Spotscale Generates Ultra-Resolution 3D Castle Model with Hasselblad Aerial Cameras

Spotscale, an early pioneer in the computation of high-resolution 3D models of building imagery, and Hasselblad, the leader in high-quality professional medium format cameras, announces 3.6 gigapixel 3D surface model created with the Hasselblad A6D-100c.

With a growing demand for immersive and high-resolution content, Swedish-based firm Spotscale has generated an astounding 3.6 gigapixel model of Bjärka-Säby Château, a baroque style 18th century castle located in southeastern Sweden. This translates into a 3D model with over 21,000 pixels per square foot. Utilizing the Hasselblad A6D-100c aerial medium format digital camera mounted to a DJI M600 drone, the Spotscale team was able to create a stunning recreation of this regional landmark.

“Never before have we had such an amazing set of images uploaded to our cloud service,” says Ludvig Emgård, Founder & CEO of Spotscale. “With these images, we can bring out all the intricate details of a building in 3D, capturing every element of the architecture.” Working on site with the Hasselblad A6D-100c and DJI M600, Spotscale lead engineer Martin Svensson commented, “It was great working with the Hasselblad camera. We enjoyed how easy it was to change camera settings such as exposure time and ISO levels from the controller. The complete solution with camera, drone and post-processing software (Phocus) offered by Hasselblad was nice and intuitive to work with.”

Utilizing the latest technology in optical and photographic technology, the Hasselblad A6D-100c is a purpose-built camera that has been designed for deployment over a wide variety of flight platforms. Whether employed as a single camera mounted to a DJI drone, in RGB and NIR pair on a helicopter, or a synchronized cluster array on a fixed wing aircraft, the A6D-100c produces single images measuring 8700x11600 pixels each, in accurate 16-bit color. With its large 53.4 mm x 40.0 mm sensor, the A6D-100c offers outstanding detail, color reproduction and tonal range even in challenging lighting conditions using any H System lens. The camera attaches to the DJI M600 drone via the Ronin-MX, a three-axis stabilised gimbal, which uses powerful motors and inertial measurement units to resist high G-forces, maintain stability and hold the horizon.

In conjunction with Spotscale’s advanced cloud-based 3D reconstruction algorithms, the surface of the castle stretched to 6814 square meters covered by 3.6 gigapixels of imagery. “With resolution like this, you can zoom in anywhere on the castle and examine and measure dots the size of a penny,” says Ludvig. “This kind of detailed data has a high value for building owners for assessing when it’s time to renovate.”

To adequately show the full resolution of a 3D model of this scale is no small task. As a member of the NVIDIA Inception program, Spotscale was able to render out the finished result in real-time with a near cinematic-quality result using the QUADRO P6000 GPU. An application-based incubator, NVIDIA Inception provides select Deep Learning and AI-centric teams access to high performance hardware solutions in order to support their endeavors – a natural complement to the high level of complexity with Spotscale’s work.

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About SpotScale

Spotscale is a 3D technology company that offers cloud software and 3D processing services for real estate developers, maintenance planners and insurance companies who need extremely precise digital and physical models of buildings and surroundings. Spotscale’s proprietary processing solution delivers photo-realistic images that can be viewed and manipulated close-up from any vantage point on a tablet or computer or used with full color 3D printers to create miniature physical scale models.