Public Lab Wiki documentation

This project has 2 parts to it the first part being an aerial photo mapping of a local invasive species (Water chestnut) at Lake Warner. This study has been previously done at this location so there is previous data to compare it with. But the idea is to use the public lab balloon mapping kit to get aerial footage of the lake and use a camera that's been adjusted to shoot in infra red to see where water chestnut is located throughout lake. Then upload these images into ArcGIS and georefrence it in order to map out and be able to find a measure of how much invasive water chestnut there is. Then possibly compare this to the older photos and see how much has changed over time and if it spreading rapidly.

The second portion to this project (which will actually be done before the invasive species mapping) is aerial mapping in the town of Amherst in an area that is under construction where they want to see where there could potential parking lot made for this apartment building.

So the steps that need to be taken currently are to 1. build the camera rig 2. figure out the amount of helium (and where to purchase it from) are needed for the balloons 3. fly the balloon over the area planned for construction and get aerial images 4. upload into ArcGIS and georefrence and mark out potential places where parking lots could be made 5.do the mapping process again at lake warner for invasive species 6. upload images and georefrence again and map out the invasive species throughout pond (possibly form of measurement) 7. Finish!

UPDATE: On Wednesday October 15th we had our first 'trial' run with our helium balloon and the DIY mapping! The weather was not exactly ideal but we were all still excited to finally get the balloon in the air [after much complications with actually getting helium to fill it]. A lot of students from the class came out to show support, help and just see this actual contraption go up! We started it out by first filling up the balloon with helium tank [since this was our first time we were unsure of how much helium it would need to lift the camera rig, we ended up having to go back and fill it a bit more after the initial fill up but hey that is all part of the learning process] after we got correct helium to lift the balloon it was time to attach the 3D printed camera rig with cameras [set to take photos every 7 seconds with 4 second intervals] to the balloon. We were a little unsure of how to do this at first and tried to follow what directions we had and ended up attaching in two spots which seemed to work well [most of this can all be seen in the many pictures I've uploaded documenting the steps]. After this we were set for the first trial and lift off of the balloon! And it worked! We we're just outside of Holdsworth on the UMass Campus but we got lift off [considering the weather] for a bit before we decided that maybe it is safer not to fly now and wait until the wind is well a little less windy...But since there was wind and we were already out there we decided to try out the kite. We went down to the fields near the Mullins center [they offered a little more space...and less of an obstacle of items to run into] we used the 9ft kite [the larger of the two] and attached the camera rig in a similar way as we did to balloon and took off. We found that as it was windy it was still a challenge to get the kite up there and did require a lot of space and heavier winds for the weight of the rig. It also may not be as an exact picture for the type of aerial footage we are looking for. But lots of fun to fly and see it all in action none the less.

This project has 2 parts to it the first part being an aerial photo mapping of a local invasive species (Water chestnut) at Lake Warner. This study has been previously done at this location so there is previous data to compare it with. But the idea is to use the public lab balloon mapping kit to get aerial footage of the lake and use a camera that's been adjusted to shoot in infra red to see where water chestnut is located throughout lake. Then upload these images into ArcGIS and georefrence it in order to map out and be able to find a measure of how much invasive water chestnut there is. Then possibly compare this to the older photos and see how much has changed over time and if it spreading rapidly.

The second portion to this project (which will actually be done before the invasive species mapping) is aerial mapping in the town of Amherst in an area that is under construction where they want to see where there could potential parking lot made for this apartment building.

So the steps that need to be taken currently are to 1. build the camera rig 2. figure out the amount of helium (and where to purchase it from) are needed for the balloons 3. fly the balloon over the area planned for construction and get aerial images 4. upload into ArcGIS and georefrence and mark out potential places where parking lots could be made 5.do the mapping process again at lake warner for invasive species 6. upload images and georefrence again and map out the invasive species throughout pond (possibly form of measurement) 7. Finish!

