my summer as a DTSF intern is almost over. However, I am more that greatful for the tremendous opportunities it has provided for me as well as the connections I have built with so many fantastic, experienced individuals. I will strive to continue working with photogrammetry and digital media whenever possible as I continue my environmental science concentration in GIS and my minor in computer science!

I would like to extend a sincere thank you to Director Remy as well as the I.T Department for allowing me to have this phenomenal opportunity. I would also like to extend a special thank you for Hoang, Orrin, and Tyler for working so closely with me and helping to make this such a wonderful, positive experience. Thank you! This experience was definitely one to remember!

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Me presenting the various digital terrain models for different areas of Gettysburg College.

Evaluating Flood Patterns Through Technology on a rainy day? Perfect!

Passing out my wooden models made by the Carvey Inventables 3D Carving Machine so the audience can feel the different elevation levels.

The Immersive Technology Conference at Hamilton College was an amazing experience that allowed me to connect and learn from a plethora of talented students and staff members from Hamilton, Gettysburg, and Colgate College! I must admit that I was a bit nervous to speak and interact with such an experienced and older group but after I soon learned how friendly, open, and genuine everyone was my interactions with them became more articulate and immersive. On the first day of the conference I demonstrated the proper functions and controls of operating a small unmanned aircraft vehicle and the crowd loved it! I received much praise on my presentation with the drone which made me feel very proud with my project regarding the fact that the compliments came from individuals who I truly look up to!

 

My demonstration of operating an unmanned aircraft vehicle to the staff, professors, and students at the Immersive Technology conference.

 

I learned about various projects students and faculty have worked on including a bird ecology lab, empathy projects, GIS DEM mapping, and architectural construction of a library in virtual reality! It amazes me to see how all of the projects have come along including my own! This week I sent my orchard models to Tyler back in Gettysburg. Director Remy helped me edit my models in Meshmixer so that they would have a solid foundation stand before they were sent to the 3D printer. Tyler has informed us that the Orchard 3 model printed out very nicely.

 

Various types of 360° cameras such as the Freedom 360, Kolar Abyss, and the Samsung Gear 360.

Mr.Doug Higgens from Hamilton College and I even spoke about me helping him with a photogrammetry project in the future to compare and contrast different programs to reveal their strengths and weaknesses. I am very excited about this opportunity as well as having the chance to continue working with photogrammetry!

 

Flying the Mavic Pro drone after a heavy thunderstorm.

I was also extremely impressed and fascinated by Adam Silcott’s virtual reality program demonstrating flood levels from a  hurricane in San Juan. Never would I have imagined to see GIS and virtual reality combined and integrated together so flawlessly. I also noticed that Adam used a program called City Engine for city design and planning which I was curious about. I wonder if there is an online demo for this program that I could possibly try? That may be very useful in my future endeavors with GIS and computer science.

Overall, my experience at the Hamilton conference was extremely positive and inspiring. I was even able to try on Hollow Lenses which incorporates augmented reality into creating games and such. I was so amazed! This week I worked on editing my previous three orchard models from Gettysburg as well as creating four new models from Hamilton College. Next week after my final presentation I will use my leftover time to create another model of the steepest terrain from Hamilton. I am very excited for what is to come!

 

The Hamilton College Campus – photo taken with the Mavic Pro drone.

 

 

This Week’s Models – Gettysburg, PA

 

https://skfb.ly/6AvIM

 

https://skfb.ly/6AuSZ

 

 

Hamilton College, NY

 

https://skfb.ly/6AuWS

 

https://skfb.ly/6AwEw

 

https://skfb.ly/6AvJv

 

 

The Photogrammetry Process…Broken Down!

Points of view of residence and terrain in ortrhomosaic, aerial point of view (top left) and digital surface model, DSM, (top right). Map view of photos taken including geolocated coordiantes (bottom left) and rayCloud view of drone path and angles used to create model (bottom right).

 

 

It seems as though the more challenges are brought forth to me, the more of these challenges I learn to overcome! It is a very rewarding feeling to know that I have taught myself (with the guidance and advice of others) how to operate so many different types of software, programs, and devices!

Officer Taylor, Associate Director of Public Safety at Gettysburg College, saw my updates on my LinkedIn page of my project and reached out to me asking if Gettysburg College could use my photogrammetry models for emergency evacuation plans and other management. I am very excited for the opportunity to not only complete my project on terrain levels and flood patterns but to also help make my college a safer environment. I am currently working with Officer Taylor to work out the details of how the models will be used for this new and exciting extension to my current project!

