GPS World

Author: Art Kalinski

  • GIS plays growing role in most counties

    Report from the National Association of Counties (NACo) Annual Conference, July 21-24, Columbus, Ohio.

    Main hall of the NaCo Conference. (Photo: Art Kalinski)
    Main hall of the NACo Conference. (Photo: Art Kalinski)

    After retiring from the Navy in 1993, my first GIS-related position was with the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC). I was tasked with building the agency’s GIS and promoting GIS within the 10 member counties.

    Some of our counties were excited about building their own GIS capability. But some were timid if not hostile toward the new technology because of horror stories heard from a few early adopters in other parts of the country. I soon understood why.

    Horror stories for county GIS efforts

    Some of those counties were victims of ambitious sales representatives. The sales reps talked them into a GIS “dive into the deep end.” They recommended flying and collecting ortho imagery of the entire county, contracting for creation of data layers such as streets and parcels, buying ArcInfo running on Unix stations and hiring a GIS manager who was most likely the only one in the county who could run the GIS.

    Then the fun began. There was a shortage of Unix/ArcInfo programmers, so head hunters had a field day tempting GIS managers to jump ship for higher salaries. This played havoc with some counties that had only one person able to run the GIS. Those counties found themselves in the position of not even being able to print out simple maps despite an investment of several hundred thousand dollars.

    Hearing those horror stories, we acted quickly at ARC to make sure our counties understood the issues. We helped them by publishing some Atlanta regional data such as streets, hydrography, land-use and imagery on DVDs that could help our counties get started cheaply.

    We also set up an ArcView Learning Center and trained more than 1,200 individuals in the entry-level GIS. This helped counties avoid some of the early and costly pitfalls by starting small and simple using readily available free GIS data.

    It took years to shake the bad image that some had formed about GIS being too complicated. With that early experience I was happy to see that GIS had finally settled into playing a key role in county operations.

    Today, with revenue being so important, GIS is well established in most county tax assessor operations and online access is available. However, other potential county users are still somewhat hesitant to adopt the technology. A significant portion of the conference and exhibitors were focused on new applications and users of GIS.

    Key topics at NACo

    I attended the National Association of Counties (NACo) Annual Conference and Expo, held July 21-24, in Columbus, Ohio.

    The conference was very well attended with a surprising amount of time devoted to geospatial issues. GIS and related technologies are clearly major tools for most counties, with use and importance growing each day.

    Key topics discussed at the GIS sub-committee included use of GIS by first responders, unmanned aerial systems (UAS), tackling the opioid crisis, public access and even new developments in artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).

    Highlights of the NACo Expo

    The expo area had a wide variety of vendors ranging from first responder/public works hardware, to accounting software, human resources software, legal and medical services support. My focus was several exhibitors in the geospatial field who were working to make GIS more accessible primarily to first responders.

    Esri

    The geospatial “500-pound gorilla” has its technology in almost every county in the United States and is working to make GIS even more accessible to all county departments. Esri had a large booth at NACo — in the following video, Philip Mielke explains some of the latest tools of interest to counties including police, fire, opioid response, public works, economic development, drone data collection and even virtual and augmented reality.

    I was hoping to see a demonstration of Esri’s photos-to-3D-model data-collection system, but the weather was too severe to venture outside the building. Last year, I did see their “drone to map” capability that spawned this system, so it should work well.

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

    I was surprised to see that NASA had a large display at NACo. Although not trying to sell anything, the booth was informational so other counties understood the impact on counties where NASA has a presence.

    Todd May, the director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, explained that most people think that NASA’s efforts are focused in only a few locations. In reality, more than 43 states are involved in the space effort producing hardware, software and capabilities needed by NASA.

    As a side note, one of his staffers explained that Huntsville — which has the highest per-capita number of master’s degree holders, Ph.D.s and engineers of any city in the nation — also has more than 70 geospatial firms in the city.

    GlobalFlyte

    An exhibitor that especially caught my attention because of its number of innovations was an Ohio geospatial firm called GlobalFlyte.

    GlobalFlyte is working with the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) to bring some AFRL innovations into the public sector. Working with Esri and Pictometry/Eagleview, GlobalFlyte augments GIS data and oblique imagery with live UAS video.

    One source of the video was from a tethered UAV; the tether permits an off-the-shelf drone to say aloft for hours.

    GlobalFlyte also showed off a fast-deploying compact mast for communications, lights or video cameras called a zippermast. As implied by the name, three coils of spring steel “zipper” together to create a rigid self-rising three-sided mast.

    The company also uses the Plum Case “network in a box” that I saw a GeoHuntsville last year to provide Wi-Fi and cellphone service in devastated or very weak service areas.

    The most impressive part of GlobalFlyte’s solution is the seamless integration of the above resources with an innovative radio communications management system developed by AFRL to clear up the chaos of complex fast-paced military communications. The solution creates a 3D-like aural environment that separates and clarifies multiple radio conversations by putting them into a 3D space.

    Wearing the earphones significantly reduces the confusing radio traffic by creating a 3D-like spatial environment. It’s surprising how the human ear can separate and focus on specific conversations like we naturally do in a crowded room.

    The same audio was also simultaneously transcribed and displayed as text on the geospatial display screen with surprising accuracy.

    Ricoh

    Until the capability became ubiquitous on most smartphones, Ricoh offered the first affordable digital camera in the ’90s with built-in GPS that stamped each photo with a location. This facilitated the mapping and linking of photos to a GIS layer.

    Ricoh still makes high-end digital cameras with both GPS and barcode reader accessories to facilitate data capture; however, at NACo, the company demonstrated a Virtual Self-Service Hologram.

    Although labeled a “hologram” by Ricoh, this is really a rear-projected image that acts as a virtual receptionist. It’s similar to a point-of-sale projector I saw last year at the eMerge trade show.

    The difference with the Ricoh unit is that it interacts with the viewer in real-time to provide information based on the needs and input of the viewer.

    Blue Marble Geographics

    Blue Marble Software tools support many different GIS data types (raster and vector) while serving as an all-in-one solution for data creation, visualization or conversion. Global Mapper GIS permits county employees with just a basic knowledge of GIS to develop and manage a fully functional GIS easily and at low cost to the county.

    The U.S. Geological Survey, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Census Bureau also had booths explaining data products and services offered by the federal agencies.

    Side Note

    There was an interesting start-up food vendor in the Columbus Conference Center food court that may be a sign of things to come. They grow their own produce, on-site hydroponically. Top on their list were tomatoes, greens and some fruit. The vendor, “Homegrown Market,” is not fully operational yet but was attracting a lot of attention.

  • Communication matters with spatial data

    International Cartographic Conference much more than just cartography

    I’ve always been a strong proponent of good cartography since my early days in geographic information systems (GIS) when I saw countless examples of very poor GIS map products. Regrettably, many early practitioners of GIS understood the software but lacked an appreciation and understanding of the good cartographic principals that are absolutely necessary to communicate spatial data well.

