It does pain me to say that I was not able to get a good model from the drone photos that day. I really wanted to post the model and say, "Look what we were able to do!" But we were not able to get that model. I would not say that the efforts were wasted in anyway. As long as you learn lessons to improve your process and efforts in the future, the project is not a failure.
So what are the lessons we learned?
Lesson #1: You need more than 31 photos
I always try to get a minimum of 50 photos. ReCap's maximum of 250 photos really is best. I got about 31 then let my son fly the drone. His flight ended in a tree, and it took us about 30 minutes to get the drone down. I guess we could have try to fly again. However, I only have two batteries and was worried that I was low on power. The model of drone I have behaves poorly when low on power.
Lesson #2: Pick Frisbees of VERY different colors
When I grabbed a Red and Pink Frisbees, I thought they they may seem too similar in the photos. Then I thought that because the colors were significantly different I would be okay. From the vantage point of the drone, with the sun glaring off the them, it was at times difficult to tell the red from the pink. If I had trouble, I have to assume the software had trouble with telling them apart.
Lesson #3: My hobby quality drone does not fly stable enough for this process
I love drones. For me the appeal is equally how much fun they are to fly and the aerial photography and videos. My drone is so light and is at the mercy of the wind. We only had 6 MPH winds that day and my drone was still pushed very strongly by the wind. Most professional quality drones have GPS and flight planning abilities. Where those are not a mandatory feature for this process, they can make it easier to fly the site and can improve the quality of the results.
Lesson #4: My kids love to run around A LOT
If you look in the photos, my kids did not stay in one place. In fact, they were all over the field, and I have the pictures to prove it. ReCap has no way to filter out my daughter in the photos and work around her. To ReCap she is a feature in the field and tried to match and her surroundings in the photos. So as she went from end to end of the field, ReCap was assuming she was stationary, and this movement confused the results. For ReCap to work right, you really want to try to keep the area clear, as much as reasonable. If I had 250 photos, the movements by my daughter would not have confused ReCap as much.
I was so disappointed that I did not get some really meaningful results. I know the process works, I have seen the process work. I guess it is safe to say that you will not be seeing any advertisements for Olson & Kids Surveying anytime in the future. Well maybe if I can convince my wife to let me get a professional quality drone...Just kidding.
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