THE EFFECT OF JPEG COMPRESSION IN CLOSE RANGE PHOTOGRAMMETRY

Digital photogrammetry, using digital camera images, is an important low-cost engineering method to produce precise three-dimensional model of either an object or the part of the earth depending on the image quality. Photogrammetry which is cheaper and more practical than the new technologies such as LIDAR, has increased point cloud generation capacity during the past decade with contributions of computer vision. Images of new camera technologies needs huge storage space due to larger image file sizes. Moreover, this enormousness increases image process time during extraction, orientation and dense matching. The Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) is one of the most commonly used methods as lossy compression standard for the storage purposes of the oversized image file. Particularly, image compression at different rates causes image deteriorations during the processing period. Therefore, the compression rates affect accuracy of photogrammetric measurements. In this study, the close range images compressed at the different levels were investigated to define the compression effect on photogrammetric results, such as orientation parameters and 3D point cloud. The outcomes of this study show that lower compression ratios are acceptable in photogrammetric process when moderate accuracy is sufficient.