    Consequently, the International Cartography Conference (ICC 2017) was an event I didn’t want to miss, especially since this was the first time in 39 years that this prestigious conference has been held in the United States.

    The 28th annual International Cartographic Conference, ICC 2017, was held in Washington, D.C., July 2-7 with moe than 1,000 attendees from 80 countries representing government, academia and international companies.

    Two years ago at a an Esri Federal User Conference, I met Dr. Eric Anderson and Lynn Usery of the Cartography and Geographic Information Society of the US (CaGIS).  Both were promoting the ICC 2017 and heavily involved in its planning and organization.

    Dr. Anderson was a research scientist and executive with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for 35 years and is now the executive director of CaGIS and a faculty member of the College of Charleston. Lynn Usery is a senior scientist of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and director of the Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science. ICC events have been key activities of the International Cartographic Association (ICA).

    George Washington, First in the Arts of Mapmaking

    In a keynote address, Director Robert Cardillo from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) explained the interesting history of NGA citing George Washington, surveyor and mapmaker, as NGA employee number one.

    Washington also appointed the nation’s first geographer and father of military mapping, Robert Erskine, whose work helped win the American Revolutionary War.

    He also spoke of the Civil War use of manned balloons with telegraph wires tethered to the ground, used to verbally aim indirect artillery defilade fire. He continued the history lesson up to modern times, leading to imagery and Big Data.

    Other keynote speakers included: Tom Patterson, senior cartographer, U.S. National Park Service; Lee Schwartz, geographer, U.S. Department of State; and Mikel Maron, Mapbox, OpenStreetMap Foundation.

    Among the many interesting presentations was one from Payam Tabrizian, Anna Petrasova and Vaclav Petras, all Ph.D. candidates at North Carolina State University and special guests of CaGIS. They  demonstrated their unique physical 3D sandbox system using low-cost gaming scanners and GRASS GIS.

    Imagine being able to hold a GIS in your hands: feel the shape of the earth, sculpt its topography, and direct the flow of water.

    This open-source interface physically, interactively manifests geospatial data, making GIS more intuitive and accessible for beginners, and creating new opportunities for developers. It consists of a near real-time feedback cycle of interaction, 3D scanning, point-cloud processing, geospatial computation and projection.

    Peer Review

    Although the word cartography was dominant, the conference covered a much broader range of topics, with a heavy emphasis on GIS and the science of mapping spatial data.

    Dr. Anderson reminded me that the conference is an outgrowth of the International Journal of Cartography, published on behalf of the ICA. The publication is a peer-reviewed journal, and much of the conference provides an opportunity for originators to present their work to a live audience.

    The conference ran from July 3-7 with more than 600 presentations and sessions. There were also several days of pre-conference meetings and field trips in the D.C. area. My colleague, William Tewelow, who has taken over my monthly Geointelligence Insider column, and I were both overwhelmed with the number of presentations.

    William was only able to attend part of the conference, but found a wealth of new material to digest and write about during the coming year.

    To give you an idea of the scope, below is a list of ICC Commissions (special interest groups), with each holding dozens of break-out sessions:

    • Art and Cartography
    • Atlases
    • Cartographic Heritage into the Digital
    • Cartography and Children
    • Cartography in Early Warning and Crisis Management
    • Cognitive Issues in Geographic Information Visualization
    • Education and Training
    • Generalization and Multiple Representation
    • Geospatial Analysis and Modeling
    • GI for Sustainability
    • History of Cartography
    • Location Based Services
    • Map Design
    • Map Production and Geoinformation Management
    • Map Projections
    • Maps and Graphics for Blind and Partially Sighted People
    • Maps and the Internet
    • Mountain Cartography
    • Open Source Geospatial Technologies
    • Planetary Cartography
    • SDI and Standards
    • Sensor-driven Mapping
    • Topographic Mapping
    • Toponymy
    • Ubiquitous Mapping
    • Use, User and Usability Issues
    • Visual Analytics

    You can read the session abstracts through the online schedule.  Additionally, ICC smartphone apps permit the download of text and some PowerPoint presentations. Go to your app store and search for and install “ICC2017.”

    Once you install the app, you can search for topics or presenters. You can view most presentation summaries, and even view or download some PowerPoint presentations and PDFs. (I’m not sure how long these will be available, so act soon).

    Expo and Posters

    The ICC featured several map/poster areas including a collection of maps created by children from around the world. Also included was an expo area with booths from organizations and businesses.

    Since this was a more academic conference that fell between GEOINT and the Esri User Conference, geospatial businesses were lightly represented. Below are video clips of some of the exhibitors.

    • Jill Saligoe-Simmel of MapDiva demonstrates Ortelius map design software for the Mac:

    • Markus Fuchs-Winkler with OCAD, a cartographic software program:

    • Liu Xiang Ming and Tao Wang of Top MAProducts at Qingdao Geotechnical Investigation & Surveying Research Institute. The comprehensive geoscience research institute focuses on geotechnical investigation, surveying, GIS and map culture. Ming and Wang were displaying some unique gift items with mapping themes. If you know someone with a gift shop or need some unique trade show or conference gifts, email Top MAProducts at [email protected].

    All in all, this was a very robust conference that I wish I could have seen more of. Lynn, Eric and the organizing committee did a superb job with such a complex effort.

    Photo and video by Art Kalinski

  • GeoHuntsville 2017: Huntsville and NGA partner to advance the tradecraft

    Last year, Huntsville, Alabama, was the site of the National Geospatial-intelligence Agency’s (NGA’s) first HackAThon — just one outreach event to take advantage of talent and skills outside the agency that could enrich the efforts of NGA.

    The HackAThon was an initiative of both previous NGA Director Letitia Long and current Director Robert Cardillo. It was so successful that NGA had four other HackAThons in major cities, including New York, Boston and San Francisco, with a repeat this year in Huntsville.

    The weekend HackAThon led up to the GeoHuntsville Summit, a geospatial conference that has been an annual event for more than 10 years. The conference was opened by long-time geospatial professional and advocate Chris Johnson and Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, who both have had supportive connections with NGA. The mayor highlighted the fact that for its size, Huntsville was somewhat unique in that it had a higher per capita population of Ph.D.s and engineers than any other city in the U.S. That same wealth of talent extends into geospatial, with more than 70 geospatial firms in the area.

    New GeoHuntsville Director

     

    GeoHuntsville Executive Director Jorge Garcia
    GeoHuntsville Executive Director Jorge Garcia

    Chris then introduced Jorge Garcia, who is taking over as the GeoHuntsville Executive Director. Jorge retired from the FBI, where he served as assistant director, Directorate of Intelligence. His 16-year military career includes combat tours in Iraq, which preceded 21 years with the FBI, and later intelligence work in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

    Jorge highlighted the goals of GeoHuntsville that were his marching orders, including the advancement of geospatial tools to prevent and/or mitigate natural and manmade threats to the region while fostering research, development and education of the geospatial tradecraft.

