Author: Eric Gakstatter

FAA just gave US commercial drone industry major shot in the arm
Mark June 21, 2016, on your calendar.

This will be known as the day in geospatial history that the floodgates were opened for small drones to be used for business. On that day, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officially introduced new rules (so-called Part 107) that allow businesses to fly small (under 55 pounds) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the U.S. airspace for business purposes.

There are still a few rules that need to be adhered to, but no longer do “wannabe” UAV pilots need to go through the painful FAA 333 Exemption process to begin flying UAVs for business purposes. The FAA has created a pilot certificate specifically for UAV pilots called the “Remote Pilot Certificate” that does not require any manned aircraft training.

Previously, UAV pilots authorized by the FAA were required to at least have an FAA Sport Pilot Certificate, which required at least 20 hours of manned flight training, among other things. Deployment of the new Remote Pilot Certificate will begin just two months from now, in August 2016, according to this announcement by the FAA.

In a nutshell, following is the operating environment under the new Remote Pilot (Part 107) rules:
- Remote Pilot Certificate.
- Be at least 16 years old. Pass a three-hour aeronautical knowledge test at an FAA Knowledge Test Center, requiring about 20 hours of study. Pay a $150 fee. The certificate is valid for two years.
- Complete FAA Form 8710-13.
- Maximum operating altitude is 400 feet AGL, or 400 feet AGL (above ground level) from a structure (e.g. building, roof).
- Visual observer (VO) is now optional (was required under 333 Exemption) except if the pilot uses First Person View technology, then a VO is required.
- UAV must weigh less than 55 pounds.
- UAV must fly less than 100 miles per hour.
- You can’t fly over anyone who is not directly participating in the operation, and not under a covered structure.
- You can pilot a UAV from a moving vehicle in “sparsely populated” areas, but otherwise must be stationary (e.g. no piloting from other aircraft).
- Daylight-only operations.
- Pilot can only operate one UAV at a time.
- Operations in Class G airspace are allowed without air traffic control (ATC) permission. Operations in Class B, C, D and E airspace need ATC approval. See description of US airspace here.
- Operator does not have to be a certificated pilot if a certificated pilot is along side the operator.
- Pilot must maintain VLOS (visual line of sight) of the UAS at all times.
If you have a requirement that exceeds one of more of the above restrictions, the FAA says that as long as you can show that your operation can be carried out in a safe manner, you can request a waiver (Certificate of Waiver and Authorization – CoA) via an FAA portal.

Links to key FAA documents on the new ruling:
- FAA Fact sheet – Small UAS Ruling
- Summary of Small UAS Ruling
- Small UAS Advisory Circular – How to use the rule
- Complete text of the Small UAS Rule (it’s a few hundred pages)
- FAA Fact Sheet on State and Local UAS Laws
The remaining major hurdle for commercial operations is the requirement to maintain VLOS, which still is required under the new rules. With a rotary UAV (e.g. quad-copter) like what I fly, this requirement is easy to adhere to since the UAV isn’t traveling very fast and if you simply let go of the control sticks, it will hover. With a fixed-wing (conventional airplane airframe) UAV, this is not so easy. A fixed-wing can travel 30 to 40 mph, and can be out of VLOS within one minute, and it’s always moving. Nonetheless, even with the VLOS rule still in place, the new Part 107 rules grant a new, easily accessible and powerful tool to collect high-precision geospatial data.

The good news for geospatial professionals is that more UAV companies are focusing on the professional marketplace.

In 2009, 3D Robotics started targeting the DIY (do-it-yourself) UAV market, then the consumer market, and now are focusing on the professional markets like GIS, construction, etc.

[Related: 3DR demos Site Scan at Esri UC]

Because the rules have opened up to a much broader audience, expect more vendors to offer more products and services for professional UAV operators. For example, at the Esri International User Conference this week in San Diego, Esri showcased its Drone2Map software product that allows Esri software users to process and consume UAV data into the ArcGIS ecosystem.

