The E-Foto project and the research to implement a GNU/GPL open source educational digital photogrammetric workstation

Abstract

Photogrammetry is the science devoted to the geometric reconstruction of object space, based on photographic images. Among its techniques, stereophotogrammetry, which employs a pair of images to precisely estimate 3D coordinates in the object space, should be highlighted. The state of the art of photogrammetric equipment is represented by digital photogrammetric workstations (DPW), that are primarily hardware and software dedicated to photogrammetric purposes. The present chapter is devoted to the E-Foto project, which, to the best of our knowledge and belief, implements the only open source GNU/GPL digital photogrammetric workstation presently available. This project is originally concerned on education and is underlain on the synergy between development, teaching and research devoted to this field of science. It encompasses a team of undergraduate and Master students as well as Professors of The Rio de Janeiro State University. Besides the DPW, the E-Foto project products are: the only digital photogrammetry book edited in Brazil, the project’s home page, the software usage tutorials, master dissertations, graduation projects and research papers.