Earlier this week I worked on finishing up leveling the levels of my isolated terrain level Pix4D model, making a few mistakes along the way. For example, I mistakenly loaded in surfaces that were not a part of the ground level and had to remake my model of East Quad because the changes were already saved and loaded in as part of the processing of the 3D mesh. However, fixing this error did not take too long and I learned to be more efficient and accurate in filling in voids with surfaces and loading them into the project correctly. I also entirely remade a new, improved version of Quarry Pond this week where the entire model is displayed as a single model unlike my last draft. I did this by starting from the very beginning and taking a new set of 3D grid and circular photos of the pond using the Mavic Pro drone and loading the photos as a new project file.

I also created accounts and familiarized myself with the Carvey 3D Carver, X-Carve, along with computer numerical controls (CNCs) in general to gain a better sense of what types of technology I would be utilizing. I even learned a bit about firmwares and gcode, a type of coordination code used for CNCs. Aside from that, I created trial projects using TinkerCAD, Easel, and Fusion 360 which are computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) programs that are usually used interchangeably with the Carvey 3D Carver. These programs are used for designing prototypes and objects before the file is sent to the 3D carver and printed. However, I have yet to discover how to transfer a Pix4D project to the Carvey 3D Carver machine. For this I need to export the  Pix4D project file as either an .obj or .stl file and from there import it into Fusion 360 or TinkerCAD. I would then transfer the project into Easel so that it can be printed by the 3D Carver. So far I am encountering errors that do not allow me to export the projects from Fusion 360 into a .stl file, which is strange. I plan on looking more into this issue tomorrow!

One thing I am very proud of that I did this week was I figured out how to get exact geolocation coordinates from a drone photo (or any photo linked to satellite and GPS) and from a photogrammetry Pix4D project. Discovering how to do this took me an extensive amount of time, much longer than I had anticipated, but the results were nonetheless very rewarding! Essentially, I had to draw and export polylines in Pix4D around the points and load the exported .kml files into Google Earth. Do not be fooled! This process was much more complicated to figure out than one may think!

I am both excited and a bit nervous about my final weeks of the DTSF internship this summer. Because I will be attending the Hamilton College Virtual Reality conference in New York in about one week, I am doing my best to completely finish my project by the end of next week. I need to figure out how to link my Pix4D projects to the Carvey 3D Carver as soon as possible. It is merely one task but it requires an extensive amount of time to figure out how to do.

I am very proud of my work and progress so far and I am looking forward to the opportunities that lie ahead as usual!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easel, a CAD program made by Carvey Inventables to be used for the design process of 3D carving projects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

East Quad in Fusion 360, another CAD program used to design projects.

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Pix4D Model of Quarry Pond (updated and fixed)

 

 

Pix4D Models of Isolated Terrain Elevation Levels

Stine Lake and West Quad

 

Quarry Pond

 

East Quad

 

Creek on North Washington St.

This week presented itself with a great deal of frustrations and successes. I decided to work on taking high quality aerial photos of Stine Lake and West Quad of the college campus during the weekend because I did not want to risk loosing a single day of clear weather to take photos! Sunday was especially hot – I learned that hot temperatures are detrimental towards the performance of both the drone and my phone used as the interface for the Pix4D mapper pro program because I had to allow the devices to cool off for a significant amount of time before I could run new missions which was a bit frustrating. On Monday I focused on taking better quality photos of my designated areas from a closer point of view so the image quality would be better for the photogrammetry programs I was creating on  Pix4D. I then combined my two projects of West Quad models together for the best and most accurate model that could be created by two data sets. I did this by creating tiepoints in identical locations on each model and reprocessing the models as one. I quickly discovered how long it actually takes to merge projects together and to create new ones from large metadata. I learned that when merging projects, I had to reload the point cloud, mesh, DSM (digital surface model), orthomosaic factors, and index which was very frustrating. However, I knew that the loading process was important since I needed to improve the geolocation and clarity of my models in order to avoid empty voids in each structure. The more overlaps I had in my photos, the better models I would create on Pix4D. After several runs of similar missions of Stine Lake and the West Quad I managed to get overlap areas of 5+, the highest categorical amount of overlaps in the Pix4D program that allow for the best resolution models.

 

It rained heavily from Tuesday through Friday which made it difficult to find the opportunity to take more photos to improve my models. During these times, I managed to work with the photos that I had already taken before waiting for the rain to clear up to take more. On Wednesday and Thursday I used the low, circular flight feature of the Pix4D app to take heavily detailed photos of the library as well as the West Quad first year halls. By the end of the week, I had created not only a merged project displaying Musselman Library as well as the West Quad but the map also showed DTM (digital terrain level), elevation levels of the terrain of the campus! The Pix4D program was set to DSM, however, so I had to reset the settings to display DTM since I only wanted to show the elevation levels of the terrain without any additional buildings or structures.

