Measuring Fine Art With the ikeGPS Mobile GIS System
Posted by Blogike on Wed, Dec 28, 2011 @ 02:26 PM
We measure a lot of industrial things with ikeGPS – utility poles, obstructions, buildings, road signs and much more, but ikeGPS can do some pretty amazing and refined things as well. Take for example the famous Rembrandt painting "The Night Watch" in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. This colossal painting looks fabulous on the museum wall, but wouldn’t you like to know exactly how big it is? With ikeGPS, you don’t have to take someone’s word for it.
Fortunately, they let you take pictures of the art in the Rijksmuseum, so we start by capturing a photo of the painting from a distance of several metres away using ikeGPS. By selecting TrueSize image mode, and using the onboard laser range finder and 3D compass to compute the distance and angle to the target, we create a corrected photo from which direct measurements can be made. We load our TrueSize photo of the painting into ikeAnnotate on a laptop or desktop PC, and proceed to measure its width and height directly on the screen.
Let's see how we did.
Using ikeGPS, we get: 361 x 436 cm for the dimensions of The Night Watch.
The official dimensions are: 363 x 437 cm
That gives us 0.7% area accuracy.
This may seem like a trivial application for ikeGPS, but consider the situation. This is a very delicate piece of artwork that must not be touched or handled unnecessarily. To be able to obtain accurate measurements from a remote position with a single image means that an entire museum could be inventoried and documented very quickly without endangering any of the pieces. In fact, ikeGPS could be a curator’s best friend!
Consider also the potential for measuring objects from a concealed or obscured location. The ikeGPS form factor is very small (hand held), and it could be used to quickly and stealthily measure objects in a potentially dangerous or otherwise forbidden setting, for example by military personnel behind enemy lines. As you can see, the possible uses for ikeGPS are endless!