It’s no longer hype, folks. UAVs are here to stay, and they are becoming an increasingly powerful tool in the geospatial toolbox. The great news is that will all the UAV hype over the last few years, there’s many different vendors offering UAV hardware and softwares for you to choose from. All that competition will be reflected in the quality and price of UAVs on the market, benefitting the consumer.

Thanks, and see you next month.

Follow me on Twitter at @GPSGIS_Eric.
June 30, 2016
Esri introduces high-precision GNSS mobile GIS software

In its 47-year history, Esri has never before built a high-precision GNSS mobile GIS software . Sure, one could connect a high-precision GNSS receiver to ArcGIS Mobile or even ArcGIS desktop running on a tablet, but in those cases and all others, there’s no direct support for high-precision GNSS receivers.

By support, I mean the software features that one needs to automatically collect reliable, verifiable and defensible high-precision GNSS coordinates and associated metadata, like real-time estimated accuracy, correction age and other metadata that can be referenced months or years later to understand the quality of the data collected.

Until now…

Collector for ArcGIS is a cross-platform mobile GIS app that’s available for iOS, Windows 10 and Android. Until now, Collector did not differentiate between low-precision GNSS data (for instance, a smartphone’s internal GNSS receiver) and RTK GNSS (centimeter-accuracy) receivers, so it was difficult to know what sort of accuracy one was achieving even when a centimeter-accurate receiver was connected to it.

Esri is on its way to solving this problem.

Earlier this month, Esri introduced a beta version of the new Collector for ArcGIS mobile GIS software that incorporates features for high-precision GNSS data collection. While Collector has been around for a few years, it has not allowed the user to differentiate between low-precision GNSS data (such as a smartphone internal GNSS receiver) and RTK GNSS (centimeter-accuracy) receivers. To circumvent that limitation, high-precision GNSS receiver vendors offered companion apps that run concurrently with Collector to display metadata. However, that’s not a fun solution because if the user wants to records GNSS metadata, he would have to tab between apps and hand-enter the GNSS metadata into attribute fields in Collector.

Another nagging problem for high-precision GNSS users with Collector is the lack of an on-the-fly datum transformation feature. Sources of high-precision GNSS receiver corrections come in different datum flavors (ITRF08, NAD83/2011, NAD83/CSRS, etc.). Those datum flavors don’t necessarily match a user’s GIS database, sometimes introducing a meter or more of error.

Historically, Collector didn’t give the user an opportunity to apply an on-the-fly datum transformation to reconcile datum differences between the high-precision GNSS receiver datum and the geodatabase datum. Yeah, you could fix it later by applying a datum shift after the fact, but it’s a tedious and laborious task to do so, and sort of defeats the purpose of having an efficient real-time GNSS data collection workflow.

I was using the beta version of iOS Collector for ArcGIS this week with a survey-grade RTK GNSS receiver that, according to GPS World’s 2016 Receiver Survey, delivers 1-centimeter RTK accuracy. Setting up the GNSS correction profile is a bit tricky. There are three settings you need to select. Following is a screen capture of the profile settings I used for RTK in Collector when the RTK base was referenced to NAD83/2011:

When setting up a GNSS receiver profile to use WAAS/SBAS as a source of corrections in Collector, you’ll need to select GCS ITRF 2008 instead of GCS NAD 1983 2011.

Once I got the proper datum transformations dialed in, RTK GNSS accuracy was where it should be when compared to a survey mark (3.7mm):

Another tricky area with Collector is the GNSS metadata. It’s great that Collector supports automated GNSS metadata recording, but in order for Collector to record GNSS metadata, you’ll need to follow the Esri data model for GNSS metadata. Essentially, add fields to your database that will be populated. Here’s a link to the supported GNSS metadata fields. http://arcg.is/22h41yR. Note that you’ll need to log in using your Esri account credentials to view the link.

