For a while now, for fun, I've been creating a 3d map of where we live.
It isn't photo realistic, it doesn't look nice like Google Maps street
view. The idea being I could one day 3d print it out and have a model
of the area.
Today as I was tinkering around on Google Sketchup doing this... I
thought 'this would be better if the buildings looked like themselves
instead of white blocks'.
So I began to dig into how Google maps does the street view, if I could
make my own 'google car' and drive around the neighborhood.
The answer was "photogrammetry". In a nutshell, taking huge amounts of
photos and connecting them together to create a 3d map!
You can use stand alone cameras, drones, or even, a self-made "google
car" where you snap a ton of photos of things.
I thought it would be neat to spend some time creating a 3d map of the
place, so our friends back at home could do a 'virtual walkthrough'.
However, I've only just begun playing with the software for this and can
already tell it is going to take a LOT of time and THOUSANDS of photos.
So watch this space, I may one day, have it all done. I'm throwing out
my previous model and starting from scratch. If this works, it'll be
very awesome and useful!