    Presentation Highlights

     

    Ken Graham, Director, Platform Services Division, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA)

    As a sponsor of the event, and active part of GeoHuntsville, there was heavy participation by NGA staff, including NGA recruiters eyeing the 15,000-plus geospatial talent located in Huntsville. Ken discussed the success of the HackAThons and other outreach efforts developed by NGA’s Enterprise Innovation Office. Its focus on unclassified open source tools is changing the culture away from “that’s the way we always did it” to completely out-of-the-box thinking including “Shark Tank”-like evaluations of tools developed outside the agency, without the very slow and expensive procurement methods that took years to place new innovations into the hand of NGA users.

    Ken explained that rather than NGA developing exact descriptions and specification of what the agency wanted, it instead describes a problem or need. The NGA then leaves it up to the creativity of outside developers to think of new approaches and solutions to the problem.

    Most of the solutions can be created in unclassified environments and then tested by NGA staff using real agency data. In many cases, this negates the need for outside developers to have TS/SCI clearances, which are expensive and time consuming to obtain. The NGA goal, which sounds very ambitious, is to be able to get new tools into the hands of users less than 24 hours after a problem is identified!

    Dan Koch, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

    Koch demonstrated a system developed by ORNL that integrates various GIS tools in one easy-to-use environment called the Incident Management Preparedness Coordination Tool Kit, or IMPACT for short. This system was initially designed for EOD use during potential bombing events, but the system also proved useful to a broad audience of first responders.

    The system can be used with web services, but also can operate in a disconnected environment, since much of the needed data resides locally. IMPACT includes traditional GIS tools and external data access augmented with bomb-blast patterns, crowd evacuation animations, plume models, contagion spread simulations, active shooter view-sheds, antenna placements and patterns and real-time live data feeds.

    The afternoon breakout sessions included a detailed demonstration of IMPACT. You can see a demonstration of IMPACT in this youtube video. Some of the attendees mentioned that the system would be even nicer if it used the new CESIUM WebGL virtual globe to show 3D data.

    Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT)

    J.D. D’Arville of the ALDOT explained ALDOT’s use of off-the-shelf UAVs (DJI Phantom 3s and  4s) with eMotion software and senseFly S.O.D.A. cameras to capture very high-quality aerial imagery in multiple spectrums (see the senseFly video.} The imagery was then assembled into metric 3D models using Pix4D that permitted them to monitor contractor work. One early success was discovering poor “cut and fill” procedures by a contractor.

    John Russell of ALDOT then explained survey data collection using what I believe is very disruptive technology —AeroPoints, developed by Propeller Aero. AeroPoints is a very accurate automated system that uses UAVs with innovative ground control pads to capture 2-cm-accurate aerial imagery. See a video of it in operation here.

    Mike Botts, OpenSensorHub

    Botts presented the latest examples of work he and his colleagues have done to advance the practical use of remote sensors. He pointed out a key advantage of working with GeoHuntsville, in that both developers and end users had the ability to learn from each other.

    One example he cited was showing the display of live UAV video on a static map to a participating local fire chief. Since the video was related to the geography but not accurately geo-referenced, the fire chief said that it wouldn’t be useful. He explained that trying to figure out exactly what he was looking at and from which direction would be too time-consuming and potentially confusing. Botts and his staff took the problem in hand and developed a simple way to place the video footprint in the exact location and orientation that was spatially correct. This had been done before with high-end military systems, but never so simply and effectively.

    UAVs

    There were also several presentations by UAV users and the UAV users’ group that addressed both hardware and software. However, the UAV topics that still dominate the discussions are the administrative and legal issues that still cloud the use of the technology.

    These were only the highlights of the conference. Although lasting one day, this was an information-rich conference worth attending.

  • Geography Has Its Benefits and Liabilities

    Welcome to the geointelligence side of the Defense PNT and Geointelligence e-newsletter, a publication combining the staff, readership and subject matter of both its parents. We’ll alternate the two topic areas in this Insights column, while continuing to bring you news stories in every issue relevant to defense hardware, GPS/GNSS and PNT, and to the software and mapping side of the industry — geographic information systems (GIS) applied in defense, first responder and other government fields. That’s the geointelligence side, and I’m privileged this month to bring you the first column under that topic.

    I’m Art Kalinski, GPS World’s and Geospatial Solutions’ contributing editor for Geointelligence.  A career U.S. Navy officer, I established the Navy’s first GIS in the mid-1980s. I pioneered the use of oblique imagery for public safety and participated in numerous disaster-response actions including GIS/imagery support of the National Guard during Hurricane Katrina. I’ve worked for several companies in the imagery and mapping field.

    Next month we’ll focus on a defense hardware GNSS topic.  Now here I go on mine: how geography and mapping can correct the misperceptions of history and current public knowledge, and how GIS can support can be used in many areas including government policy and planning.

    One authoritative, properly documented map can expose and possibly correct widespread public misinformation about America, its culture and its role in history. For instance, most entering college students think America invented slavery and that the U.S. was a dominant center of slavery.

    Slavery can be considered a stain on our country’s history, but I believe this nation’s role in stopping it should also be a source of pride.

    I was shocked, although I probably should have known better, by numerous citizen-in-the-street interviews (Watters’ World, Jimmy Kimmel, etc.) showing remarkably detailed knowledge people have about popular culture such as “Dancing with the Stars” or singers and movie stars who will have absolutely no effect on the lives of those being interviewed. However, those same people seem oblivious to science, finance and politics that could have a significant impact on their lives. Some of this appalling lack of knowledge derives from a lack of familiarity with history and in particular with geography.

    One study, by Professor Duke Pesta of the University of Wisconsin, left me shaking my head. He found in his 11-year study that “Most entering college students think America invented slavery and that the U.S. was a dominant center of slavery.” Of course, Moses, the victims of the Romans, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Vikings, not to mention Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc. would differ. Even at its height, the U.S. had less than 4 percent of the world slave population.

    Here is a graphic depiction showing the volume and geography of the slave trade, 1600-1900. This is from an article by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., host of the PBS series “Finding Your Roots” and author of numerous papers about slavery and ancestry. The map and the data driving it originated with The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, and both are the products of an international research and collaboration endeavor.

    The project team worked with at least sixteen different data sets compiled by scholars working since the 1960s to  collect archival data on slave-trading voyages from unpublished sources and to code them into a machine-readable format. The team developed sophisticated search interfaces for three different kinds of data, as well as estimates of the size and direction of the trade. Its web site provides a range of ancillary material for educators, including lesson plans and maps, and provides an opportunity for researchers everywhere to continue to contribute their discoveries.

    Refer again to the map. It is truly a powerful document.

    My History

    Lest you think that I’m a disconnected observer of slavery let me share a little family history. I learned about slavery first-hand at my grandmother’s and uncle’s knee. They were both slaves.

