ARPENTEUR:A WEB-BASED PHOTOGRAMMETRY TOOL FOR<br />ARCHITECTURAL MODELING

ARPENTEUR (as Architectural PhotogrammEtry Network Tool for EdUcation and Research) is a web application fordigital photogrammetry mainly dedicated to architecture. ARPENTEUR has been developed since 1998 by two French research teams: the "Photogrammetry and Geomatics" group of ENSAIS-LERGEC's laboratory (Strasbourg, France) and the MAP-gamsau CNRS laboratory located in the school of Architecture of Marseille (France). The software package is a Web based tool since photogrammetric concepts are embedded in Web technology and Java programming language. The aim of this project is to propose a photogrammetric software package and 3D modeling methods available on the Internet as applets through a simple browser (http ://www.arpenteur.net). The use of Java and the WEB platform is full of advantages. Distributing software on any platform, at any place connected to Internet is of course very promising. The updating is done directly on the server and the user always works with the latestrelease installed on the server. Three years ago the first prototype of ARPENTEUR was based on the Java Development Kit (J.D.K. 1.1) at the time only available for some browsers. Nowadays, we are working with the J.D.K. 1.3 plug-in enriched by Java Advancing Imaging (J.A.I.) library.Our photogrammetry package includes different solutions for the orientation of the digital images. Different kinds of cameras (with fiducial marks, réseau cameras, non metric and digital cameras) can be used. The réseau crosses are measured automatically in the interior orientation. An area based correlation process allows semi-automatic measurements on the images. Various examples from different projects mainly based on small and medium format images are accessible via the world wide web on our servers located in Marseille and Strasbourg (France). Users can set-up their own projects by transferring their images, camera and control information on the ARPENTEUR servers from any place in the world connected on the Internet.The concept of running photogrammetric software on the Internet by a simple browser is extended by a new approach of architectural photogrammetry 3D modeling. The architectural survey is monitored by underlying geometrical models stemming from architectural knowledge. Image correlation, geometrical functions and photogrammetry data are combined to optimize the modeling process. The resulted 3D models can be visualized either on the internet-oriented VRML plug-ins,or inside the Microstation™ software package