Pixpro version 1.7.9 and our 2025 Goals and Expectations

Our 6 billion trillion-ton spaceship, made of mostly iron, oxygen, silicon, and magnesium, has made another orbit around the nearest fusion-powered hot plasma ball, which means we need to reflect and look forward arbitrarily. In this blog post, we have a small update to our Pixpro photogrammetry software and a bit of speculation and planning for the upcoming orbit around our G-type main sequence star.

Pixpro 1.7.9 Update

A small update. The main improvement will be the performance of our 3D reconstruction algorithm with this one. More specifically, it has more speed for many PC users with decent GPUs. And there are some more minor improvements and features:

1. A Reoptimize step has been added to cloud workflows. This step is for those who use GCPs and wish to use our cloud processing service.

2. The Contour line interval parameter has been added to the cloud processing options. Now, we can select the interval between contour lines in meters.

3. Orthophoto export now has two formats, TIF and BigTIF. BigTIF, as the name implies, supports enormous files.

4. Cloud computing workflow now suggests 3D mesh triangle values based on photo input.

Besides these, there are a few undo/redo improvements, command line improvements, and bug fixes as usual. 

What is next for Pixpro Software?

We have two different conceptual routes for our photogrammetry software: accessibility and specialization. We are making a tool that caters more to a specific industry while being more accessible—not tied to any particular operating system. You probably know where this is going.

Of course, that does not mean regular desktop software upgrades and improvements. Actually, the next version is not far off and will include a small brand-new module. Our team is trucking on as usual, and we hope for an even better year this year.

What is next for Pixpro Blog?

I will keep my usual one-post-a-week schedule. This year, I will examine other types of 3D scanning and how they compare to photogrammetry, conduct more drone reviews, investigate more use cases, and do more casual stuff adjacent to photogrammetry. I would also like to start creating video content, but that requires quite a bit more time.

As always, you will not find “AI” generated slop in our blog. You will see flaws and peculiarities because two humans are working on it, and only so-called AI is used for spell checking; more specifically, I am using Grammarly. And I am trying to rely even less on that, as I think there is little added value in keeping a corporate or more formal tone. I want this to be easily readable, understandable, and, most importantly - valuable. So, all in all - everything is as usual.

What is next for Pixpro Waypoints?

Waypoints currently function quite well, and the three plans we have now cover 90 percent of planar flight photogrammetry use cases. A few small features and fixes are coming soon, and we will delve into what we can do with more Z-axis flexibility within the limitations of our workaround.

I would like to base further development on real user feedback and actual use-case-based requirements. For that, I wish to reach more users who would be willing to provide some. If you are one such user, contact us anywhere, and I will provide access to the service for a time for free.

Lastly, we need to make a video about how to use the service because it is still a workaround, and many people prefer watching a video over reading a blog post, so that is in the pipeline.

What is next for the industry?

Finally, let me speculate about the industry. Surely, we will see more AI marketing in photogrammetry-related services and products. I hope at least some of the features will be useful. In my opinion, subject detection and machine vision, in general, should be the main avenues—so not data creation but data analysis.

If we start “AI-generating” stuff made for surveying, the potential for disasters is unlimited. For more casual stuff, why not? Maybe generation can help reduce the amount of data we input. However, the real value is in the analysis and recognition part, from masking to defect detection, to setting optimization according to the scene, to even generated reports based on input data.

Regarding hardware, we are either in the plateau zone where nothing is changing or in more or better progression. More powerful CPUs and GPUs - great, nothing new. More megapixels and zooms in cameras - great, but again nothing new. So I would expect more power, not different power…

Unless quantum computing says otherwise. I am not sure about its applications for photogrammetry, but quantum computing may be the thing that will begin with or even define the year 2025. We will see. Overall, I am more hyped about the software side of the industry and the general trend of everything going “3D.”

Conclusion

A brain-piloted biomechanical suit made mostly of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, calcium, and phosphorus has made some observations and speculations about the future, converted these into kinetic energy, which in turn was converted into an electrical signal and stored as binary data in hopes that some other brain-piloted biomechanical suit far away will read it and incite some chemical reactions out of it. Article over.