I didn’t add the GNSS metadata fields to the database to try it because this iOS beta version doesn’t support GNSS metadata (Esri says it will be supported on the next beta release), I did collect a bit of data. Here’s what the Collector screen looks like:

Some of the fields on the iPad Mini were cut off (I’ll report that to Esri), but you can see that it is entirely possible for Collector (iOS) to accept and record data from an iPad using an RTK GNSS receiver (note accuracy value at the bottom left corner of the screen.

So, to Esri’s credit, they’ve appeared to address the GNSS metadata and datum transformation problems in the beta release of Collector, making it the first Esri mobile GIS that supports high-precision GNSS. The iOS and Windows 10 beta versions are available now to users who register for Esri’s Collector beta program. For support and answers to questions, you can visit Geonet.

Before you get too excited, even with the new features Collector is still a light-weight mobile GIS and likely always will be, as long as it’s a free app (although not always free to use). But this is certainly a move in the right direction for high-precision GNSS receiver users who want to live in the Esri ArcGIS Online/Portal/Server ecosystem and rid themselves of shp files.

Some of you may beg to differ that Collector is Esri’s first high-precision GNSS mobile GIS data collection software. I know ArcPad has been around for years and has supported high-precision GNSS receivers for many years. In fact, if you install the GeoBullsEye plug-in, ArcPad becomes the only 3D, high-precision GNSS data collection software that works real time in the Esri AGOL/Portal/Server ecosystem. But, it wasn’t built by Esri :-). An Australian company named Maptel built ArcPad, and then Esri acquired the company a few years ago.

While the beta versions of Collector for Windows 10 and iOS are available now, Esri reports that the beta version of Collector for Android should be available next week.

Thanks, and see you next month.
Follow me on Twitter at GPSGIS_Eric

May 19, 2016
FAA makes progress accommodating commercial UAS operations
The sensefly eXom UAV in flight.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) took a major step forward in expanding commercial UAS/UAV operations in the U.S. airspace. It’s chief said April 19 that the FAA is preparing to take another major step forward in further opening up commercial UAS/UAV operations by eliminating the need for a 333 Exemption for operating small UAS/UAV.

On March 29, the FAA announced it was doubling the altitude for blanket nationwide CoAs (Certificates of Waiver or Authorization) to 400 feet above ground level (AGL). The FAA has typically issued a blanket nationwide CoA with each 333 Exemption it has granted.

Before the announcement, the maximum altitude allowed for commercial operations under the blanket CoA was 200 feet AGL. Now, it is 400 feet AGL. At the stroke of a pen, the 3,000+ 333 Exemption holders with blanket CoAs are now authorized to fly to 400 feet. This is significant because UAS operators can now fly higher and cover more area more efficiently, and still meet the precision and accuracy requirements of most clients.

Another announcement, perhaps even more important, was made by FAA Administrator Michael Huerta, who spoke at the 2016 FAA UAS Symposium held April 19-20 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Huerta announced that the FAA is close to finalizing the FAA rules for small UAS.

“In late spring we plan to finalize our small UAS rule to eliminate the need for most 333 exemptions,” Huerta said. He was referring to the Small UAS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that was announced Feb. 15, 2015, and opened for public comment through April 24, 2015. There were 4,650 public comments made. You can read the comments about the proposed rule here.

The proposed small UAS rule differs significantly from the current FAA requirements for operating UAS in the United States for commercial purposes. One of the major differences is that there will be a “UAS operator’s certificate” created so that commercial UAS pilots will no longer be required to have a FAA Pilot Certificate. Currently, the FAA requires commercial UAS pilots to have at least an FAA Sport Pilot certificate, which requires a substantial investment in money and time to achieve.

