IXth Digital Photogrammetric Conference a Success

The IXth International Scientific and Technical Conference ‘From Imagery to Map: Digital Photogrammetric Technologies’ has been a great success. Held on Attica, the Greek peninsula 30km from Athens, the conference was organized by Racurs Co. (Moscow, Russia) with the support of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) and Russian GIS-Association.

The conference provided ample opportunity for discussion and exchange of knowledge in the fields of remote sensing and digital photogrammetric technologies. Over 100 researchers and industrial specialists from 20 countries, all using remote sensing data and photogrammetric processing in their daily practice, attended the conference this year. For the first time, the conference was attended by representatives from the Republic of South Africa and Thailand.

The conference schedule included plenary sessions, business meetings and workshops: 42 speeches were delivered by experts from 11 countries. Welcome speeches were delivered by Colonel Ioannis Kolovos, Director of Hellenic Military Geographical Service (HGMS), and Professor Andreas Georgopoulos, President of Hellenic Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (HSPRS).

In the first section entitled ‘Regional and Corporate Mapping: Common Photogrammetric Problems', delegates from Bulgaria, Russia, Greece, Germany and India described the major achievements and current state of mapping, cadastral and photogrammetric services in their countries. The second section was dedicated to digital camera and aerial equipment. Interestingly, the vast majority of presentations delivered by the representatives of the companies manufacturing large-format cameras were devoted to medium-format cameras. These medium-format cameras, less expensive and more accessible for small companies, are aimed at taking aerial photographs of extended or small-sized objects. The third thematic section was devoted to photogrammetric processing of digital aerial and close range images.

The second day of the conference was devoted to satellite imaging of the Earth, including sessions on satellite remote sensing, technologies and software for processing remote sensing data and remote sensing data-based mapping.

The PHOTOMOD system was covered on the third day of the conference. The Racurs staff presented the new 5.0 version, which boasts an improved level of automation and productivity. A master-class followed, where enhanced features of PHOTOMOD 5.0 were demonstrated. As well as the master-class, there was a special two-hour seminar for employees of Hellenic Military Geographical Service. All stages of photogrammetric processing with the PHOTOMOD release version were demonstrated, including internal orientation, automated photogrammetric triangulation, DTM creation, orthophotomapping and vectorisation in stereo mode.

The results of the projects implemented with the use of PHOTOMOD were summed up. This year the well-deserved prize - PHOTOMOD GeoMosaic 4.4 - went to GIS-Sofia (Bulgaria) for the project ‘Large-scale Orthophotomap of the City of Sofia' (2008) performed with the digital photogrammetric PHOTOMOD system.

During the social side of the conference, attendees could take part in sports competitions. The atmosphere of the competitions was friendly and cheerful. The most entertaining part of the evening was a five-a-side football tournament, where delegates took pleasure as both participants and spectators.

Conference delegates became acquainted with the traditions and culture of Greece during the sightseeing tour which began by visiting a traditional Greek winery. After the winery the tour continued to the Temple of Poseidon at cape Sunion, one of the major sights of Attica.

The grand closing ceremony took the form of a festive banquet. The route to the feast lay across Athens where the participants visited the Acropolis Museum - one of the world's most outstanding collections of antique sculptures. Delegates visited an observation deck, where the participants could enjoy a panoramic view of grand Acropolis and Athens-by-night. The gala dinner included a lottery where anyone could win the Russian or English edition of the PHOTOMOD software. The lucky winners were Pogorelov Viacheslav from North Caucasian Aerogeodetic Enterprise (Russia) and Robert Lanzl from Infoterra GmbH (Germany).

Racurs Co. are very grateful to all partners and colleagues for their participation in the IXth International Scientific and Technical Conference ‘From Imagery to Map: Digital Photogrammetric Technologies' and are looking forward to new meetings! For detailed information about the conference, see http://www.racurs.ru/Greece2009 and http://www2.racurs.ru/Greece2009 .