computer science

Pix4D

Pix4D is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Pix4D rather than just read about it. In short: Pix4D is a Swiss software company that specializes in terrestrial and drone photogrammetry mapping software. It was founded in 2011 as a spinoff from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Computer Vision Lab in Switzerland.

Key takeaways

Pix4D belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Pix4D to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Pix4D from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Pix4D is a Swiss software company that specializes in terrestrial and drone photogrammetry mapping software. It was founded in 2011 as a spinoff from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Computer Vision Lab in Switzerland. It develops a suite of software products that use photogrammetry and computer vision algorithms to transform DSLR, fisheye, RGB, thermal and multispectral images into 2D maps and 3D modeling. The company has 7 international offices, with its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Pix4D's suite of products includes PIX4Dmapper, PIX4Dfields, PIX4Dcloud, PIX4Dreact, PIX4Dsurvey, PIX4Dcatch, PIX4Dmatic, and PIX4Dengine. Its software lines operate on desktop, cloud, and mobile platforms. PIX4Dmapper has been used to map the Matterhorn mountain in Switzerland, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil and also the 2018 lower Puna eruption in Hawaii island. Pix4D software uses imagery captured with drones, mobile devices, or planes to recreate scenes in 2D and 3D.

10 year anniversary & rebranding In June 2021, Pix4D celebrated its 10-year anniversary. To commemorate the event, Pix4D updated its logo and website styling. The rebranding involved new styles for the logo font and color scheme, as well as updated style formats for product names and color schemes.

Pix4D User Conference Pix4D launched its first User Conference in 2019. The event was held in October 2019 in Denver, Colorado. It was attended by over 250 people and hosted at the McNichols Civic Center Building. Pix4D announced two new products at the event: PIX4Dreact and PIX4Dsurvey. Apart from keynote speeches by Pix4D staff members, there were also guest presentations by visitors. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, no event took place in 2020. In 2021, Pix4D launched a User Conference called "From the Ground Up". The conference was live for 24 hours and included 40 sessions broadcast in 4 languages - English, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese. The event consisted of Pix4D product presentations, user keynote talks to demonstrate how people were using Pix4D software, and a Speed Quiz with the Pix4D Training Team. In 2022, Pix4D hosted 2 User Conference events - 1 in Tokyo and 1 in Denver, Colorado. The structure was similar to the 2019 event.

Languages Pix4D's website is available in multiple languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese. The software is constantly being updated into a wide variety of languages

Industries The major industries that Pix4D software is used, are:

Aerial survey Agriculture and Precision agriculture Construction Cultural heritage Education Energy Engineering Mapping Government Insurance Inspection Surveying Military Mining Public safety and Emergency respond Research Humanitarian aid and Development aid Natural resources and Environment Real estate Virtual reality (VR)

References

Further reading Jonathan L. Carrivick, Mark W. Smith, Duncan J. Quincey (2016) Structure from Motion in the Geosciences, Wiley. p. 81 Eric Cheng (2015), Aerial Photography and Videography Using Drones, Peachpit Press. Antonio M. López, Atsushi Imiya, Tomas Pajdla, Jose M. Álvarez (2017), Computer Vision in Vehicle Technology: Land, Sea, and Air, John Wiley & Sons.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pix4D

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pix4D claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Pix4D before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Pix4D ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Pix4D

In research: Pix4D appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Pix4D in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Pix4D is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 3D graphics software, Computer-aided design software, Photogrammetry software, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pix4D outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Pix4D in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pix4D means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Pix4D out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pix4D in simple terms?

Why does Pix4D matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Pix4D?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Pix4D.