From Imagery to Map
Article

From Imagery to Map

GIM International Interviews Victor Adrov

During the recent Racurs conference entitled ‘From Imagery to Map: Digital Photogrammetric Technologies’ held in Portimão, Portugal, GIM International interviewed the managing director of Racurs, Dr Victor Adrov. He played a leading role in bringing digital photogrammetry alive in Russia. Here, he looks back on 19 years of digital photogrammetry, recalling how it has evolved and discussing what the future may bring.

Could you please tell us about the history of Racurs?

Racurs was formed in 1993 as a private company by four graduates – including myself – from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, which was one of the leading universities in theSoviet Unionat that time. All four of us had graduated in applied mathematics and were not actually involved in geodesy and photogrammetry. Before creating Racurs, my colleagues and I had worked at theRussianAcademyof Sciences. You have to understand that the Nineties were a difficult time for Russian science due to the 1991 reforms, which is why we decided to work in a real free-market economy. Although we initially focused on medical diagnostics solutions, including development and processing of 3D and stereoscopic diagnostic images, we soon realised that such technologies could also be used to process aerial and satellite imageries, and we sold our first photogrammetric software license shortly afterwards.

In the company’s first seven years, we focused on the development, promotion and sales of the Photomod software. We also worked on a number of projects which enabled us to test new functionalities. So in 2000 we set up a production department and began providing photogrammetric processing services, and in 2005 we became an official supplier of remote sensing data. These three activities – software development, processing services and resale of remote sensing data – form the main commercial pillars of our company. 

The full interview is online at http://member.gim-international.com/. Please subscribe for free using the Subscribe button in the left hand column.

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