PromptScan: Safeguarding Valuable Aerial Film Archives

Aerial films are the only authoritative country-wide record of our changing world, and they often go back 100 years. Safeguarding the historical film archives is crucial heritage. The information in the films can help us understand what happened, where, and how things have changed and determine trends to predict the future and act with authority better. Many aerial film archives are still locked away as analogue films and are inaccessible. The issues are compounded by the fact that the films are deteriorating, are expensive to store and maintain, and understandably, due to their heritage values, it is typically illegal to dispose of them unless scanned. Many aerial film archives have not been scanned as using conventional film scanners. It would have taken years or decades, and the cost was prohibitively high. 

PromptScan is a photogrammetric aerial film scanner that enables fast and accurate high-resolution scanning of aerial films. Aerial film archives can now be scanned 50x faster than conventional film scanners and at a significantly reduced cost.

At GeoDyn, we understand the challenges faced by organizations in preserving their invaluable archives while balancing time and cost constraints. PromptScan photogrammetric aerial film scanners can scan aerial films at a speed of 3 seconds per frame with a resolution of 12.5um, full dynamic range, and system accuracy of 2um r.m.s.e. Now, aerial film archives can be quickly converted to retain the full information content and make this information accessible. 

One of PromptScan's key advantages is its flexibility in supporting various types of aerial films, whether they be panchromatic, color, cutout frames, or contact prints. We recommend you use existing personnel resources for the scanning operations; alternatively, GeoDyn can provide the full conversion services. By leasing the hardware and software and providing comprehensive training, we allow you to take control of your digitization process, thereby reducing costs and maximizing efficiency.

PromptScan processes are highly automated, ensuring rapid digitization of aerial films with minimal operator intervention, delivering high-quality photogrammetrically accurate images with the full dynamic range. GeoDyn also provides efficient PromptGeoRef services to help you efficiently georeference, triangulate, and orthorectify your imagery to make it quickly accessible for visualization and analysis.

At GeoDyn, we help you preserve your country’s history and heritage for generations to come and gain the total value of your aerial film archives. Contact us today at [email protected] and visit us at www.geodyn.com to learn more about how PromptScan services can assist in your historical aerial archival processes.