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Title: Low-cost camera modifications and methodologies for very-high-resolution digital images

Author
item Hunt Jr, Earle
item CARR, JAMES - Collaborator
item HIVELY, W - Us Geological Survey (USGS)

Submitted to: Society for Range Management Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/5/2010
Publication Date: 2/6/2011
Citation: Hunt, E.R., Carr, J., Hively, W.D. 2011. Low-cost camera modifications and methodologies for very-high-resolution digital images [abstract]. Society for Range Management Meeting Abstracts. 2011 CDROM.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Aerial color and color-infrared photography are usually acquired at high altitude so the ground resolution of the photographs is < 1 m. Moreover, current color-infrared cameras and manned aircraft flight time are expensive, so the objective is the development of alternative methods for obtaining very-large-scale-aerial (VLSA) images. We describe a new method for acquiring digital color-infrared photographs for monitoring vegetation from Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). A red-light blocking filter is placed in front of the lens of a 12-megapixel digital camera, which does not have an internal filter that blocks near-infrared (NIR) light. The result is that camera that acquires photographs with NIR, green, and blue bands. We compared images from the camera and a digital color camera over different grass species at the NRCS Beltsville Plant Materials Center. Small UAS with color-infrared cameras could provide low-cost imagery for sampling allotments at critical times with rapid delivery of information to the user.