To summarize, the general proposed small UAS rules are:

UAS pilot
- Must be at least 17 years old.
- Must pass an aeronautical test at FAA-approved testing center, and renewed every 24 months.
- Must be vetted by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
- Must obtain an unmanned aircraft operator certificate with a small UAS rating
UAS operation
- UASmust weigh less than 55 pounds.
- Pilot in Command or Visual Observer must maintain visual line of sight (VLOS).
- Can’t operate over people who are not part of the UAS operation.
- Daylight operations only.
- Yield to manned aircraft.
- May use Visual Observer (VO), but not required.
- First-person view camera cannot satisfy “see-and-avoid” requirement but can be used as long as requirement is satisfied in other ways.
- Maximum airspeed of 100 mph.
- Maximum altitude of 500 feet AGL (above ground level).
- Minimum weather visibility of 3 miles from control station.
- Can’t operate more than one UAS at a time.
- No careless or reckless operations.
- Operations in Class B, C, D and E airspace are allowed with the required ATC permission.
- Operations in Class G airspace are allowed without ATC permission.
With these rules, neither a 333 Exemption nor a CoA is required, which would significantly ease the requirements for a surveying or geospatial company to begin offering UAS services.

The DJI Phantom 4 UAV.

In addition, the small UAS rule includes a framework to adapt future rules such as Micro UAS (0.55 pounds and under) rules that are being actively discussed within the FAA as well as a discussion about commercial operation of UAS over people.

In the meantime, consumer UAS are becoming more powerful with each new product introduction. DJI, the world’s largest UAS manufacturer (by far) introduced the Phantom 4. It’s a huge step forward due to one new feature: automatic collision avoidance. This feature will help operators avoid trees, buildings and potentially other UAS. I’m pretty sure this feature will eventually be included in all commercial UAS.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich gives his keynote presentation at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show Jan. 5, in Las Vegas, where he also announced the acquisition of Ascending Technologies for drone collision avoidance. (Photo: Intel)

Automatic collision avoidance is such a hot subject that in January, Intel acquired Ascending Technologies, a UAS manufacturer that has incorporated automatic sense and avoid technology in their UAS. According to the announcement, Intel sees “incredible opportunity for innovation across a multitude of industries. As a result, Intel is positioning itself at the forefront of this opportunity to increasingly integrate the computing, communications, sensor and cloud technology required to make drones smarter and more connected.”

Thanks, and see you next month.

Follow me on Twitter at GPSGIS_Eric
April 22, 2016
What really matters to GIS professionals

Last week I attended a workshop sponsored by the Oregon GPS User’s Group (soon to be Oregon GNSS User’s Group). OGUG invited Michael Dennis, RLS, PE, current Ph.D. geomatics student, former full-time National Geodetic Survey (NGS) employee, all-around smart guy and entertaining speaker to present an all-day workshop entitled “Space Time and Datum Forensics – A Geodetic Workshop.” Let me tell you, its 260 slides of stuff that matters in GIS, surveying and GNSS if you’re working with data at the sub-meter level and better.

The audience was largely surveyors, and that’s a problem. I’d go as far as saying that it’s significantly more important for GIS professionals to understand this topic than surveyors. The reason is because surveyors are project-oriented. For example, Joe Surveyor is hired to complete a boundary and topo survey for a new commercial real estate development project. He does the research, does the field work, completes the deliverables, issues an invoice, and places the project file into storage. Joe might look at the file again in six months when construction begins and may never look at it again after that.

Surveyors are short-term, project-based data generators. On the other hand, GIS professionals are long-term data managers. Therefore, for surveyors, their data doesn’t require accuracy, it requires precision. On the other hand, GIS professionals value accuracy much more, or at least they should.

The reason is because all the data layers in their GIS need to play together. GIS layers need to be spatially consistent. Managing a spatial and tabular-robust GIS database is a substantially more complex task than the typical surveyor encounters. Perhaps that complexity is one of the reasons that the spatial geodesy of a GIS database largely falls below the noise floor. In other words, there are much larger problems to tackle in a substantial GIS database other than geodesy.

