View Image

An estimated 5,000,000 images made since the 1920's in the European archives represent an enormous amount of data which may never be recaptured under controlled conditions. It is the goal of AirPhoto to deal with this kind of image within the limits of the data and the financial limits of most archaeological institutions and private investigators by non-photogrammetrists.

AirPhoto provides a useful tool for archaeologists (and others) without large amounts of money to spend on user-hostile photogrammetric hardware or expensive software which will enable them to deal with a reasonable number of the many aerial images which have accumulated over the years using modest PC's and peripherals.

AirPhoto makes orthophotos from scanned extreme obliques and superimposes scanned maps on them in various ways. It is not a photogrammetric plotting program, but it is a true orthophoto program working from a digital terrain model (DTM) if desired, although the DTM is not required. A DTM may be imported or the program can create one from a collection of manually entered or imported irregular heights. It is designed to give a very fast result with a minimum of handwork apart from the entry of corresponding control points in a picture and a map just by clicking the mouse. Color or black and white images of various formats may be used or obtained directly from a scanner. Any number of maps may be combined to obtain a result for pictures which show data contained within more than one map. Mosaics may be made from multiple color or black and white images. The map may be overlaid in black or white with the image(s) or combined with them to give best visibility. If desired, a mosaic may be made with a neutral background for processing elsewhere.