3.02.01 – Case Study 01 – Aircraft interior scan : SpheronVR SceneCam : Setup

Spheron SceneCam scan setup

Camera : SpheronVR SceneCam
Mount : Manfrotto 055 using a customised Manfrotto (Bogen) 3047 head.

Above : SpheronVR SceneCam in situ – controlling laptop and camera battery on floor, behind left seat.

Above :SpheronVR SceneCam in situ. Interior of Lockheed EC-121T

The SpheronVR SceneCam was positioned between the front seats (as with iSTAR test).

As the system scans, operator can easily vacate the shot area (or use the delayed shutter method).

Note, the camera was positioned at the ‘eyeline’ of the pilots, for the most faithful representation of the interior. As will be seen later, the Spheron SceneCam ‘footprint’ is small, which means we can mount camera at a natural viewing height (even that of a person standing).

SpheronVR SceneCam : Available shooting resolutions

The Spheron camera has 4 capture resolutions available to the operator:

Available at capture

Maximum @ 58.3MP (achieved in camera)
High @ 14.5 MP
Medium @ 3.6MP
Low @ 0.9MP

Resolutions are equatable to EXR outputs of 8K, 4K, 2K and 1K. 4K being the optimal for point cloud colorization.

Available at post-processing stage

At post processing stage, it is possible to increase the original scans by another 300%, given a maximum 168.6 Megapixel output. This is only possible due to the Spheron system using a tri-linear RGB chip, allowing 100% RGB fill-factor and the fact the Spheron scans the scene.

Conventional digital cameras use either CCD or CMOS chips were image is exposed onto a sensor array. The most common Bayer method of RGB channel arraying means there are areas of the image (captured by systems using such chips) missing actual RGB data; requiring interpolation (guessing) to fill in those values…

Up-scaling those types of images merely compounds the guesswork.

Control software options

Spheron SceneCam Easy 2

This case study utilized the SceneCam Easy2 software solution – which is a very intuitive, user friendly interface that walks the camera operator through the capture process.

Key features that I was impressed with were:

Calibration of system – ensuring optimum performance / capture
Range of capture resolutions (one does not always need 50 MP image to convey data)
Robust storage indication
Robust battery life indication