In-camera IMU angular data for orthophoto projection in underwater photogrammetry

Among photogrammetric products, orthophotos are probably the most versatile and widely used in many fields of application. In the last years, coupled with the spread of semi-automated survey and processing approaches based on photogrammetry, orthophotos have become almost a standard for monitoring the underwater environment. If on land the definition of the reference coordinate system and projection plane for the orthophoto generation is trivial, underwater it may represent a challenge. In this paper, we address the issue of defining the vertical direction and resulting horizontal plane (levelling) for the differential ortho rectification. We propose a non-invasive, contactless method based on roll and pitch angular data provided by in-camera IMU sensors and embedded in the Exif metadata of JPEG and raw image files. We show how our approach can be seamlessly integrated into automatic SfM/MVS pipelines, provide the mathematical background, and showcase real-world applications results in an underwater monitoring project. The results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and, for the first time, provide a metric evaluation of the definition of the vertical direction with low-cost sensors enclosed in digital cameras directly underwater.