    In the early twenties, my grandparents immigrated to the U.S. They worked hard, saved their money, had two boys born in Chicago and then moved back to Poland, buying a farm and sawmill with their life savings. In 1938, on his 18th birthday, my father chose to move back to the “New Country” so as not to lose his U.S. citizenship. That was a lucky move, since in 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland from the West, Stalin seized the opportunity and invaded Poland from the East. Stalin, like Putin today, wanted the very fertile farmland that was a lacking in Russia.

    (If you read my review of the geopolitical book The Accidental Superpower by Peter Zeihan, although large, Russia lacks adequate prime farmland and always coveted the very fertile region which is now Ukraine.)

    When Russian troops invaded, my grandfather was executed in his own front yard and my grandmother and uncle were given 15 minutes to pack their belongings and board cattle cars for Siberia. As part of Stalin’s massive land grab, 1.7 million Poles and Ukrainians were deported in sub-zero freezing weather to work as slave labor in concentration camps.

    Map from http://kresy-siberia.org
    Map from http://kresy-siberia.org

    The speed of the invasion and deportations was so fast and unexpected that it was very disorienting. With dead bodies everywhere and only 15 minutes to gather possessions, many residents were in shock and not thinking clearly. One example: A woman who packed opera gloves and glasses. My grandmother understood the geography she would face and had the good sense to pack warm clothing and a large down comforter, a decision that saved her and my uncle.

     

    Of the 1.7 million deported to the gulags, 100,000 died on the unheated train trips alone. Countless others died in the slave camps of Siberia, with less than 500,000 ultimately surviving. When the Russians, Brits and Americans became allies in 1942, my uncle was able to join the British Army and ultimately fought at Monte Casino and the Italian Campaigns. This photo shows the surviving members of his 60-man unit — my uncle, center front row.
    I wish I had been old enough to learn and understand all the details of their ordeal, but much of it wasn’t fit for young ears. I did gain a visceral appreciation of the horrors of war, and slavery in particular.

    The U.S. Civil War

    Northeast Alabama, Huntsville and Lake Guntersville in particular, is where my wife and I chose to retire. Perfect balance of weather, scenery, quality of life and, most important, the people. We’ve made many good friends here, and a few can still tie themselves to direct descendants of the Civil War. Many, including my wife, still feel pride in the bravery their family members exhibited, just as I feel pride for the World War II military service of my U.S. Navy dad and three uncles.

    According to historians, the South almost won the war had it not been for geography and the superior industrial base of the North. Additionally, those of you that have been in combat know that loyalty and personal bravery are seen at the unit level, and both American sides fought fiercely and bravely. Nationalism, philosophy and major political decisions are made at pay grades well above the unit level and are not in the forefront of a soldier’s mind during battle.

    Map from http://lincolnmullen.com
    Map from http://lincolnmullen.com

    There are some that claim that the Civil War was about states’ rights and not slavery. Ask John Brown and other abolitionists. Let’s be honest — the elephant in the states’ rights room was slavery. It pitted brother against brother. Even Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee were both classmates at West Point. Although on different sides, it took both sides to have the war, the bloodiest in our history. However, what both Union and Confederate troops created was an undeniable truth of American history and American exceptionalism.

    To the best of my knowledge, this is the only country in the history of the world that fought a war with itself to free its own slaves.

    Other countries have been conquered and slaves freed; in some, slaves revolted and freed themselves while other countries freed their slaves after seeing what the U.S. went through. But no other example matches the U.S. Civil War.

    One benefit of having served as a career naval officer is that it exposed me to many parts of the world — Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean — and not just tourist destinations. The United States still isn’t perfect, but in all my travels around the world, one observation is dominant about life on this geoid.

    Whether you or your ancestors came here across the Bering Land Bridge, on the Mayflower, in the hold of a slave ship, through Ellis Island or on a 747, chances are pretty good that your life here is much much better than it would have been had your ancestors stayed where they were.

    So, “Johnny,” America didn’t invent slavery, it wasn’t even the major slavery player. But we sure did put a stake in the ground to stop it, and we’ve been freeing people around the world ever since. Instead of pointing to our slave history with shame, we should instead point to the 500,000 casualties that started the path toward freedom. Are life and attitudes in the U.S. perfect? Absolutely not, but look at what we stopped, and look at what we are perfecting.

  • What3words gets competition in Xaddress

    Last year, I wrote about a revolutionary addressing system called what3words. I thought that the concept was brilliant in its simplicity and was embarrassed that I didn’t think of it — or at least that someone with a GISP attached to their name didn’t think of it (certified geographic information systems professional).

    (Photo: what3words)
    (Photo: what3words)

    It was, in fact, invented by a musician who got tired of not being able to find the exact location of his next gig.

    What3words certainly made its mark. Since 2013, what3words has received numerous high visibility tech awards and raised more than $13.5 million to expand its use. It’s being used by the United Nations, many commercial shipping firms, Google and Esri. What3words even attracted the personal interest of Prince William and Kate.

    Some naysayers point to the lack of accuracy and precision (only as good as GPS, so not perfect), but what3words has opened a lot of eyes and has even become the addressing standard for the entire country of Mongolia.

    Although some parts of Mongolia are very modern, like the photo to the right, the majority of the country is still isolated with no street addresses, not to mention a nomadic population.

    Other challenging location problems include specific homes in third-world shanty towns, such as Rio’s favelas, or weekend tailgating locations at college football games.

    The bottom line is that we need reliable universal addressing primarily for locations that are not adequately served by conventional street addresses. Most agree that numeric Lat/Long coordinates are the simplest and shortest description of a position on Earth, but there is one big problem. Humans have a hard time remembering and relating to long strings of numbers. Additionally, communicating long number strings can be difficult with little or no way to error check the results other than maybe a checksum digit.

    Numerous systems have been developed to provide understandable and memorable addresses, but what3words seems to have received a lion’s share of the public interest. Others on the “me too” wagon included systems such as Geohash, Mapcode, Openlocationcode and Xaddress. All encode a set of coordinates into more humanly memorable descriptors.

    Although I’m pretty much sold on the utility of what3words, recently released Xaddress, which Paraguayan founder Roberto Dam placed into the public domain this year, has benefits that make it a strong contender.

    Why Xaddress?

    First, I have to preface that I’m not a programmer, and my experience with GitHub and the correspondingly technical community is limited. I struggled with the encoding and decoding process used in Xaddress, since its key selling point is that it is a process that doesn’t require a computer or even a smartphone.

    After reading and mucking around the internet, I ran through a number of rabbit holes and trails with geohash, hash-tagging and spatial math discussions that led me to mathematician Felix Klein and his famous Klein’s bottle (which has nothing to do with this issue, but in which I felt trapped).

