I probably should have put this under humor!
Who needs surveyors with that really expensive equipment!
Kurt
yeah- it's version 2.0- even more robust than previous versions.
waitning with baited breath for "Property Surveyor" App
Buttonpushers and more buttonpushers. The world has gone crazy over that stuff. Fads, gimmicks, and the like. No wonder young people think there is a button for everything.
Someone will come out with an app that work as a laxative!
Interesting that Knife River Inc. provided a testimonial for the product.
"Brian Gray, President of Knife River Corps Northwest Region said that simplicity and accuracy are two key benefits of using the Stockpile Reports system."
"According to Bill Gibson, production equipment manager for Knife River, the Stockpile Reports system has great potential to become an integral part of the company’s regular production procedures.
“This is a great concept,” Gibson said. “It has a lot of potential. Any time you are not climbing on the stockpiles, it is a plus.”
Gibson said that the company used other types of measurement systems in the past, however this one is safer and quicker. “It used to take three or four hours to walk the piles and get the information we needed,” he said. “We had to import data into AutoCAD to create stockpile models and calculate volumes. Using the Stockpile Report system, maybe two hours total and we are done.”
Gibson said because the system is so easy to use, they would likely measure stockpiles more often, giving them access to a larger amount of data for use in analyzing production.
Gibson also notes its Oregon operations are currently only able to use the system to measure about 75 percent of all its stockpiles. “The un-measureable ones have issues such as bins, walls, piles too close together or material piled up against berms or banks,” he said. “With some better housekeeping and loader-operator education, we can increase that number fairly easily.”"
That testimonial makes it sound like the software does work as advertised and is being used commercially by a large company.
Is using mathematics and photogrammetry to compute contours and volumes considered practicing land surveying? Depends.
This could actually work pretty good. Use the phone's GPS and tilt and direction sensors for basic orientation, then use photo recognition to match up the images, photogrammetry to create the 3d model. This is similar to what autoCad 123d does, or what Trimble can do with the Gatewing.
BTW, this is a good example of where an RC octocopter, like the one Frank Willis showed off, would be helpful in getting elevated photographs to add to the data set. Of course hovering an RC copter 50' over a mound of dirt is considered to be too dangerous and is outlawed by the FAA.
Photogrammetry and Cartography are not part of the surveying field. Those sciences do rely on control points set on the ground by surveyors, but I know of no state that calls them part of surveying. Property boundaries are not established by photogrammetrists or cartographers.
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> Is using mathematics and photogrammetry to compute contours and volumes considered practicing land surveying? Depends.
It is according to statute in Montana:
That doesn't mean that a surveyor can't use it.
Question is, does it work?
Things that make you go Hmmm......
“Property boundaries are not established by photogrammetrists or cartographers.”
EXCEPT in Florida World. The following from license requirements……..
Licenses
The following are the types of licenses that are issued:
LS –A "professional surveyor and mapper" means a person who is registered to engage in the practice of surveying and mapping. A person who determines and displays the facts of size, shape, topography, tidal datum planes, legal or geodetic location or relation and orientation of improved or unimproved real property through direct measurement or from certifiable measurement through accepted photogrammetric procedures.
LB –A "surveying and mapping business" means a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation or other form of business entity engaged in the practice or performance of surveying and mapping.
Have a great week! B-)
> That doesn't mean that a surveyor can't use it.
>
> Question is, does it work?
If I can figure out my username and password I will let you know 🙁
That is why I stated that it depends. Depends on the state.
California's law does include photogrammetry within the scope of land surveying.
However the state board has been looking the other way for specific applications of technology. For example I have not heard of any farmers getting in trouble for modeling their fields and irrigations systems using GPS, then using machine control to do mass grading and crop planting. They are clearly using the principles of mathematics to determine the contour of the earth's surface. I think they have bigger fish to fry.
In addition
Things that make you go Hmmm......
A "mapper" is NOT a photogrammitrist or cartographer. I work with several Florida mappers and not one of them can run a stereo plotter. 😛
Applying the principle of photogrammetry would be setting out aerial photo control, but that does not include WORKING as a photogrammetrist. You can use photogrammertic formulas all day long but that does not make you a photogrammetrist. I work with several California photogrammetry firms and none of their photogrammetrists are registered land surveyors. There's a BIG differance between computing the location of proposed horizontal and vertical control point markers and firing up a stereo plotter.
Your item "d" is not the definition of topograhic work. I know most surveyors call ALL plats "topos", but they really need to look up the actual definition of plannimetric abd topographic. There's a BIG differance.
If you will look carefully at most state regs you will see that they DO NOT address topographic mapping. There's a reason for that.
The only regs for topo's that I have found are those set forth by NSPS and the National Map Accuracy Standards. Cartographers are not governed by state survey boards. I wish they were, but so far, they are not.
After more research...in California, at the minimum, you would be required to be licensed as a Photogrammetric Surveyor and would not be allowed to perform the field surveys and would have to have a civil engineer or land surveyor certify the location of land boundaries and corners.
The Photogrammetric Surveyor falls under the Land Surveying Act.
I just got off the phone with a representative from the company.
He was willing to meet up at my location to demonstrate their services. I offered to survey a pile of gravel and have him show us that the software works as described.
They are marketing the product towards daily production monitoring at mines, as a supplement to monthly/yearly flights.
I'm not sure that the product is bullet proof, but it does not sound like a gimmick.
> I just got off the phone with a representative from the company.
>
> He was willing to meet up at my location to demonstrate their services. I offered to survey a pile of gravel and have him show us that the software works as described.
>
>
> They are marketing the product towards daily production monitoring at mines, as a supplement to monthly/yearly flights.
>
> I'm not sure that the product is bullet proof, but it does not sound like a gimmick.
I would like to hear your results if you follow through. I know they believe they have a viable product, but to what accuracy? What got me to this point, was when a client told my crew chief, as he walked around with his phone, I'm going to check your work and see how good you guys did. We are using an HDS scanner and GPS for toes and breaklines.
Thank you for verifying our work, if it doesn't come out according to your phone, we can reshoot all of your piles.
You do know there is a difference between a photogrammitrist and a photogrammetric surveyor don't you? Two entirely different fields. One deals with land acquisitions and one does not. One establishes boundaries on a map. One does not. We are still talking apples and oranges. Fortunately your state board understands the difference. 😛
They have been working with a terrestrial Lidar/Laser scanning firm near our office for QA/QC testing. They are going to have that survey firm contact me to discuss.
From what I gather from speaking with the representative, they are getting very good results and are currently in the process of still developing the software. We will see.
VS.