UPDATE: On Wednesday October 15th we had our first 'trial' run with our helium balloon and the DIY mapping! The weather was not exactly ideal but we were all still excited to finally get the balloon in the air [after much complications with actually getting helium to fill it]. A lot of students from the class came out to show support, help and just see this actual contraption go up! We started it out by first filling up the balloon with helium tank [since this was our first time we were unsure of how much helium it would need to lift the camera rig, we ended up having to go back and fill it a bit more after the initial fill up but hey that is all part of the learning process] after we got correct helium to lift the balloon it was time to attach the 3D printed camera rig with cameras [set to take photos every 7 seconds with 4 second intervals] to the balloon. We were a little unsure of how to do this at first and tried to follow what directions we had and ended up attaching in two spots which seemed to work well [most of this can all be seen in the many pictures I've uploaded documenting the steps]. After this we were set for the first trial and lift off of the balloon! And it worked! We we're just outside of Holdsworth on the UMass Campus but we got lift off [considering the weather] for a bit before we decided that maybe it is safer not to fly now and wait until the wind is well a little less windy...But since there was wind and we were already out there we decided to try out the kite. We went down to the fields near the Mullins center [they offered a little more space...and less of an obstacle of items to run into] we used the 9ft kite [the larger of the two] and attached the camera rig in a similar way as we did to balloon and took off. We found that as it was windy it was still a challenge to get the kite up there and did require a lot of space and heavier winds for the weight of the rig. It also may not be as an exact picture for the type of aerial footage we are looking for. But lots of fun to fly and see it all in action none the less.

This project has 2 parts to it the first part being an aerial photo mapping of a local invasive species (Water chestnut) at Lake Warner. This study has been previously done at this location so there is previous data to compare it with. But the idea is to use the public lab balloon mapping kit to get aerial footage of the lake and use a camera that's been adjusted to shoot in infra red to see where water chestnut is located throughout lake. Then upload these images into ArcGIS and georefrence it in order to map out and be able to find a measure of how much invasive water chestnut there is. Then possibly compare this to the older photos and see how much has changed over time and if it spreading rapidly.

The second portion to this project (which will actually be done before the invasive species mapping) is aerial mapping in the town of Amherst in an area that is under construction where they want to see where there could potential parking lot made for this apartment building.

So the steps that need to be taken currently are to 1. build the camera rig 2. figure out the amount of helium (and where to purchase it from) are needed for the balloons 3. fly the balloon over the area planned for construction and get aerial images 4. upload into ArcGIS and georefrence and mark out potential places where parking lots could be made 5.do the mapping process again at lake warner for invasive species 6. upload images and georefrence again and map out the invasive species throughout pond (possibly form of measurement) 7. Finish!

UPDATE: On Wednesday October 15th we had our first 'trial' run with our helium balloon and the DIY mapping! The weather was not exactly ideal but we were all still excited to finally get the balloon in the air [after much complications with actually getting helium to fill it]. A lot of students from the class came out to show support, help and just see this actual contraption go up! We started it out by first filling up the balloon with helium tank [since this was our first time we were unsure of how much helium it would need to lift the camera rig, we ended up having to go back and fill it a bit more after the initial fill up but hey that is all part of the learning process] after we got correct helium to lift the balloon it was time to attach the 3D printed camera rig with cameras [set to take photos every 7 seconds with 4 second intervals] to the balloon. We were a little unsure of how to do this at first and tried to follow what directions we had and ended up attaching in two spots which seemed to work well [most of this can all be seen in the many pictures I've uploaded documenting the steps]. After this we were set for the first trial and lift off of the balloon! And it worked! We we're just outside of Holdsworth on the UMass Campus but we got lift off [considering the weather] for a bit before we decided that maybe it is safer not to fly now and wait until the wind is well a little less windy...But since there was wind and we were already out there we decided to try out the kite. We went down to the fields near the Mullins center [they offered a little more space...and less of an obstacle of items to run into] we used the 9ft kite [the larger of the two] and attached the camera rig in a similar way as we did to balloon and took off. We found that as it was windy it was still a challenge to get the kite up there and did require a lot of space and heavier winds for the weight of the rig. It also may not be as an exact picture for the type of aerial footage we are looking for. But lots of fun to fly and see it all in action none the less.

This project has 2 parts to it the first part being an aerial photo mapping of a local invasive species (Water chestnut) at Lake Warner. This study has been previously done at this location so there is previous data to compare it with. But the idea is to use the public lab balloon mapping kit to get aerial footage of the lake and use a camera that's been adjusted to shoot in infra red to see where water chestnut is located throughout lake. Then upload these images into ArcGIS and georefrence it in order to map out and be able to find a measure of how much invasive water chestnut there is. Then possibly compare this to the older photos and see how much has changed over time and if it spreading rapidly.

