Palaeobiology, locomotion & fossil footprints — using 3D imaging, AI, and robotics
My last post was about trying out Bazzite. I'd installed it to an external SSD and gave it a good go for a few days as my main OS. It was a bit of a faff, needing to carry around the SSD with the laptop when I moved about, so I finally put on my... Continue Reading →
Even though I spend most of my time on mastodon baiting Linux users, I actually have been keeping a serious eye on Linux for a while. I like Windows 11 for the most part; I have it setup nicely with Windhawk, RayCast, and FilePilot such that it works very well for me. Launching and using... Continue Reading →
[note May '26 - this post is a bit out of date now. By far the easiest way forward is to install LM studio and run your models there. Hook them up to VS code with the 'Continue' add on, or install opencode, as I've detailed in this post.] I've found VC Code copilot to... Continue Reading →
As I’d previously noted, RealityCapture has been re-branded to RealityScan, to align branding across desktop and mobile applications. With the rebrand come some major new changes: AI Masking Smarter Alignment Aeriel LiDAR Support Quality Analysis To install it, you need to fire up Epic Games Launcher, then I had to wait a while until the... Continue Reading →
Despite having a terabyte of OneDrive storage (which I've been enjoying for years, though I'm starting to look at Proton as an alternative - that's for another post), it's very nearly full, and a big portion of that is photos: normal snaps of holidays, family, and so forth, but also hundreds and hundreds of gigs... Continue Reading →
Whilst my academic career started with EndNote, I’ve been a purely Zotero user for several years now. I find Zotero to have a nicer interface, as well as being faster and more extensible than EndNote. Plus, biggest benefit of all – it’s free! Zotero looks far more modern than Endnote, and is generally faster in... Continue Reading →
I’ve had multiple emails now from different people working at US government agencies – Agisoft Metashape is no longer available nor allowed because it’s made by a Russian company. Below, I’ll provide a run through of Reality Capture as it stands today. The main competitor to Metashape is Reality Capture, now owned by Epic Games. ... Continue Reading →
[FYI - This post is mainly just for me to keep track of my venting] The time has finally come - Mail and Calendar, my favourite email application in a long time, has now been completely replaced by 'new' Outlook, and my attempts to revert are met by an instant reinstallation of the naff new... Continue Reading →
I tried installing linux again. Got frustrated, went back to windows.
I experimented with macro photogrammetry using a small fossil and a Nikon Z8 camera with MC105 VR S lens. I used focus-shift and focus-stack with shallow depth of field. Reality Capture produced a good model from the focus-stacked images, but using the lens at f51 also yielded a great result. Both methods have their benefits.
