VisionOnSky Co., Ltd. released MASI Version 6.0 software

 

MASI Version 6.0 is packaged as four independent modules: satellite, aerial, ADS, and UAV.

 

(I) Satellite modules

The satellite modules include the following functions: multiple orientation methods (automatic relative orientation of stereo and triplet, automatic extraction of control points by matching points between the image and existing ortho-image, accurate orientation for a single image through control point, automatic point matching and bundle adjustment of stereo block, bundle adjustment of a block consists of nadir satellite images, etc.), interactive tools for points viewing and measurements, measurements of image points for GCPs and the adjustment with the support of GCPs, automatic stereo matching and generation of highly dense DSM (as well as point clouds), automatic 3D modeling with true color textures, automatic ortho-rectification, pan-sharpening, automatically transforming DSM to DTM (the height difference between DSM and DTM is the height of building / tree), automatic finding change of surface height (used in the automatic finding of new buildings, the unplanned buildings and the removed buildings, and estimating their corresponding accurate height), automatic mosaic (mosaic of DSMs, mosaic of ortho-rectified images, mosaic of histogram matched images), volume calculation, extraction of building attributes (the center position of building, height of building, number of layers, area of ground, and construction area of building), generation of boundary polygon for satellite images, image displaying, procedural processing for DSM production, interactive editing of DSM/DEM, collecting polygons, and some commonly used tools. These modules for satellite images are shown to users by a main interface (satMain.exe). In addition, other functions are included: transforming RPC parameters with XML format used in airbus Pleiades, Pleiades NEO, SPOT 6/7 to the commonly used RPC format (the form exploited by IKONOS and GeoEye), transforming RGB image to grey image, rotation of image, reflection of image, transforming point clouds to surface in the form of raster, transforming DSM with raster form to point clouds, image cropping, creating overviews for image, transforming between orthometric height and ellipsoidal height, projection / re-projection for image based on WGS 84, generation of .aff files in batch, and uncompressing image file with JPEG2000 format.

 

The features of satellite modules in MASI Version 6.0 are as follows:

(1) Supporting commonly used satellite sensors, such as Worldiew-1/2/3/4, GeoEye, ZY3-01/02, SuperView-1/2, Pleiades 1A/1B, Pleiades NEO, SPOT 6/7, GF-7, GFDM, TH series, Beijing series, etc.

(2) GUI operating manner and batch processing manner are supported in MASI software. GUI-based operations for automatic stereo matching and DSM generation, and ortho-rectification are easy. Only one push of button is needed to carry out the procedure of DSM production. User can also automatic generate or write batch files including commands to fulfill the pipeline processing for a specific procedure. Distributed computing where multiple tasks can be allocated to multiple machines is also supported.

(3) Modules demanding large computation requirements, such as automatic stereo matching and DSM generation, pan-sharpening, and mosaicking, have capability of parallel computing. Thus, the computational resources can be fully exploited.

(4) Supporting different operating systems, either Windows OS or Linux OS. MASI can run on the commonly used PC computer, and cluster computer usually located in data center or supercomputer center.

 

(II) Aerial modules

The aerial modules include the following functions: automatic stereo matching and generation of highly dense DSM (as well as point clouds), automatic 3D modeling with true color textures, automatic true ortho-rectification, automatically transforming DSM to DTM (the height difference between DSM and DTM is the height of building / tree), automatic finding change of surface height (used in the automatic finding of new buildings, the unplanned buildings and the removed buildings, and estimating their corresponding accurate height), automatic mosaic (mosaic of DSMs, mosaic of ortho-rectified images, mosaic of histogram matched images), volume calculation, extraction of building attributes (the center position of building, height of building, number of layers, area of ground, and construction area of building), image displaying, interactive editing of DSM/DEM, collecting polygons, and some commonly used tools. These modules for aerial images are shown to users by a main interface (aerialMain.exe). In addition, other functions are included: transforming RGB image to grey image, rotation of image, reflection of image, transforming point clouds to surface in the form of raster, transforming DSM with raster form to point clouds, image cropping, creating overviews for image.

 

The features of aerial modules in MASI Version 6.0 are as follows:

(1) Supporting all aerial digital cameras with the form of frame, traditional optical aerial camera, and calibrated consuming camera. Almost all frame cameras are supported, such as DMC I/II/III, UCD, UCX, UltraCam Falcon, UltraCam Eagle, UltraCam Eagle M series, SWDC-2 and SWDC-4 produced in China, middle-frame aerial camera, RCD 30, PhaseOne, Hasselblad as well as traditional optical film camera.

(2) GUI operating manner and batch processing manner are supported in MASI software. Only one push of button is needed to carry out DSM generation and ortho-rectification of an aerial block. User can also write batch files including commands to fulfill the pipeline processing for a specific procedure. Distributed computing where multiple tasks can be allocated to multiple machines is also supported.

(3) Modules demanding large computation requirements, such as automatic stereo matching and DSM generation, and mosaicking, have capability of parallel computing. Thus, the computational resources can be fully exploited.

(4) Supporting different operating systems, either Windows OS or Linux OS. MASI can run on the commonly used PC computer, and cluster computer usually located in data center or supercomputer center.

