DepthWizard - Single-View Height Estimation and 3D Flythrough
Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) · Miscellaneous · Software
Well-scoped with free data and a memorable flythrough demo, and strong depth backbones give you a real starting point — invest in the metric anchoring and be honest about single-view height accuracy, because that is exactly where an ISRO judge will check your metres.
Data: Any open high-resolution remote-sensing dataset
What it actually is
Elevation models normally come from stereo pairs, LiDAR or radar, which are costly and sensor-dependent. Estimating height from a single image is cheaper but monocular depth models predict relative depth and are trained on ordinary photos, not satellite views. The ask is a pipeline that turns a single overhead RGB image into an elevation map — relative for plain images, absolute metric height for georeferenced ones — and lets you fly through it in 3D.
What to build
An end-to-end pipeline that takes a single overhead RGB image and produces an elevation surface: for a plain non-georeferenced PNG or JPG, a relative digital surface model; for a georeferenced GeoTIFF, an absolute metric DSM, obtained by using a pre-trained monocular depth backbone for the initial relative depth and then anchoring it to metric elevation using a coarse DEM source like SRTM or a few ground control points to resolve absolute scale, followed by a real-time interactive 3D flythrough of the reconstructed surface for visualisation and navigation.
Smallest thing that wins the room
Feed a georeferenced satellite image of an urban area, produce an absolute DSM anchored to SRTM, show building heights reading in metres against known references, then launch the interactive 3D flythrough over the reconstructed terrain and structures.
How crowded this one gets
A guess, projected from the 2025 statements — the last year where both the submission counts and the winners were published.
Quieter than 34% of the 226 · #150 of 226 by expected field
A normal-sized field. Your idea has to be good, not miraculous.
Why: defence, intelligence and space bodies drew small fields.
This is a guess, not a fact
Nobody has published 2026’s numbers yet. This is an analysed estimate from last year’s pattern, so please do not take it as the truth — check the live counter on the SIH portal before you decide anything. The range covers the middle half of likely outcomes, so one statement in two lands outside it. Entry closes at 500 ideas per statement, so no range goes past that — a statement that reaches the cap fills and shuts rather than drawing an unlimited crowd. The model reads only three things a team can see before choosing — software or hardware, the theme, and what kind of body posted it — and those explain about a quarter of the variation in last year’s field sizes (R² 0.25 on held-out statements). Trust the band more than the number, and the ordering more than either. It cannot see how good your idea is, which is the part that actually decides it.
The scores
The number is the shorthand. The line under it is the reason.
Acceptance potential
4/5A strong pick — the data is free, the pipeline is well-scoped with SRTM handed to you for anchoring, and the flythrough is a memorable demo, though the honest weak point is metric accuracy of single-view building heights, which an ISRO judge will test against known references.
Feasibility
3/5Strong pre-trained monocular depth backbones exist and SRTM is freely available for the metric anchoring, but monocular depth on overhead imagery faces a real domain gap from models trained on egocentric photos, and converting relative depth to accurate absolute building heights from a single view is genuinely hard, so metric accuracy on structures will be the weak point.
Innovation scope
4/5Bridging the domain gap from egocentric monocular depth to overhead remote sensing, and anchoring relative depth to absolute metric elevation with a coarse DEM, are both genuinely open, and how you fuse the fine relative structure with the coarse absolute scale is the real contribution.
Clarity
5/5The description specifies both input paths precisely, names the backbone approach, the SRTM and ground-control anchoring, the relative-versus-absolute outputs and the 3D flythrough, making the deliverable exceptionally well defined.
Effort
HeavyAdapting the depth backbone, the metric-anchoring pipeline, the georeferencing handling and the interactive 3D flythrough are focused, well-bounded pieces on available data.
Demo-ability
EasyA 3D flythrough over terrain and buildings reconstructed from a single flat image is a genuinely striking, self-explanatory visual, and building heights in metres give it quantitative substance.
In its favour
- Green flag: Strong pre-trained monocular depth backbones like Depth Anything give you a powerful starting point rather than training from scratch
- Green flag: SRTM is freely available, so the metric-anchoring reference for georeferenced imagery costs nothing
- Green flag: The 3D flythrough over a surface reconstructed from a single flat image is a genuinely striking, memorable demo
- Green flag: The two clearly separated input paths let you show a working relative DSM even if absolute accuracy is imperfect
Against it
- Red flag: Monocular depth models are trained on egocentric photos, so the domain gap to overhead imagery is real and building heights will be the weak point
- Red flag: Converting relative depth to accurate absolute metric height from a single view is genuinely hard, and an ISRO judge will check the metres against known structures
- Red flag: SRTM is coarse at 30 metres, so anchoring fine structure to it leaves per-building height uncertain
- Red flag: A visually impressive flythrough can mask metrically inaccurate heights, and the description explicitly asks for metric accuracy on the georeferenced path
What you will be writing
- Monocular depth backbone (Depth Anything / MiDaS)
- SRTM DEM metric anchoring
- Relative-to-absolute scale fusion
- GeoTIFF georeferencing (rasterio / GDAL)
- DSM generation
- Real-time 3D flythrough (three.js / CesiumJS)
- Single-view depth estimation
- Digital surface models
- 3D visualisation
Prior art to read before you start
monocular height estimation from satellite · relative-to-metric depth anchoring · interactive 3D terrain flythrough
Analysed by Claude Opus. Every score above is a judgment call with its reasoning attached — kindly cross-check this against the official statement on the SIH portal before your team commits to it.