How many surveyors have ever had to deal with SAP databases? How about an SDE (how many of you had to Google the acronym)? How about writing a script that queries a MySQL database to extract features with particular attributes? That’s just the beginning.

Before a surveyor criticizes a GIS for its accuracy, or lack thereof, that person should spend some time dealing with some of the data-management issues encountered by a GIS professional. There are entire conferences focused on only this subject. That’s what GIS is all about: data management, long-term data management.

A GIS doesn’t get filed after every project is completed; it gets added to the last project, and with each project, the database grows larger, more unwieldy, and likely more difficult to manage. And then, someone or some company throws a curveball at them, a new schema, a new operating system, or a new enterprise GIS software version that impacts the entire database. The IT department gets involved, and then procurement gets involved. Before you know it, it’s meetings after meetings. You get the picture.

Among all of the complex GIS database management issues, the geodesy of GIS has stayed below the noise floor. In other words, it’s been largely ignored. But as I’ve written in the past for GPS World magazine and this publication, GNSS, remote sensing and other sensors are becoming cheaper, faster and more precise. Therefore, data being appended to GIS databases are becoming more precise.

This creates challenges by highlighting the legacy inaccurate or imprecise data in the GIS database, which in turn creates the necessity for another decision to be made: what should we do about it? The answer to that question is for another article, or three.

With that, there are a few slides from Michael’s total of 260 slides in the workshop that I would like to highlight.

His second slide is one my favorites. It’s a bit rhetorical in that there is no answer, but succinctly states the problem. The value of a GIS database is the relationship of spatial data amongst its elements. How close is the gas pipeline to the nearest home? Where’s the shut-off valve for main water line on First Street? Which homes will be at risk of flooding during a storm surge in Galveston, Texas? How fast will the latest virus likely spread if the first case is discovered in Atlanta vs. Nowhere, USA? GIS can answer these questions, but its answers are only as good as the data in the GIS. Good ol’ garbage-in, garbage-out.

Before we get into the weeds, this is another setup slide that succinctly frames the challenge.

To be clear, a coordinate system always includes a datum (a.k.a. geographic coordinate system, geometric reference system/frame), and it may or may not also include a map projection. Examples of projected coordinate systems include UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator), US SPC (State Plane Coordinates), Web Mercator (think Google Earth), Lambert Conformal Conic, and Gauss-Kruger for my European brethren. These systems must always include a specific datum. Common geodetic datums are ITRF08, IGS08, NAD83, NAD27, ED50, and WGS-84. You may have different map projections for each datum. For example, UTM or SPC can be referenced to NAD83. It’s a straight-forward mathematical operation to change the projection if the underlying datum is the same. However, UTM coordinates referenced to NAD83 or WGS-84 is a different subject altogether. Going to/from UTM/NAD83 to UTM/WGS-84 is far from being a straight-forward mathematical operation.

The next feature slide gets into the weeds a bit. This is a subject I’ve written about for a few years and was somewhat highlighted in two articles I wrote (and a webinar I moderated) called “Nightmare on GIS Street.” How many of you think you use data referenced to WGS-84?

WGS-84 referenced data is probably the most widely mis-used. As you can see from the above slide, the definition of WGS-84 has changed over time. You’ll never find a survey mark on the ground with coordinates referenced to WGS-84. If you do, it’s wrong. This is because it’s a military thing. WGS-84 is managed by the US Department of Defense. More specifically, the US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (formerly NIMA, formerly DMA). Fortunately, in recent years, the Department of Defense has aligned WGS-84 with ITRF (International Terrestrial Reference Frame) — most recently to ITRF08 — and ITRF/IGS coordinates are publically available. For example, IGS08 (International GNSS Service of 2008) coordinates are published for NGS CORS and available in NGS OPUS solutions (for the purpose of this discussion we can consider ITRF and IGS the same). However, there is a caveat: ITRF08/IGS08/WGS-84 coordinates are referenced to specific dates (epochs).