The second portion to this project (which will actually be done before the invasive species mapping) is aerial mapping in the town of Amherst in an area that is under construction where they want to see where there could potential parking lot made for this apartment building.

So the steps that need to be taken currently are to 1. build the camera rig 2. figure out the amount of helium (and where to purchase it from) are needed for the balloons 3. fly the balloon over the area planned for construction and get aerial images 4. upload into ArcGIS and georefrence and mark out potential places where parking lots could be made 5.do the mapping process again at lake warner for invasive species 6. upload images and georefrence again and map out the invasive species throughout pond (possibly form of measurement) 7. Finish!

UPDATE: On Wednesday October 15th we had our first 'trial' run with our helium balloon and the DIY mapping! The weather was not exactly ideal but we were all still excited to finally get the balloon in the air [after much complications with actually getting helium to fill it]. A lot of students from the class came out to show support, help and just see this actual contraption go up! We started it out by first filling up the balloon with helium tank [since this was our first time we were unsure of how much helium it would need to lift the camera rig, we ended up having to go back and fill it a bit more after the initial fill up but hey that is all part of the learning process] after we got correct helium to lift the balloon it was time to attach the 3D printed camera rig with cameras [set to take photos every 7 seconds with 4 second intervals] to the balloon. We were a little unsure of how to do this at first and tried to follow what directions we had and ended up attaching in two spots which seemed to work well [most of this can all be seen in the many pictures I've uploaded documenting the steps]. After this we were set for the first trial and lift off of the balloon! And it worked! We we're just outside of Holdsworth on the UMass Campus but we got lift off [considering the weather] for a bit before we decided that maybe it is safer not to fly now and wait until the wind is well a little less windy...But since there was wind and we were already out there we decided to try out the kite.

This project has 2 parts to it the first part being an aerial photo mapping of a local invasive species (Water chestnut) at Lake Warner. This study has been previously done at this location so there is previous data to compare it with. But the idea is to use the public lab balloon mapping kit to get aerial footage of the lake and use a camera that's been adjusted to shoot in infra red to see where water chestnut is located throughout lake. Then upload these images into ArcGIS and georefrence it in order to map out and be able to find a measure of how much invasive water chestnut there is. Then possibly compare this to the older photos and see how much has changed over time and if it spreading rapidly.

The second portion to this project (which will actually be done before the invasive species mapping) is aerial mapping in the town of Amherst in an area that is under construction where they want to see where there could potential parking lot made for this apartment building.

So the steps that need to be taken currently are to 1. build the camera rig 2. figure out the amount of helium (and where to purchase it from) are needed for the balloons 3. fly the balloon over the area planned for construction and get aerial images 4. upload into ArcGIS and georefrence and mark out potential places where parking lots could be made 5.do the mapping process again at lake warner for invasive species 6. upload images and georefrence again and map out the invasive species throughout pond (possibly form of measurement) 7. Finish!

This project has 2 parts to it the first part being an aerial photo mapping of a local invasive species (Water chestnut) at Lake Warner. This study has been previously done at this location so there is previous data to compare it with. But the idea is to use the public lab balloon mapping kit to get aerial footage of the lake and use a camera that's been adjusted to shoot in infra red to see where water chestnut is located throughout lake. Then upload these images into ArcGIS and georefrence it in order to map out and be able to find a measure of how much invasive water chestnut there is. Then possibly compare this to the older photos and see how much has changed over time and if it spreading rapidly.

The second portion to this project (which will actually be done before the invasive species mapping) is aerial mapping in the town of Amherst in an area that is under construction where they want to see where there could potential parking lot made for this apartment building.

This project has 2 parts to it the first part being an aerial photo mapping of a local invasive species (Water chestnut) at Lake Warner. This study has been previously done at this location so there is previous data to compare it with. But the idea is to use the public lab balloon mapping kit to get aerial footage of the lake and use a camera that's been adjusted to shoot in infra red to see where water chestnut is located throughout lake. Then upload these images into ArcGIS and georefrence it in order to map out and be able to find a measure of how much invasive water chestnut there is. Then possibly compare this to the older photos and see how much has changed over time and if it spreading rapidly.

The second portion to this project (which will actually be done before the invasive species mapping) is aerial mapping in the town of Amherst in an area that is under construction where they want to see where there could potential parking lot made for this apartment building.