    I then read discussions about the value of mnemonics and how it helps humans relate to complex numbers or other difficult memory tasks. This is where both what3words and Xaddress share a common trait — they both display locations using memorable words. But Xaddress adds four new wrinkles:

    1. Although the encoding and decoding of a location into an Xaddress is most easily done using the algorithm on a computer or smartphone, the process can be done manually. It’s not quick and easy, but it can be done.
    2. The Xaddress also contains a visual graphic object or avatar that is used as a visual error check. If you get the address slightly wrong, the avatar displayed will be completely different. Here is a sample showing slight differences in the number resulting in completely different avatars.
    3. Xaddress also adds the city/country to identify the rough location. (Of course, this could also be done with what3words.)
    4. Lastly, Xaddress is an open-source system, unlike the patented what3words system.

    xaddress-avatars-w

    There is much more to Xaddress than I can cover in this short column, so you may want to read Roberto Dam’s more detailed article describing the inner workings of Xaddress. (The numeric to word-encoding process is a bit hard to follow, but give it a chance.)

    There is extensive technical information, discussions and code on GitHub.

    Additionally, the Xaddress website has numerous other examples and references, and you can try encoding your own addresses.

    screen-shot-xaddress-w

    According to NGOs, the majority of the Earth’s population, an estimated 6 billion people, have no address. In third-world countries of Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia and Latin America, it’s difficult to do the things we take for granted, such as receiving mail, getting parts or supplies to start even a simple business, and — even more critical — getting emergency responders to a fire or medical emergency.

    Perhaps, like cellphone technology permitted third-world countries to skip the effort and expense of landlines, new addressing systems may be a shortcut to leapfrog universal addressing.

  • Metric oblique image collection with UAVs

    Combining the best of two technologies for rapid situational awareness

    Sometimes we get stuck looking in our own backyard for solutions, only to discover that those on the other side of the fence have been solving similar problems in a parallel effort. That was the case with metric oblique imagery when I joined Pictometry in 2007 and learned a little about the history of the players.

    idan-w
    Idan oblique imagery software ObliMapper.

    Seems that a year after Pictometry inventors and patent holders, John Champa and Steve Schultz, filed their patent in 2002, another company, Idan, located in Israel, came up with the same solution. Idan filed for a U.S. patent in 2003, only to learn that they were too late.

    Ironically, I learned from Joseph Freund, CEO and founder of Idan, that the Idan system was actually developed in 1996, but kept secret until declassified in 2003.

    Although too late for Idan’s patent application, a mutual respect grew between the oblique pioneers. Over the years, Idan and Pictometry worked a number of joint efforts. Idan brought an especially unique perspective to technology, because for them, it was a matter of life and death. When you are a country the size of New Jersey and surrounded by countries literally dedicated to your destruction, your collective mind gets focused very sharply. That was exactly the case with the geospatial firm Idan, who worked very closely with the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) to protect their country.

    Over the years, Pictometry became the leading collector of metric oblique imagery and focused on exploiting its vast image library for both public and private users. Today, after merging with Eagle View, Pictometry focuses on commercial application with remote roof measurement being its dominant business. Idan, however, never lost focus on its prime mission: defense. Idan continued to hone the technology and added new tools and hardware with the goal of building the most effective early-warning system with superb analysis capabilities.

    A Robust Viewer

    Idan developed and battlefield-tested tools to exploit oblique imagery. Its Oblivision viewer is different from other oblique image viewing systems in that it shows five synchronized views — an ortho view and four oblique views — with all views moving together as the operator shifts locations.

    At first, this can be a bit overwhelming, with a lot of movement and much data to take in. But with use, the rich visual environment becomes second nature and provides the operator with an effective visualization environment.

    In addition to multiple views, Oblivision provides measuring tools, both horizontal and vertical, GIS vector-data overlay, and analysis tools such as line-of-sight visibility, shadow and explosion vulnerability.

    Here is an interactive example of a joint effort using Oblivision Online to view oblique imagery of Sacramento captured by Pictometry.

    An interactive example of a joint effort using Oblivision Online to view oblique imagery of Sacramento captured by Pictometry.
    An interactive example of a joint effort using Oblivision Online to view oblique imagery of Sacramento captured by Pictometry.

    Improved Image Quality

    Freund explained that Idan’s image quality has seen steady improvement through a joint project with Simplex using Idan’s own-built oblique camera system based on the 100-mp Phase One iXU camera. This has resulted in image resolutions exceeding 3 centimeters ground sample distance (GSD) from flight altitudes of 450 meters.

    ObliMapper: The UAV link

    A shortcoming of most oblique capture systems is that image capture is a complex and cumbersome process not suited for nimble response. The cameras and aircraft require significant preparation, on-station time and extensive post processing. The need for rapid image capture with oblique capabilities prompted Idan engineers to test options that take advantage of small, rapidly deployed UAVs.

    Idan engineers developed a capture system capable of rapid focused area of interest image capture that fills the need: ObliMapper. Using compact georeferenced cameras mounted on COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) UAVs, the ObliMapper system not only captures the imagery; the same system pre-plans and directs the flight of the UAV to optimize the entire capture process.

    dji-mavic-w
    The DJI Mavic UAV.

    Simply stated, the work process can be summed up as follows:

    • Flight planning
      • The user selects the area of interest and identifies the camera being used.
      • The system then creates a route file and uploads it to the drone.
    • Image capture
      • The drone flies autonomously according to the flight plan.
      • The camera captures the imagery.
      • The images are downloaded to the user’s computer.
    • Processing
      • The system automatically processes the images and metadata.
    • Analyze
      • The user views the up-to-date oblique images from all directions with accurate measurements on the oblique images and overlaid GIS data, contour lines, slopes, visibility, etc.

    Two YouTube videos provide an excellent overview of the system and process:

    https://youtu.be/SY1KaE3VfzY

    oblimapper-wNumerous enhancements of ObliMapper are being tested, including 3D model creation using Agisoft or Pix4D, image capture at night, and even the use of a swarm of UAVs to rapidly capture an area of interest in a single pass in hostile areas.

    The images captured by the system have a positional accuracy of 5-15 meters, but post processing can result in accuracies in the 30-60 centimeter range.

    Now that the Pictometry patents have expired, many companies are entering the oblique image market. I expect that improvements and new capabilities will follow regularly; however, from my view at this time, no one comes close to the vast oblique image library built by Pictometry (now over 4 Petabytes and 150,000,000 images) and no one seems to have the technical expertise that Idan has developed to exploit oblique imagery.

    For more information, visit the following websites:

  • A network in a box with GPS: Plum Case for challenging environments

    1-13_commandpost_exercise_lIf you are responding to a disaster that may have destroyed cell phone towers, and you have no power or otherwise limited connectivity, how will you work GIS data and imagery under these seemingly impossible conditions? Every map query, location shift, every zoom in/out requires a fresh query of the data from the server — precisely what you can no longer do. Now an inventor has come forward with a device that can provide phone or internet connectivity in environments that would be impossible for traditional equipment.

    As a frame of reference for this disaster scenario, five years ago when I was still working for Pictometry, I participated in a large DHS disaster response exercise in New York City. This was a full blown NIMS exercise that included more than 250 local, state and federal participants at the command center with even more personnel in the field. The exercise simulated a massive oil spill between Staten Island and Bayonne and was a full mobilization of personnel and equipment including the Coast Guard and related commercial businesses just as if it was a real event.

