References and Achievements

On 2 September 2009, between 16:43 and 17:04, we created a perfectly exposed, seamless 1.8 cm spatial resolution orthophoto mosaic of the Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden from 272 images captured with the IS 1 measuring camera onboard a fixed wing aircraft under low light conditions. The processing of the imagery also required the development of dedicated software, as conventional photogrammetric software solutions at that time were still designed to operate with different image scale parameters.

From 2008 onwards, the Environmental Protection and Water Management Research Institute was gradually dismantled, where ARGOS Studio had operated as the remote sensing department. Since 1972, the national organisation responsible for aerial remote sensing in nature conservation and water management had provided its partners with airborne survey products under various names throughout its history.

In two days, we captured aerial imagery of all roundabouts established in Hungary between 2008 and 2010 from a fixed wing aircraft.

The Interspect IS3 was the first calibrated multispectral measuring camera designed and manufactured in Hungary, featuring RGB, NIR1, NIR2, and NIR3 channels.

Commissioned by the Water Damage Prevention Authority, we produced an orthophoto mosaic, a digital surface model, and a flood inundation model of the affected area using the first Hungarian manufactured multispectral airborne measuring camera, with ground resolutions of 6 and 20 cm. The 3D surface models and maps created by Interspect not only accurately delineated the extent of the inundation but also served as a foundation for restoration and remediation efforts.

We became the official Central European distributors of Agisoft software products, and during the development of PhotoScan (now Metashape), the company integrated several code contributions proposed by Zsolt Molnár and Gábor Bakó into the software. In addition to products from Blue Marble Geographics and Agisoft, we supplied the police, the defence forces, universities, and companies with our own software solutions.

Using the uniform 36 MP RGB + NIR1 + NIR2 + UV spectral channels of the Interspect IS 4 high-resolution multispectral aerial mapping camera, motion-blur-free orthophoto mosaics with a ground sample distance of up to 5 mm can be generated at a ground speed of up to 180 km/h.

The orthophoto mosaic depicting the Pákozd Military Memorial Park achieved a 0.5 cm spatial resolution. No one had previously achieved this level of detail from a fast moving aircraft over such a large area while producing a productive, seamlessly extendable photomosaic. The new procedure enabled four times higher ground resolution than the previous airborne imaging record, while maintaining high density orthophoto quality with an RMSE accuracy of 6 cm.

Presentation and practical application of the internally developed octocopter equipped with the Interspect IS U3.1 multispectral spatial camera, as well as the INTERSPECT IS U2.1 5 MP NDVI camera designed for unmanned aerial vehicles and agricultural machinery.

Following the restoration, digitisation, and cataloguing of the glass negatives stored in the Map Collection of the Military History Institute, we continued the project with the Danube river engineering aerial photography map series, vertical aerial imagery of Upper Hungary and Transylvania, and the digitisation of further archival aerial photographs. In February 2014, we published the first digital aerial photography archive (legifelvetelarchivum.hu), which contained not only 25,000 aerial image maps produced between 1916 and 2014 and made available for digital download, but also oblique aerial photographs, water management archives, and aviation history imagery. Thirteen contemporary aerial photographers joined the initiative, enabling extensive coverage of Hungary.

Using our in-house developed aerial thermal mapping camera, we located the underwater thermal springs along the Budapest section of the Danube. During the night flight, a high sensitivity (ISO 36,000) RGB orthophoto mosaic was also produced simultaneously with the thermal imagery, ensuring the geometric accuracy of the jointly processed thermal map. First official publication: Bakó G., Molnár Zs., Páll-Somogyi K., et al. Surveying the drowned springs of the former Fürdő Island in the Danube by high resolution airborne remote sensing. J Environ Geol. 2020;4(1):1-6.

In Hungary, Interspect Ltd. was the first company to perform the remote sensing, geodetic, and geoinformatics tasks of eTOD (Electronic Terrain and Obstacle Data Collection) as defined by ICAO Annex 15.

We acquired and georeferenced the CORONA reconnaissance satellite imagery recorded on film in the 1960s, creating and making publicly available Hungary’s 2.5 m ground resolution historical photomap from the 1960s. Eleven specialists from our 12 person company worked on the project for six months. CORONA was the United States’ first reconnaissance satellite programme. The exposed film images were recovered by aircraft after re-entering the atmosphere. The Interspect Ltd. team processed the imagery, which had remained classified by the CIA until 1995, within six months and transferred the dataset to Arcanum Database Ltd. for free public access. As a result, Hungary’s landscape as it appeared in the 1960s became freely accessible and searchable for everyone.

The Interspect IS 5 combines the advantages of high-resolution multispectral, hyperspectral, and penta mapping cameras. Out of its seven 50 MP camera heads, motion-blur-free orthophoto mosaics with a ground sample distance of up to 4 mm can be generated using the downward-facing RGB + NIR1 + NIR2 + UV spectral channels at a terrain-relative flight speed of up to 180 km/h, while the geometric quality of the 3D model is ensured by 20-degree tilted cameras, and hyperspectral data collection is provided by a diode sensor.

We develop the network to support the monitoring of ecosystem services provided by natural and landscape values, near natural and anthropogenic areas, to improve the understanding of the impacts, temporal dynamics, and spatial distribution of harmful processes, to analyse the effectiveness of management interventions, and to support sustainability assessments of agricultural areas and model farms.

In cooperation with Greenpeace Hungary (the “Our Poisoned Heritage” initiative, which aims to identify and document contaminated sites in Hungary and promote the implementation of necessary remediation measures) and the Ministry of Agriculture, we mapped the areas affected by contamination based on available data, satellite imagery, and aerial photographs.

Based on the photogrammetric and visual interpretation reconstruction of archival glass negatives, we generated milling paths for the restoration of the numerous wooden decorative elements of the ceremonial hall, which was destroyed by fire during the Second World War.

The Interspect Walker fixed wing UAS, developed for high speed passive optical aerial surveys, was first presented at the FJD demonstration day.

Using our own methodology, we surveyed the most important technical elements required for industrial railway infrastructure assessment and database integration, combining airborne and terrestrial measurements. We were commissioned for Phase 3 of the VIKI project to localise the designated railway tracks and perform geometric verification. We produced high resolution orthophoto mosaics of the track surroundings, as well as vector based geospatial maps of static railway technical installations, rail lines, and related observations (such as vegetation coverage, buried rails, and other relevant conditions) suitable for integration into geographic information systems. The generated data were also implemented in RINF XML format. Aerial video recordings were captured for every surveyed section.

The Interspect Group is a member of the Szeged Water Guardians group, both as a supporter and an active participant. We are proud of the successful water retention initiatives implemented in Kiskundorozsma.

In 2024–2025, at the request of the experts of HNPI, we developed a methodology for the automated detection and mapping of blind mole rat mound chains, as well as a survey methodology for the collection of environmental data and the integrated analysis of vegetation, land cover, land use, exposure, water affected areas, and drying surfaces.