Low Altitude Unmanned Aerial Photography To Assist in Rock Art Studies

Author(s): Evelyn Billo; Robert Mark

Year: 2015

Summary

A radio-controlled DJI Phantom quadcopter with GoPro or built-in camera can help document archaeological features best seen from the air, such as geoglyphs, rock alignments, and some rock art panels. The camera can be set for interval photography, or monitored and triggered in real-time. The fisheye image distortion can be reasonably corrected with software such as Photoshop or DxO. This portable and relatively inexpensive method of flying a pattern and hovering directly above a site (now limited by the FAA to less than 122 m above ground level) has potential for detailed mapping and understanding features difficult to photograph or map from the ground. The archaeological community is awaiting forthcoming regulations.

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Cite this Record

Low Altitude Unmanned Aerial Photography To Assist in Rock Art Studies. Robert Mark, Evelyn Billo. Presented at The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, California. 2015 ( tDAR id: 395028)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -115.532; min lat: 30.676 ; max long: -102.349; max lat: 42.033 ;