    The ad hoc command center was set up in a large ballroom of a Staten Island hotel and was organized and operated in accordance with “National Incident Management System” (NIMS) guidance. The Incident Command and Control Center was laid out as recommended by the Incident Command System (ICS). Standard NIMS procedures and communications were followed as the exercise ramped up with participants arriving at the hotel setting up their equipment. Most had cell phones, laptops and other communications devices.

    containership-grounding-in-new-york-harbor-investigation-report-figure-2For my part I had a computer and large LCD projector to display GIS data and high resolution oblique imagery of the disaster location on a large screen for all participants to see. I was getting a lot of oohs and aahs as the measureable high resolution imagery hit the screen. For a while I was the center of attention as everyone became familiar with the visual details of the disaster site and surrounding locations. I was using a an online capability developed by Pictometry and Lockheed Martin called Intelligence On Demand (IOD). The system accessed Pictometry servers containing over 4 petabytes of measureable ortho and oblique imagery overlaid with multiple layers of GIS vector and raster data. The system was very robust and was able to help participants build a common operational picture of the unfolding scenario. But my glory was short-lived since IOD had an Achilles heel.

    NEW YORK – U.S. Coast Guard is responding to fuel oil discharged from a barge in Kill Van Kull at Mariner’s Harbor, Staten Island N.Y., Dec. 15, 2012. The barge’s tank holds approximately 147,000 gallons of #6 fuel oil. Photo: Petty Officer 2nd Class Jetta H. Disco
    NEW YORK – U.S. Coast Guard is responding to fuel oil discharged from a barge in Kill Van Kull at Mariner’s Harbor, Staten Island N.Y., Dec. 15, 2012. The barge’s tank holds approximately 147,000 gallons of #6 fuel oil. Photo: Petty Officer 2nd Class Jetta H. Disco

    IOD relied on a continuous connection to the server. Every map query, location shift, every zoom in/out required a fresh query of the data from the server. This was no problem with a fast connection but as the number of participants grew the internet connection slowed to a crawl even with a T1 line serving the facility. With more than 250 participants all crowding the line, it was difficult to send even a simple email. I was dead in the water and learned a painful lesson.

    A had a similar experience several years ago during the multiple tornado outbreaks in northeast Alabama. With power out for over a week we experienced our own isolation with no cable service, limited TV and spotty sporadic cell phone service. We had to charge our phones using our cars but had to be frugal with that since area gas pumps were also out of commission.

    plum-caseI had numerous discussions with the Pictometry engineers asking if there was some way that at the start of an event, when we identify a disaster location, that we could cache the needed imagery of the location negating the need to keep hitting the server. Not sure if that’s been done yet.

    The engineers kept referring to new methods in the works to provide connectivity in lean environments. I’ve seen some of them ranging from portable towers, overhead aircraft, satellites and even aerostats but most are not cheap or quickly available.   Two month ago at a geospatial technology showcase I saw a device that may provide the answer: the Plum Case.

    I’m not a communications/internet expert so I’m relying on third party experiences and opinions that the Plum Case, developed by a retired communications CEO, seems to be a solution for many applications. It simply is a “network in a box” that can deliver cell phone service and fast internet connectivity in locations that may have weak or seemingly no service. It does that using an array of very sensitive antennas that nurse even the weakest signals and boost them to usable connectivity for the local users.

    Below is a video clip of the Plum Case being demonstrated at the recent TechVet conference.

    The inventor, Lee Williams, said he named it a Plum because Apple was taken. Simply put, the Plum Case is a network in a box with GPS. It can provide phone or internet connectivity in environments that would be impossible for traditional devices. It does that by jumping between four wireless services and choosing the best one or MU-MIMO (Multiple User – Multiple Inputs/Multiple Outputs).

    It can provide phone or internet connectivity in environments that would be impossible for traditional devices.  It does that by using highly sensitive vertical polarity antennas spaced in a specific arrangement that far exceeds most antenna systems such as those found in smartphones, wireless cards or dongles.  As a result, this “hyper-sensitive” receiving system can extract connectivity when all other equipment indicates “no signal. Additionally, the very robust connections result in very high data transmission rates.

    What this means is that if you are responding to a disaster that may have destroyed cell phone towers, no power or otherwise limited connectivity, the Plum Case will extract connectivity under seemingly impossible conditions. Contact the people at Plum Laboratories for additional information and current user experience and testimonies.

     

  • Skyline PhotoMesh 3D: On-the-fly models while flying

    During my tenure as the GIS manager for the Atlanta Regional Commission, I had the opportunity to work with many first responders, primarily police, fire and E911. I always promoted the capabilities of GIS to develop a common operational picture.

    However, most first responders were not interested in becoming GIS experts, especially with traditional GIS software and ortho imagery. They just wanted easy and effective tools that would help them do their job better. Then Pictometry metric oblique imagery hit the scene. It was a game changer because it was easy to use and, most important, the oblique images provided a visual perspective that average users could grasp quickly. (See my 2008 column that explains why.)

    Soon, 3D model creation and navigation became common. In my opinion, 3D models are just a more robust way of viewing oblique views. 3D models are becoming more commonplace, but generating those models is more time consuming and resource intensive.

    A few of you may remember that four years ago, USSOCOM (U.S. Special Operations Command) had more than 20 — yes, 20 — different 3D model viewers. These were mostly proprietary systems from major contractors that required separate maintenance and support, and sometimes led to user confusion and delays, not to mention expense. USSOCOM appointed a team to evaluate and reduce the number of 3D viewers, and they got it down to two, with Skyline TerraExplorer being one of them.

    Building on that 3D reputation, Skyline Software Systems recently developed a 3D model creation capability that puts easy and rapid model creation in everyone’s toolbox. PhotoMesh is Skyline’s new 3D model creation software designed to build photorealistic 3D models as a fully automated process using auto-triangulation (AT) of multiple aerial images. Skyline can provide 3D model creation as a service or provide the software so customers can do the model creation in-house.

    Below is a screenshot of a sample model created using PhotoMesh from UAV video I shot. then geolocated by Remote GEO (see my February column). The below 3D model was processed locally by Skyline using a typical laptop, and the entire process was finished in under 35 minutes. However, if speed was critical, Skyline could generate the model in the cloud, with the whole process taking a minute or two.

    Here is a quick overview video that will give you an idea of the system capability.

    Live demo at GEOINT 2016

    While I was at GEOINT 2016 this May, I had had the chance to talk to Steve Marks, the director of business development at Skyline. He gave me an excellent video overview of PhotoMesh.

    Steve then provided additional detail in several aspects of PhotoMesh including:

    Other developers have come up with similar capabilities, but the Skyline system is the most robust I’ve seen, especially with the flexibility for very rapid model creation through the cloud or local creation in a disconnected environment. Additionally, unlike many other 3D model systems, the Skyline models do include trees and shrubs so viewshed and line-of-site analysis is very realistic and accurate.

    How would it be used?

