Photo Rectification

using “Hawkeye” of VistaFX!

In this example, the length of a yaw mark is in question.  Four (4) points were painted on the asphalt to serve as CP (control points), then precisely measured using the Forensic Mapping System and downloaded into VistaFX … shown here:

Pick the “Measure” button off the top tool bar, as well as activate the “Snap” tool, (located to Right of Measure button) then Zoom in and measure between each CP as well as diagonally, as shown here:

For this example, we wanted to also draw a line between points .. to give it the effect of a tiremark.  We first picked the ‘Polyline’ button from the top tool bar, then from the ‘line properties’ dialog box, the curvy line choice and selected finally, from several choices of “lines” the ‘tire mark’.  Other choices of “lines of something” are seen below:

And the points were connected, using the ‘snap’ function …

Resulting in the following illustration.  We now wanted to PRINT this diagram for eventual comparison purposes.

To PRINT a “selected area” go to the Top toolbar and select ‘Print Selected Area’:

The following is displayed.  Simply move the tagged area over the portion of the scene you wish printed (choice: landscape or portrait), like seen in below right.  Choose PRINT … simple as that.  J

Lets examine next, the import of a digital photograph into VistaFX Photo Rectification portion of the software.  First, choose the “Hawkeye” button seen here from the Top toolbar.

The next few steps are very straight forward … just watch this area for input or choice commands.

We happen to have a couple digital pics on a CD and choose one of them for viewing in “Hawkeye”.

After we Opened the digital pic, we slightly modified the “limit line” such that only designated/viewed points of the focus area (where yaw mark & 4 points were observed) were centered.

We then followed the Commands found here [    ]  and proceeded to click on the 4 (four) points taken at the scene.

When ever we Left-clicked on a point, we were presented with an automatic ZOOMED IN FOCUS POINT J

Once all four points were selected, the below dialog was prompted.  We input the measured distances (from previous steps) to acquire the below set of measurements and view.

Then pick NEXT and FINISH to place output digital pic into the main engine of VistaFX.

Finally, with the digital pic “scaled” and now over in the ‘body’ of VistaFX, one can further measure the tiremark (yaw?) or even add generic vehicle symbols.  User should recall that ALL symbols are 3D animation ‘ready’!

Precision of camera model – Settings of camera – Setup height of camera (and others) are all concerns when using Digital Cameras for this purpose.  We used a very generic, off-the-shelf Sony camera ~ limiting the ‘working area’ for the ‘Hawkeye’ component of VistaFX to “roughly 100 sq. feet”.  A “better” camera would have provided possibly a wider/larger area for further analysis using this procedure.

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