Using Wescam video / pix4Dmapper to do a georefenced map

PIX4Dmapper PIX4Dmapper Questions/Troubleshooting
1

Hi,

Based on a Wescam video (*.ts file), can I obtain a georeferenced map with Pix4Dmapper.
I can make the map based on the images extracted for the video, but I don’t know how to extract the positions.

Any help would be appreciated !

Arnaud

2

Hi Arnaud,
It is possible to use a video for processing in PIX4Dmapper. However it is not georeference nor does it have image orientation tags in the exif. In order to process you will need to convert the .ts file to either .avi or .mp4 before uploading. You will also need to incorporate GCPs in your project in order to georeference.

3

Hi @Mike_K,

Thanks for your answer.

However, GPS information can be embedded into a MP4 file and then extracted (see Extract GPS Metadata from .MP4 and create .GPX using Exiftool - YouTube for an example). Moreover, there is no need to convert the .ts file into a mp4 file before processing. Pix4D seems to be able to extract the images even when provided as a .ts file. But, you are right in mentioning that I will need GCPs to correctly georeference the whole project.

My question was probably not clear enough. In fact, I was wondering if Pix4D is able (as ExifTool seems to be able to do with some MP4 files) to extract to GPS information … and then assign it to the corresponding images extracted from the video.

4

Hello,
Unfortunately PIX4Dmapper cannot extract and/or embed the GPS data to video frames. If you can extract the frames using Exiftool then I would look at that option since Mapper can’t do it. On a similar note, I would also look at incorporating orientation constraints into your project since the video frames will not be tagged with orientation information. What might happen is that your project might be rotated or even inverted. I would visit the article below which describes how to orient a project.

5

Thanks @Mike_K for the quick reply !
I will check this !!

Have a good day.