    In actual use, I can envision first responders arriving at a scene. They could use legacy imagery such as Pictometry oblique images to build a historic as-built model. They could then launch UAV or manned aircraft and capture current geo-located video, selecting and processing images in PhotoMesh and getting back a current 3D model in minutes via the Skyline Cloud service.

    In a disconnected environment, the models could be generated locally but at a slower pace. The 3D models would permit horizontal, vertical and angular measurements. Other analyses could include: line-of-sight and viewshed, determination of blast zones and shielding, overhead hazards such as power lines.

    ince the system is so robust and easy to use, I can see it supplementing ortho and oblique imagery while providing a very user friendly common operational picture as well as very capable analytic tools.

    Retiring soon

    At age 70, I’m looking at real retirement later this year so I’m also looking for a relief. If you have an interest or know someone interested in taking over this monthly column, let me know. The folks at Geospatial Solutions and North Coast Media have been a pleasure to work with so I don’t want to leave without a replacement. You can email me at [email protected]

  • GEOINT 2016: The growing GEOINT revolution

    A few weeks ago, I attended GEOINT 2016. It was quite different from my first GEOINT in 2007. Back then, GIS and imagery were the focus of most exhibitors and presentations, with points, line and polygons plotted on paper being the norm. This year the tradecraft seems to have evolved exponentially to a broad and significantly more sophisticated collection of technologies both on the EXPO floor and in most presentations.

    New terms have solidly entered the geospatial lexicon: big data, big data analytics, exploiting social media, machine learning, activity based intelligence (ABI), predictive analytics (see my column last month), the internet of things (IoT) (see my January column), small sats, object based intelligence (OBI), cyber, human geography, open source, deep learning, machine to machine tipping & cueing, survivable space assets and the list continues to grow.

    I was pleased to hear something I believed for quite a while. There is a growing consensus that Cyber attacks need to be displayed as events with geospatial components (location of servers, nodes, networks, etc.). That kind of visualization should provide valuable insight into these growing and complex attacks.

    Keynotes

    National Intelligence Director James Clapper.
    National Intelligence Director James Clapper.

    The 75-year-old Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper poked fun at himself indicating that this would be his last year as DNI and he was counting down the days. He said that he was taught to always respect his elders but finding one was getting increasingly difficult. He also highlighted the same feeling I had that the GEOINT community has gone through some significant changes.

    Computers have evolved from IBM’s 1997 Deep Blue winning only one of four chess games against Gary Kasperov to the recent contest of Google AlphaGo against the world master of the much more complex Chinese board game “Go.” AlphaGo won four of five games primarily with moves that experts called inspired genius. It did that because it was programed not to just play but to learn as it played. So “machine learning” was a frequent topic at GEOINT with it becoming a real game changer in national intelligence work.

    Even imagery, the long standing bread and butter of GEOINT, is going through a revolutionary change. Citing NGA Director Cardillo, DNI Clapper indicated that we will soon evolve from limited overhead imagery available in certain locations at certain times to imagery of every spot on the globe every day of the year. You can watch Director Clapper’s full keynote.

    NOTE: More than 127 GEOINT related videos are posted on the USGIF website from the 2016 conference and the previous year with additional videos posted almost weekly. https://vimeo.com/trajectoryonlocation/videos/page:1/sort:date
    https://vimeo.com/trajectoryonlocation/videos/page:2/sort:date

    USGIF Award Winners

    The five USGIF award winners for 2016.
    The five USGIF award winners for 2016.

    Five awards were presented for 2016. Two of them had special interest for me — the Industry award winner ABACO Group shown in the EXPO section below and GeoHuntsville. Here is more information about the five USGIF award winners.

    Community Support Achievement Award for the GeoHunstville Exemplar City program

    GeoHSV
    The GeoHunstville Exemplar City program helps cities deal with disasters using new technology. Shown receiving the award for the GeoHunstville team are Chris Johnson and Joe Francica.

    I was thrilled to see my adopted geospatial city, Huntsville, win the Community Support Achievement Award. The GeoHunstville Exemplar City program which assists local governments in preparing, responding, mitigating and avoiding natural and manmade disasters using new technology.

    The system leverages geospatial tools including the new NGA open source collaboration environment GeoQ, UAVs and a broad array of internet accessible sensors through the IoT.

    Exhibit Hall Expo

    The conference attendance was over 4,000 with 250 exhibitors on the EXPO floor. You can view the full list of exhibitors at the GEOINT2016 website or by downloading the GEOINT 2016 smart phone app. The app has more information about the exhibitors including descriptions of their technology, contact info and website links. Here are samples of booths I found especially interesting.

    ABACO Group: ABACO of in the United Kingdom and Italy, was given the 2016 USGIF Industry Achievement Award. ABACO received the award for their augmented reality (AR) “Farm Visor,” to help farmers access big data. One aspect that caught a lot of attention was their very elegant “X-ray” tablet viewer. The user holds the tablet up and adjust the “Transparency” of the wall they are viewing and it looks like you are looking through the wall. In reality you are viewing a geo-registered image of the surrounding area that seems like you are looking through the wall. Because of exhibit hall lights and screen reflections the

    CYVIZ: CYVIZ builds easy to configure tactical operations centers that can display mixed media both classified and unclassified content in a common environment.

    DIFFEO: DIFFEO is an automated search assistant that uses proprietary algorithms to speed searches of Big Data even if the operator does not know what key words need to be searched.

    Hewlett Packard Enterprise Software: HP had a virtual off road driving experience. IT was not as enjoyable as Birdly, a little sickening in fact. I was told by one of the users that the reason was poor synchronization between the goggle imagery and head movement.

    International Spy Museum: The International Spy Museum, currently located on F Street in Washington DC will soon be building a much larger facility just south of the mall. They have also received considerable new material and collections for their exhibits.

    Lead’Air: Lead’Air shows several hardware configurations to capture lidar, ortho and oblique imagery.

    LizardTech: LizardTech highlighted the new ability to handle LiDAR data and display it in various ways including DEMs.

    PitneyBowes: PitneyBowes was showing their latest lossless imagery compression tools along with extensive business intelligence data.

    PLW Modelworks and Birdly: Most users consider PLW Modelworks the gold standard of digital 3D models. The PLW booth combined their superb 3B models with a virtual reality “flying machine” called Birdly. The machine uses Occulus Rift goggles with earphones for sound and even a fan blowing wind in your face to create a fairly realistic urban flight experience. The user can bank and turn or soar by flapping the wings. I tried it and it was nice.

    SigmaSpace: SigmaSpace was showing their single photon LiDAR. Their system is supposed to do a much better job discerning first and second level returns so collecting true ground elevation under a tree canopies is faster, more accurate with greater point density. Being a green laser it may also prove more effective in littoral work.

    TerraGo: TerraGo was demonstrating Edge as a tool to simplify data collection in the field using mobile devices.

  • USGIF GEOINT 2016 Symposium Introduction

    Geointelligence Insider’s Art Kalinski is reporting live from the GEOINT 2016 Symposium, which is being held May 15-18 in Orlando, Fla.

