Christ the Redeemer, a 30 meter (98ft) tall statue of Jesus Christ overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro, has been completely 3D scanned by a drone.
Software company Pix4D and NEXT Lab of PUC University in Rio de Janeiro have cooperated to create an exact replica of the statue. The quadcopter from Canadian drone manufacturer Aeryon Labs circled the statue 19 times in six days, collection a total of 3,584 images during flights each 10 minutes long. Located at the peak of the 700 metre high Corcovado mountain, the symbol of Brazilian Christianity had never been completely scanned before due to it’s size and location.
“Creating the first ever accurate 3D model of such a renowned statue with our software is a great way to showcase how image processing technology can achieve results that traditional technologies haven’t been able to produce,” said Christoph Strecha, CEO and Founder of Pix4D. “With its intricate detail, the statue was also a perfect structure to test out our new 3D textured mesh.”
“This project took years of waiting by the NEXT Lab team and many months of planning and collaboration across several time zones to pull the technologies together in Rio,” commented Dave Kroetsch, Aeryon’s President and CEO. “We are pleased to have participated and that the Aeryon UAV platform was instrumental in creating the first accurate 3D model of the Christ the Redeemer monument.”
You can now view the model created by Pix4D on Sketchfab.
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