Pix4D showcased the company’s vision for the future of the photogrammetry software industry at this year’s Intergeo by launching new enterprise and higher education solutions, as well as adding new features to its software. These solutions are designed to encompass the entire data workflow and allow users to create a complete solution which utilizes hardware and software to solve problems.

We’ve talked with Pix4D about what it means to use the software to make sense of your drone data, but the company has taken that concept to a whole new level with their annoucement of Pix4Dmapper 4.0 newest feature: machine-learning point cloud classification. Through trained algorithms based on geometry, Pix4Dmapper is now capable of classifying different objects in 3D point cloud models automatically. This means the software can adapt to many topics, such as in extracting bare-earth terrain by excluding above-ground objects; ignoring vegetations on top of a stockpile for more accurate volume measurement; or preventing electricity outage by vegetation growth control.

At the Pix4D booth during INTERGEO 2017

“As of today, professionals will use the new machine learning based point classification mainly to automatically generate digital terrain models (DTMs),” said Christoph Strecha, CEO and Founder Pix4D. “In the near future, point classification also forms the basis to extract buildings and model them as a semantic composition of geometry elements as roof, facade, windows, doors and balconies for example. Our growing R&D teams in Lausanne, Berlin and San Francisco are dedicated to this challenge.”

Following up this release, Pix4D also opened the possibility for users to enroll in the company’s new user certification program. Since Pix4D’s workshops are so popular within the Pix4D network - with 59 workshops organized and 2,000 professionals trained around the world last year, which doesn’t include a user workshop at the upcoming Commercial UAV Expo - the company decided to put its training experience in place to create this program.

The program consists of a series of five online labs covering the fundamentals of Pix4Dmapper software, followed by an online based certification exam made up of a submitted and then evaluated project, and a series of multiple choice questions. The cost to become Pix4D certified is 199 CHF/EUR/USD.

“Pix4DDmapper Fundamentals is just the beginning, our goal is to create an industry-recognized standard for Pix4D software expertise as we see more and more jobs proposals requiring Pix4D software knowledge”, continues Ana Soares, Customer Success Manager. “We'll build on that with the hope not only to certify knowledge but also to create an inner circle of advanced users who can help us build better products.”

Additionally, Pix4D created a new enterprise solution for professionals to integrate drone mapping in their operations and build their own drone-based data applications. Pix4Dengine lets you use drone mapping and image processing at scale in your operations and automate your workflows. It’s customizable, scalable, and flexible and lets you collect and analyze valuable business data faster.

”Today’s leading organizations are using big data and machine learning-based tools to automate their decision processes,” says Matthieu Lefebvre, Enterprise Solutions Manager at Pix4D. “The Pix4Dengine is our contribution to these tools in order to deliver high quality mapping data with large automation and scalability. With our Enterprise solutions, Pix4D is committed to empower, help and support these organizations from any industry with integrating drone-based data into their operations”.

Furthermore, since it is becoming common to see drone courses everywhere, including schools, colleges, and universities, Pix4D extended the company’s payment plans for undergraduate and graduate students to learn how to manage massive amounts of drone imagery and data.

“We have been amazed watching our academic users teaching photogrammetry with drones and Pix4Dmapper," says Lorenzo Martelletti, Pix4D's Director of Sales and Marketing. "As per their request, we now wish to make it easy and affordable enrolling students in the many drone courses that are flourishing everywhere in the world.”

These tools in addition to further developments for tools like Pix4Dbim, which can include a crane camera for 3D mapping, are perfect illustrations of how the software is changing the way professionals utilize data, regardless of where or how it’s captured.