    Hosted and produced by the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF), a non-profit, non-lobbying educational organization, the annual GEOINT Symposium is the nation’s largest gathering of industry, academia and government to include defense, intelligence and Homeland Security Communities as well as commercial, federal/civil, state and local geospatial intelligence stakeholders.

  • Predictive analytics: A helping hand for first responders

    Last month I raised my anxiety level by writing about a revenant threat from terrorist-initiated biological attacks.

    The same concerns were also cited by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper during recent Congressional testimony. These “poor man’s nukes” could potentially be more devastating than 9/11 and reach into every community and even our own homes. Additionally, the threats are not easy to ferret out and just as difficult to stop in our very complex and interconnected world.

    From bioterrorism to natural disaster emergency management, predictive analytics used with geospatial tools and big data is proving to be a powerful new intelligence tool that may help counter global threats.

    TransVoyant Predictions

    TransVoyant CEO Dennis Groseclose.
    TransVoyant CEO Dennis Groseclose.

    Last year there was a lot of buzz at GEOINT surrounding a relatively new company in this field called TransVoyant. Several weeks ago, I visited TransVoyant’s Alexandria, Virginia, headquarters to learn more about their capabilities first hand. I was fortunate to be able to speak with TransVoyant CEO Dennis Groseclose, an Air Force Academy graduate who, with Tim Fleischer, a Naval Academy graduate and successful entrepreneur (Radian, PD Systems), co-founded TransVoyant.

    Previously, Dennis led industrial base optimization restructure for the $37 billion dollar unmanned space launch program for the U.S. Air Force; directed and implemented Worldwide Supply Chain Optimization for IBM; and served as vice president at Lockheed Martin. These experiences built his expertise to solve complex supply chain and global risk management problems using advanced analytical intelligence. In 2011, Dennis and Tim put their collective experience together to form TransVoyant, a company that specializes in creating live and predictive insights from real-time big data.

    The Internet of Things (IoT) has been a key component of their operation. In the mid-80s, connected remote sensors numbered in the thousands. In 2016 that number is expected to reach 6 billion connected “things” worldwide with estimates of 30 billion by 2020.

    TransVoyant collects, cleanses and analyzes over 200,000 external events around the world every minute (such as severe weather, natural disasters, labor strikes, inventory locations, news, terrorism incidents, disease outbreaks and energy prices) from real-time IoT data sources such as sensors, radar, GPS, satellites, smartphones and meters. It then continuously applies advanced data scientist-crafted analytics to these data streams to assess important current and future behaviors, impacts, correlations, patterns and exceptions that deliver live and predictive insights ranging from forecasts of port disruptions and precise shipment arrival times to forecasts of economic flows to real-time and predicted threats to people and assets. The resulting insights — provided via cloud services, system API connections, email and mobile applications — improve mission-critical decision making.

    The geospatial grid connection

    This was all sounding like science fiction and black magic until an “aha moment” for me, as Dennis explained how they use a “multi-dimensional grid cell mathematics” based data structure to apply complex algorithms to real-world data and events. This put the very complex process of continuous real-time machine analysis that “understands” normal and abnormal behavior, both current and future, into something that was familiar to me.

    Decades ago, I used the first release of ArcINFO GRID, now called ArcGIS Spatial Analyst, to complete my master’s thesis. For those of you that haven’t used a grid-cell-based GIS, let me highlight the differences between that and traditional GIS software.

    Traditional GIS software describes our world as points, lines or polygons with topology describing the mathematical spatial relationship between each geographic element and its linked record in a database. This topological model is somewhat cumbersome and slow because the shapes and topological relationships are complex.

    Grid: David Kidner, Mark Dorey & Derek Smith, University of Glamorgan, Wales, U.K. CF37 1DL
    Grid: David Kidner, Mark Dorey & Derek Smith, University of Glamorgan, Wales, U.K. CF37 1DL

    The other kind of GIS is a grid cell or raster-based GIS. The data model is significantly simpler because — unlike a traditional GIS of points, lines and polygons — the grid-based GIS world is broken up into simple uniform grid cells.

    The big advantage is that the data structure and tools lend themselves to very fast processing. Almost any mathematical formula can be used to operate on the individual or collective grid cells. Most grid-based systems use predefined mathematical operations such as shortest path analysis, interpolation including Kriging or very complex formulas using map algebra.

    So, very similar to the famous Napoleon Hill quote, “Whatever the mind can conceive… it can achieve.” With a grid cell GIS, if an analyst can think of a way to describe an analytical process and predictive results as a mathematic expression or formula, it can be done very quickly in the grid cell environment. (See two previous columns for more in-depth information — “GRID Cell Modeling” and “Topology is not Topography”.)

    So what does grid cell GIS look like in action?

    Evacuations during a flood.
    Evacuations during a flood.

    Proactive Emergency Response

    In my discussions with Dennis, a TransVoyant customer segment that caught my attention was support of first responders. Emergency responders are using TransVoyant to help with very early disaster response. One specific example is evacuation of invalid patients before a flooding disaster becomes life threatening.

    A hospital evacuation.
    A hospital evacuation.

    Using TransVoyant’s analytics on an extensive network of satellite imagery, 911 and 311 calls, water-stage sensors, street closures, weather forecasts, registries and more, responders can predict areas that are at high risk for flooding hours before flood waters rise. Among other essential emergency management actions, these early warnings provide emergency responders with the ability to identify specific neighborhoods and homes that have disabled residents who can be easily evacuated, increasing the safety and efficiency of their operations.

    Here is a screen capture of TransVoyant Continuous Decision Intelligence (CDI) predicting a flood event.

    TransVoyant Continuous Decision Intelligence (CDI) predicts a flood.
    TransVoyant Continuous Decision Intelligence (CDI) predicts a flood.

    Other Clients

    TransVoyant’s live and predictive insight solutions have attracted customers ranging from large multinational corporations to National Security and Intelligence agencies.

    I know that one hears echoes of Minority Report when reviewing the tools and capabilities of TransVoyant. However, given the serious threat we face for a situation far worse than 9/11, I have no reservations about using open-source data aggregation and brilliant analytics that correlate and uncover patterns of life and global anomalies to divine a threat.

    So, will predictive analytics be the tool that stops a bio terrorist or saves lives in critical emergency situations? I don’t know, but the potential threat is too grave not try every tool, including continuous precognition, in our collective toolbox.

    TransVoyant will be an exhibitor at GEOINT 2016 this month, so stop by and learn more.

    Since we are approaching Mother’s Day and Memorial Day, I’d like to call your attention to my May 2014 column. It’s the best column I ever wrote.

  • CaGIS discusses upcoming world conference at FedGIS

    Eric Anderson describes the Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CaGIS) and its world conference, coming to Washington, D.C., in 2017. He was interviewed by GeoIntelligence Insider columnist Art Kalinski for geospatial-solutions.com at the Esri Federal GIS Conference, held Feb. 24-25 in Washington, D.C.