I’m working on a project that involves capturing video or images from a camera mounted below a drone. The twist is that I can’t use a real drone just yet. Does anyone have suggestions on how to create images that resemble drone shots, ideally with GPS info for each frame? I’m looking for around 30 frames per second, but nothing too intense.
I’ve come across Google Earth Studio, but I’m unsure if it’s capable of this. Any other ideas or tools that might work for this?
To clarify, my goal is to generate lots of images (around 30 FPS) with the GPS coordinates tagged in (assuming the center of each image as the coordinate). The camera, in theory, would be mounted under the drone, capturing a downward view.
Teegan said:
How high do you need the camera to be? You could try using a long PVC pipe with a smartphone, since many of them can record GPS data with each photo.
I’m thinking around 20 meters high. Appreciate the suggestion, but I’d like to focus on something software-related for this project.
Skylar said: @Jai
Not really clear on what you’re asking for. Can you explain more?
My bad. What I want is to have a lot of images (around 30 per second) with each one having its GPS coordinates. Imagine a camera mounted under a drone, pointing straight down and capturing the ground below.
@Jai
Short of taking screenshots from Google Earth, I’m not sure how you could achieve this without actually using a drone. Google Earth’s resolution just won’t compare to a real drone at a lower altitude.
Maybe something like tying a phone to a kite or a balloon? But keeping it steady and properly oriented would be really tough, plus you’d always see the string.
Why not just invest in a used DJI Mini or the new DJI Mini 4K? They’re relatively affordable.
Jai said: @Skylar
What about Gazebo? Could I upload a Google Maps-based world there and then capture images with a simulated drone?
Oh, like this? (https://gazebosim.org/home) That’s quite a bit of setup! What’s the bigger picture of this project? Is it more about generating these images or is there a larger goal?
@Skylar
There’s a bigger goal here, but to get there, I need a huge amount of images with their GPS coordinates. Is there no other way to achieve that?
Jai said: @Skylar
There’s a bigger goal here, but to get there, I need a huge amount of images with their GPS coordinates. Is there no other way to achieve that?
It sounds like you’re aiming for a lot of tightly spaced images, right? Usually, real drones don’t use just video—they rely on photogrammetry or LIDAR data combined with GPS to build datasets.
Here are some ideas: you could use Google Earth to get images and then tag them with the in-built GPS data. If the resolution isn’t great, maybe try an AI upscaler or image enhancer to improve the quality.
I actually tried asking ChatGPT for ideas, and it came up with a few interesting ones:
Use Google Earth Studio, which you already mentioned.
Use a game engine like Unity or Unreal, which have plugins for exporting GPS-tagged frames. It’s a lot of work but seems doable.
Gazebo, which you also mentioned, could work.
You could look into QGIS or other GIS platforms that offer high-resolution aerial imagery with GPS data.
Jai said: @Skylar
There’s a bigger goal here, but to get there, I need a huge amount of images with their GPS coordinates. Is there no other way to achieve that?
Had another thought: there are open-access aerial image databases you might want to check out!
