Michael Gruber
Chief Scientist, Ultracam
Microsoft
Germany

Biography
Michael Gruber was born in 1959 in Carinthia in Austria. He got his Abitur in 1977 from the Bundesrealgymnasium in Klagenfurt and joined the Austrian Army after that until September 1978. From then he studied Surveying and Photogrammetry at the Technical University Graz (degree in 1990) and from 1984 - 1990 he was employed at the Institute for Image Processing and Computer Graphics of Joanneum Research, where he was responsible for projects in Close Range Photogrammetry and Analytical Photogrammetry. From 1990 -1992 he was on the staff of the Department of Remote Sensing, Image Processing and Cartography of the Technical University Graz. After a short period in a private mapping company he joined the Institute for Computer Graphics of the Technical University of Graz to lead the working group for 3D Object Reconstruction. He was responsible for several student lectures at the School of Information Engineering as well as for the supervision of student projects and diploma theses projects. In 1997 he got his PhD degree from the Technical University of Graz. From October 1999 to May 2006 Michael Gruber is full time staff of Vexcel Imaging Austria. He was responsible for all photogrammetric issues (Chief Scientist Photogrammetry) at Vexcel. In May 2006 Vexcel was acquired by Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA. Since then Michael Gruber is full time employee at Microsoft. He is still responsibility for all photogrammetric issues at the Graz office of Microsoft. Michael Gruber holds several US patents for developments in digital photogrammetry, among them the basic concept of the digital aerial camera family UltraCam.

Abstract
Oblique Aerial Image Collection - The New Hype in Photogrammetry

Oblique images are collected from airborne platforms since rather a long time. There are camera products available and have been presented from well known camera vendors. The UltraCam Osprey is the oblique sensor by Microsoft / UltraCam Business Unit and was introduced into the market at the ASPRS 2013. A newer version of this oblique sensor was recently presented. These cameras combine a metric nadir subsystem which creates one panchromatic high resolution image, one true-color RGB image, one near-infrared image and oblique true-color images taken at an off-nadir angle of 45 degrees. This specific camera design supports exceptional productivity and quality during acquisition and processing. Camera specification parameters as well as results from aero-triangulation, DSM production, and oblique image processing are presented in this article.