In this post, I want to tell you about a paper that I co-authored with Kevin Hatala and Stephen Gatesy, which was published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. It’s called “Arched footprints preserve the motions of fossil hominin feet” and it’s about how we can use fossil footprints to learn about the way our ancient... Continue Reading →
[Photogrammetry] Meshroom 2023.1 released
I've had a keen eye on Alicevision Meshroom since it's first major release back in... 2018? Development of the open source photogrammetry software has felt slow for the past few years, but just this week a new release was pushed out, 2023.1.0. Here's the official new feature list: Release Notes Summary Major improvements of the... Continue Reading →
A.I. (well, machine learning) and Dinosaur tracks
It's a while since I've posted about new papers, so I'm going to have a series of posts catching up on 2022's papers. First up is Jens Lallensack's cool paper in Interface about using AI and machine learning to distinguish between theropod and ornithopod tracks. For those unfamiliar, ornithopod tracks and theropod tracks are both... Continue Reading →
[Academic Tech] Surface Laptop Studio with an eGPU – performance and review.
My last post compared the raw performance of my new Surface Laptop Studio (SLS) against my old Desktop and my wife’s M1 Macbook Pro. The results were not particularly exhilarating to say the least. The SLS was mostly ok when plugged in, holding it’s own against the MacBook Pro in simple rendering/photogrammetry, but losing out... Continue Reading →
[Academic Tech] Surface Laptop Studio vs m1 MacBook Pro (and vs 7 year-old desktop): photogrammetry and rendering
Ok, I've outlined in my previous post that the Surface Studio Laptop is a lovely device, and a potential candidate for replacing my aging desktop. So the question is, how well does it cope with the kind of workloads I have? Left, the Surface Laptop Pro. Middle - the monitor for my Desktop. Right, the... Continue Reading →
[Academic Tech] Surface Laptop Studio review/first thoughts (i7, 32GB, A2000)
My home desktop has been having some issues recently – crashes, general slowness here and there. I’ve mentioned the computer many times on my blog, and it’s what I’ve been using consistently for all my photogrammetry testing. I bought it from DinoPC, and I’ve nothing but good words to say about it – it’s been... Continue Reading →
[Academic Tech] Samsung Galaxy Fold 3
A few weeks ago, and with the upcoming Society of Experimental Biology annual meeting coming up, I decided to try out the Samsung Galaxy Fold 3. I was interested in a device I could use for taking notes on during talks, much as I have in the past with my Surface devices (mainly the Go... Continue Reading →
I’m A Reality Capture Convert.
Since I first started getting into Photogrammetry in a serious way, with my 2012 paper on using Bundler and PMVS, and throughout much of this blog’s life, I’ve been a massive proponent of free and open-source photogrammetry software. For years I used COLMAP, and then Meshroom. The latter was particularly good, offering a full pipeline... Continue Reading →
[Academic Tech] The Anycubic Photon Mono X resin-based 3D printer
As part of a teaching push, I was able to secure a new 3D printer for the lab, to produce specimens for practical sessions (on our Zoology and Animal Behaviour programmes). I actually got it at the start of semester, last September, but have been so busy with teaching I didn't get chance to give... Continue Reading →
[Academic Tech] Agisoft Metashape on the M1 Macbook Pro – impressive.
My wife recently upgraded her aging 2014 Macbook to a new 14" M1 Macbook Pro. Let me preface what I'm about to say with "I very much dislike MacOS and don't like using macs." Bear that in mind when I say I've never been more jealous of hardware. The MacBook Pro is beautiful, the screen... Continue Reading →