 

This week’s library workshop was on Scalar, a website used for interactive storytelling. We learned how to operate through the user interface as well as the basic functions of the program. Although I am not quite sure if I will use this program with the current project I am working on, I believe that it may be very useful when I create a website of my digital projects and work after this summer is complete.

 

Next week I plan to finish all four photogrammetry models as well as calculating their DTM in order to begin evaluating the slope of the terrain. On Monday, I will also be meeting with Professor Principato from the environmental science department to learn how to use a total station to manually take calculations and measurements of the slope of the terrain!

 

Model of the Stine Lake and the West Quad before triangle meshes were loaded in.

 

 

Photos taken from different angles and areas of the West Quad and Stine Lake being processed by Pix4D to fill in the mesh of the model.

 

 

 

Photogrammetry model of the West Quad and Musselman Library after merging several projects together over the course of many days.

 

 

 

 

What an eventful week! I began my week by successfully with teaching myself how to calibrate the Mavic Pro drone as well as how to connect it to the DJIGo 4 and Pix4Dcapture apps on my iPhone. I had to first update my phone to IOS 11 which consumed a lengthy amount of time but by the end of the process my phone was at last compatible with the software. I learned the basic functions of flying the drone and familiarized myself with the interface of the apps – I discovered that there is even a beginner mode for new remote aviation pilots. I ensured that I took my time learning the proper rules and functions of the drone to make sure that I was as knowledgeable as I could be before I even attempted to fly the Mavic Pro off the ground for the first time on Monday evening. I began to test out the basic controls of the drone and its intelligent modes which include “Follow Me”, a mode that has the drone fly after its subject at an altitude of 10 feet! I practiced flying in unoccupied, open areas such as the baseball field as well as the Painted Turtle Farm.

I also learned the important of the home and pause buttons on the controller – during rare occasions the drone may loose connection and start flying on a mission that you no longer want it to fly. Always remember your Part 107 piloting rules: It is crucial to always keep the drone in your field of vision to avoid lost or accidents!

Even with the excitement of finally operating the drone for the first time, I made sure to continue to rigorously study for the FAA Remote Pilot Test for at least two hours a night. This was my third week of intensive studying for the test. On Wednesday, Dr.Remy, Hoang, and I drove to Frederick in Maryland where we both passed the test! I am overjoyed to announce that as of June 13th I am now an FAA licensed and certified remote pilot in command! After registering my piloting license on https://iacra.faa.gov, I also requested my physical remote piloting license card which should arrive in the mail shortly.

 

I am now a certified Remote Pilot in Command!

 

On Thursday and Friday I was extremely frustrated both with the drone as well as the Pix4Dcapture app: the apps consistently disconnected from the drone and the images from my flight missions were not taken properly nor did they even save to the SD memory card. After an unbelievably long amount of time of searching on the internet as well as invoking the help of Ryan Gonzales (former DTSF fellow from summer of 2017) I learned the following:

• Must fly on “Safe Mode” in Pix4Dcapture app so drone stops at each waypoint to capture image

• “Safe Mode” doesn’t need constant WiFi and connection to app on phone so will keep flying mission and taking photos no matter what – best since my connection falters often
• I was flying on “Fast Mode” which takes photos as the drone flies about the mission and needs constant connection
• Use back black buttons to focus camera – use stop button to stop then continue mission as usual for best quality
• When connection lost to app from controller it’s because wire is loose but doesn’t matter too much after flight taken off because in Safe Mode will take photos regardless – side wire that connects to phone a bit rusty and loose – readjusting wire and blowing into connection port helps
• More overlap percentage in Pix4D app means more pictures taken at closer distances
• ADVICE FROM RYAN: -PEN BOTH PIX4D AND DJI GO 4 APP, use PIXE 4D TO FLIGHT AND PLAN FLIGHT PATTERNS THEN SWITCH OVER TO DJI GO TO VIEW PHOTOS AND TO MONITOR FLIGHT, CHANCE FOCUS, PAUSE AS NEEDED – now the photos are in the SD card!

 

This week was unbelievably a journey and although I had many setbacks, I also had a great deal of accomplishments as well! I can not believe the mass amount of information I have learned in simply a week through self-taught lessons, experience, and the kind advice of others. I even attended a library workshop and learned how to use HTML and CSS code to create a website, upload it to the Gettysburg public drive, as well as how to legally incorporate images and videos of the proper copyright license in my work.

My next steps are to take aerial photos of the following locations and to transfer the photos to Pix4D to create photogrammetric models of the campus and terrain:

1) Stine Lake

2) East/West first-year quad s

3) Gettysburg orchard (?)

4) Quarry Pond

 

Aerial view of Jaegar Fitness Center using 2D images taken with Mavic Pro drone

 

Pix4Dcapture app used to plan flight missions; can control area, direction, altitude, speed, and more!