WGS-84 was aligned with ITRF08 at epoch 2005.00, meaning that the WGS-84 coordinates were defined for the date of January 1, 2005. NGS publishes IGS08 coordinates at epoch 2005.00 for CORS. But OPUS solutions give IGS08 coordinates at the date of the GPS data file, and both autonomous and WAAS-corrected GPS gives positions at the mid-year epoch of the current year (i.e., positions are now at epoch 2016.5). This matters because stuff moves, including the ground you are standing on. Some places move more than others. California moves more than Missouri. Chile moves more than Germany. January 1, 2005 is 11+ years ago. If the ground is moving 3cm/yr, that’s 33cm over 11+ years. If you’re counting centimeters, that’s quite a few of them.

Software vendors have a hard time keeping up with modern datum transformations, and this next slide is a perfect example of that. It’s not just one vendor. Nearly all software vendors “aren’t doing it right.” In this slide, this software vendor displays 10 different transformations from “WGS84” to “NAD83”. Which one do you use? None of them get it right.

The most accurate one is still 20 cm in error. The worst is more than a meter in error. It makes you wonder why you spent $8,000 on that sub-foot GPS handheld when your GIS software may be introducing three feet of error.

Finally, should you be concerned about this stuff?

If you expect some of your data layers to be accurate to less than three meters, the answer is “yes.”

I’ll likely continue this discussion next month or in the coming months,and also provide a link to Michael’s 260-page slideshow.

Thanks, and see you next month.

Follow me on Twitter at GPSGIS_Eric

March 17, 2016
ArcGIS Earth: Google Earth, GIS style

For most GIS professionals, Esri’s new ArcGIS Earth will replace the soon-to-be-discontinued Google Earth Enterprise. I take a tour through the new software, which is much like Google Earth with a few added features. Plus: Q&A from our December UAV webinar.

In early 2015, Google announced that Google Earth Enterprise is being deprecated. In the software world, deprecated means the software is heading towards obsolescence and the vendor isn’t going to develop it further.

Google’s announcement stated that Google Earth Enterprise was being deprecated as of March 20, 2015, but will be supported through March 22, 2017. According to Esri, Google will continue to provide map and location services APIs as well as content.

Here comes Esri, introducing ArcGIS Earth.

At the Esri User Conference last summer, Jack Dangermond announced Esri is working on ArcGIS Earth. Last week, Esri announced the introduction of ArcGIS Earth 1.0. You can download ArcGIS Earth for free.

The opening screen looks a lot like Google Earth, but clearly with an Esri touch via the toolbar in the upper left corner.

You can connect to ArcGIS Online and access its library of data, or import SHP and KML data (no TIF/TFW import, though).

Here are the convenient editing and querying tools (measure).

I imported a KML file containing an orthophoto I created from a UAV flight. Sorry for the orthophoto offset (darned horizontal datum thing).

As it stands now, ArcGIS Earth 1.0 is much like Google Earth with a few added features. However, based on what I perceive Jack Dangermond’s mantra to be, ArcGIS Earth is going to evolve into a powerful mapping tool and platform for consumerizing feature-rich GIS data, much like Google Earth did in the past 10 years, but in a much more GIS way. I look forward to that.

December’s UAV webinar

Speaking of imagery, Google Earth and UAVs, in December I participated in a webinar entitled “Introduction to Using UAVs for Mapping” along with my colleagues from Applanix and C-ASTRAL. If you missed the webinar, you can still view it by signing up here.

It was a solid, 60-minute discussion about the basics of mapping using UAVs. We had a few questions that we didn’t have time to address during the webinar, so I provide answers below. Also, I added some questions that may have been answered, but deserve mention again.

How significant is the quality of GNSS sensors for UAV mapping performance?