 

(III) ADS modules

The ADS modules include the following functions: automatic stereo matching and generation of highly dense DSM (as well as point clouds), automatic 3D modeling with true color textures, automatic ortho-rectification, automatically transforming DSM to DTM (the height difference between DSM and DTM is the height of building / tree), automatic finding change of surface height (used in the automatic finding of new buildings, the unplanned buildings and the removed buildings, and estimating their corresponding accurate height), automatic mosaic (mosaic of DSMs, mosaic of ortho-rectified images, mosaic of histogram matched images), volume calculation, extraction of building attributes (the center position of building, height of building, number of layers, area of ground, and construction area of building), generation of boundary polygon for ADS images, image displaying, procedural and batch processing for DSM production, interactive editing of DSM/DEM, collecting polygons, and some commonly used tools. These modules for ADS images are shown to users by a main interface (adsMain.exe). In addition, other functions are included: correcting ADS image by using the average height determined from SUP file, transforming RGB image to grey image, rotation of image, reflection of image, transforming point clouds to surface in the form of raster, transforming DSM with raster form to point clouds, image cropping, creating overviews for image, transforming between orthometric height and ellipsoidal height, and projection / re-projection for image based on WGS 84.

 

The features of ADS modules in MASI Version 6.0 are as follows:

(1) Supporting all sensors of ADS series: ADS40, ADS80, ADS100;

(2) GUI operating manner and batch processing manner are supported in MASI software. GUI-based operations for DSM generation and ortho-rectification are easy. User can also automatic generate or write batch files including commands to fulfill the pipeline processing for a specific procedure. Distributed computing where multiple tasks can be allocated to multiple machines is also supported.

(3) Modules demanding large computation requirements, such as automatic stereo matching and DSM generation, ortho-rectification, mosaicking, have capability of parallel computing. Thus, the computational resources can be fully exploited.

(4) Supporting different operating systems, either Windows OS or Linux OS. MASI can run on the commonly used PC computer, and cluster computer usually located in data center or supercomputer center.

 

(IV) UAV modules

The UAV modules include the following functions: undistortion, automatic multi-view stereo and generation of highly dense DSM (as well as point clouds), automatic 3D modeling with true color textures, automatic true ortho-rectification, automatically transforming DSM to DTM (the height difference between DSM and DTM is the height of building / tree), automatic finding change of surface height (used in the automatic finding of new buildings, the unplanned buildings and the removed buildings, and estimating their corresponding accurate height), automatic mosaic (mosaic of DSMs, mosaic of ortho-rectified images, mosaic of histogram matched images), volume calculation, extraction of building attributes (the center position of building, height of building, number of layers, area of ground, and construction area of building), importing orientation results from third party software, image displaying, interactive editing of DSM/DEM, collecting polygons, and some commonly used tools. These modules for UAV images are shown to users by a main interface (uavMain.exe). In addition, other functions are included: transforming RGB image to grey image, rotation of image, reflection of image, transforming point clouds to surface in the form of raster, transforming DSM with raster form to point clouds, image cropping, creating overviews for image.

 

The features of UAV modules in MASI Version 6.0 are as follows:

(1) Supporting consuming cameras used in UAV, e.g., Nikon, Canon, Sony; supporting middle-frame aerial camera, RCD 30, PhaseOne, Hasselblad. Pixels of UAV images can not be more than 60 million. If images’ pixels are more than 60 million, aerial modules should be used or new modules should be customized by contacting us.

(2) GUI operating manner and batch processing manner are supported in MASI software. Only one push of button is needed to carry out DSM generation and ortho-rectification of a UAV block. User can also write batch files including commands to fulfill the pipeline processing for a specific procedure. Distributed computing where multiple tasks can be allocated to multiple machines is also supported.

(3) Modules demanding large computation requirements, such as automatic multi-view stereo and DSM generation, and mosaicking, have capability of parallel computing. Thus, the computational resources can be fully exploited.

(4) Supporting different operating systems, either Windows OS or Linux OS. MASI can run on the commonly used PC computer, and cluster computer usually located in data center or supercomputer center.

 

The obvious advantages:

(1) The generated highly dense point clouds and DSM can depict and maintain the shape of buildings’ top in the urban area very well; terrain of mountain areas with large difference of height (the height difference is 3000 meter or more in one image) can be extracted very well; the grid of the extracted height information is very small (pixel-wise), thus it can depict the morphology of terrain details.

(2) Advanced algorithm transforming DSM to DTM automatically. The algorithm can remove most buildings and trees in DSM, and can select different level of terrain details in the light of the requirements.

(3) Automatic extraction of height of building and tree (height from bottom to top of building and tree, not the height above sea level); automatic finding change of surface height (used in the automatic finding of new buildings, the unplanned buildings and the removed buildings, and estimating their corresponding accurate height).

(4) Fully automatic ortho-rectification with high precision (procedure: DSM generation -> DTM generation -> rectification). In ortho-rectification, image is rectified, pixel by pixel, and the geometric error is small. User can use DSM generated by MASI to truly ortho-rectify images, or use DTM to ortho-rectify them. It addresses different requirements of users.

(5) A block-regression (BR) based pansharpening algorithm with satisfying tradeoff between maintenance of color content and enhancement of spatial details. BR algorithm can achieve a maximum enhancement of its spatial details at the expense of a minimum spectral distortion for the multispectral images. In the algorithm, the bands of the multispectral image used can not be limited and the algorithm is specially optimized for the pansharpening of very high resolution satellite image.

 

The case study and results can be found in applications. Directly enter.