VisionOnSky Co., Ltd. released MASI Version 3.0 software

VisionOnSky Co. Ltd. released MASI (Modules for Aerial and Satellite Imagery) Version 3.0, which can be used to automatically process aerial and satellite images, in September 2018. The released stuffs include software package, installation manual, tutorial of aerial modules, tutorial of satellite modules, tutorial of UAV modules, user’s manual for Chinese and English versions, respectively. Users can use MASI Version 3.0 software via two ways. One is to access our official website www.visiononsky.com and download our software package. You can apply trial use of our software. We will provide you our fully functional software which is valid within a period of time. The other way is to access the cloud platform, i.e., www.geocloud.work , which is provided by our partner GeoCloud Ltd.

On the basis of the previous version, the main improvements of version 3.0 are as follows:

(1) GUI-based operating manner is provided for all functions. Thus, users can flexibly exploit the two manners, i.e., GUI and command line interface (CLI), provided in MASI Version 3.0, in the light of their requirements. All GUI interfaces are free to distribute, can be used without the need of license and can help users to be familiar with the operation of MASI software.

(2) Parallel computing based on message passing interface (MPI) is supported in the function of generation of DSM and point clouds for both aerial and UAV modules. The function is computation-intensive. On the ordinary PC computer, it can achieve 6-8 speedups without adding extra hardware. Also, the parallel computing technique can be employed on cluster computers with different scales, and supercomputers. Different operating systems, either Windows OS or Linux OS are fully supported. Thus, there are functions, such as, DSM generations, mosaic, pan-sharpening, which support parallel computing, in MASI version 3.0.

(3) Multi-view stereo algorithm for UAV images in the generation of DSM and point clouds is improved. The improved algorithm can fully exploit the traits of UAV images, which have high overlapping and have multiple observations for a point. In this algorithm, multi-view matching and geometric consistency are used. The extracted 3D points and DSM have high precision and are denser. At the same time, some parameters are avoided, resulting in the easy usage.

(4) A new automatic mosaic algorithm is added, which is designed for the mosaicking of true ortho images. These true ortho images are obtained by rectifying images using the highly dense DSM, instead of DEM. The mosaic algorithm can select most suitable areas for each image to attend the procedure of mosaicking. The algorithm can be used for the mosaicking of either true ortho images or ordinary ortho images.

(5) A function of orientation, which based on control points, is added. The function of importation of the orientation results of UAV images from Pix4D software into MASI software is added. Other tools, such as transforming DSM to points, are also added.

(6) Three main GUI interfaces for aerial, satellite, UAV image processing, respectively, are added. Through the three main interfaces, all functions can be called directly.

(7) Three tutorials are added. They are tutorials of aerial modules, satellite modules, and UAV modules, respectively. New users can learn to operate MASI Version 3.0 software in a short period of time by reading these tutorials.

(8) The installation method of MASI software is improved. On Windows OS, one button style is used to finish the installation.

MASI software has the advantages in the following aspects:

(1) The generated highly dense point clouds and DSM can depict and maintain the top shapes in the urban area, and mountain areas with large difference of height (the height difference is 3000 meter or more in one image) very well.

(2) Highly dense DSM can be used in automatic finding change of surface height (used in the automatically finding of new buildings, the buildings breaking the planning, and removed buildings, and estimating their corresponding accurate height).

(3) Automatically transforming DSM to DTM with high precision, and fully automatic extraction of height of building and tree (height from bottom to top of building and tree, not the height above sea level) by comparing DSM and DTM

(4) The generation of true ortho images (demanding high overlapping between images) by using the highly dense DSM in the course of rectification. The geometric positions, either on ground or on building, are highly accurate in the images after true ortho-rectification, resulting in accurate alignment between different adjacent ortho images.

The results by MASI Version 3.0 software:

The cranes in DSM extracted from UAV images

The true ortho-mosaicked image automatically generated from UAV images (flowchart: the generation of highly dense DSM -> ortho rectification using the DSM -> mosaicking). For the sake of showing the seaming effect, the adjacent images with color difference are selected.

The automatic finding of new building by comparing DSMs with two phases and the estimation of height of the found building (19.55 m)

The estimated height of building (height from bottom to top of building), the value is equal to (DSM - DTM), the height of top layer is 11.5 m while lower layer is 7.91 m

One figure to understand MASI Version 3.0 software

Main interface (aerialMain.exe) of aerial modules and main menus

Main interface (satMain.exe) of satellite modules and main menus

Main interface (uavMain.exe) of UAV modules and main menus

The operating interface of automatic generation of DSM from UAV images (for more, please refer to user manual)

More information, please access our website: www.visiononsky.com

We also provide the service of customized development, technical service for innovative applications on the basis of our techniques, algorithms, and software modules.