Measuring Distance By SmartPhone
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Staten Island, NY Posted: 1/28/2015 1:00:00 AM
Don't have a long tape measure? Use your SmartPhone.
If you've ever seen a professional surveyor at work, one of the things that will stand out is that for many of their measurements, they don't actually use a tape measure. They do most of their measurements optically, and with amazing precision.
The science is pretty simple. The further away something is, the smaller it appears. So, if you know the exact length of any object, and you know the exact strength of the lens, and you view it (or photograph it) from a distance, you can calculate exactly how far it is away from you.
So a professional surveyor aiming a standardized scope at a standardized target, such as a pole with markings can calculate exact measurements without the need for a tape measure. In fact, using this method is far more accurate, because it lets them measure vast distances that would be distorted by hills and irregular surfaces... not to mention over lakes or other obstacles.
So, it stands to reason that an App could measure the distance of any object by letting you calibrate it using any object that you know the size of by counting the pixels in any given direction. So, if you know your fence is 6 feet tall, you should be able to measure how far you are from it at any distance. For golf players, knowing the pole is 7 feet tall is all you would need to know exactly how far you are. There are already scopes that do this, and they are reliable only when the flagstick is 7 feet tall.
Unlike using a golf scope, an App would allow you to calibrate it by using ANY object.
For example, you could photograph an 8.5x11 paper, or even a can of soda, say it's 5.5 inches, then hold the can 47 feet away and it should be able to calculate how far you are from it. For longer distances you may need larger objects, or even let the camera zoom in, and re-calculate based upon the zoom. So, if you zoom in 4x, it just multiplies the result by 4.
What's nice about this is it could work in real-time, or even after the fact. So you could photograph somebody holding a baseball bat from 75 feet away, then enter the length of the bat when you get home and you'll still get an accurate measurement.
Joe Crescenzi, Founder
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