In my experience so far, you need precision GNSS measurements either in the air or on the ground if you want high-accuracy results. If you want to use a consumer UAV that has a consumer GNSS receiver in it, you’ll need to use more ground-control points that are mapped with high-precision GNSS receivers. On a wide-open 150-acre site (think agriculture field), that means setting 10-15 ground-control targets. On the other hand, if your UAV has an RTK GNSS receiver in it, you can get by with very few ground-control points. The type of topography also has a significant impact. For example, heavy tree cover, water bodies and other homogenous terrain (such as snow) make it more difficult for image-processing software to process the images.

How accurate can volumes be obtained on stockpiles?

I plan on running some tests and compare volumes computed using terrestrial measurement techniques vs. volumes computed by low-cost UAV images. Based on my experience, I’m willing to wager that the results will be very close.

What are the reasonable accuracies achievable with UAV mapping these days?

With a low-cost UAV (12MP camera), I’m collecting images with a 2-cm/pixel resolution. Horizontal accuracy (with RTK ground control points) is 30 cm or better. Thirty centimeter (30 cm) elevation contours are achievable, and possibly better than that. I’m still exploring how far we can push low-cost UAVs.

Can we use a UAV with our own GPS-RTK base station?

The best use of your GPS-RTK base station is to use it to set RTK ground control for image processing. It’s likely not feasible that you can send corrections from your GPS-RTK base to the UAV unless the UAV is specifically designed to accept those corrections.

Can you tell us the benefits of fixed wing vs. rotary UAVs for mapping work (such as considerations of weather conditions and the benefits of a gimbal-based camera versus a non-gimbal camera typical in fixed-wing UAVs)?

A fixed-wing UAV can cover a much greater area per battery than a rotary UAV, but if you’re located in the U.S., you are restricted to line-of-sight operations. That severely limits the value of a fixed-wing UAV. Fixed-wing UAVs also require a much larger landing area and are trickier to land. It takes much more training to land a fixed-wing UAV than a rotary UAV. I can’t answer your question about gimbal vs. non-gimbal, except that the rotary UAV that I operate has a gimbal for dampening the effects of vibration. With it, vibration doesn’t seem to be an issue.

In forestry, one of the real challenges is stitching the photos together. Did I hear right that RTK will ensure stitching will be greatly improved?

In my limited experience with flying over heavy tree canopy, the best way to handle this scenario is to fly with a heavy overlap (such as 90 percent) or fly at a higher elevation. Since most commercial authorizations in the U.S. limit flight elevation to 200 feet, there’s not a choice to fly higher, so you must fly with a higher overlap.

Eric, could you change the camera to a near infrared camera?

Mine is a consumer UAV, so there’s little support for customization unless I want to really tear it apart myself. There is some after-market support for NDVI and NIR sensors on consumer UAVs, but I’m not knowledgeable about the quality of those. I think that after-market and manufacturer support of various sensors (cameras, NIR, NDVI, lidar) will become more popular on higher-end consumer UAVs.

Eric, the contours seem to capture the curbs in the upper right. Is that correct?

Correct, it’s pretty impressive for a consumer UAV. Granted, I set a dozen or so RTK ground-control points on a 5-acre site, but I’m pretty sure I could cut that in half and achieve the same result. By the way, I should smooth the elevation contours next time.

What software was used to create DEM?

I used Agisoft PhotoScan Pro.

Currently, the use of UAVs seems to be limited to a relatively small project area and required line of sight. Within the natural resource sector, what is the critical barrier at this point to expanding the project size and thus the range of flight — is it technology or air traffic regulations?

In the U.S., the limitation is a regulatory one. The FAA requires visual line-of-sight at all times when operating the UAV. The FAA is testing beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS), and we hope that someday BVLOS rules will be issued for commercial operators. For now, you are correct in that UAVs are limited to relatively small areas.

How do the new FAA drone registration rules affect commercial mapping?

According to the FAA, you need to apply for a Section 333 Exemption and CoA (Certificate of Authorization or Waiver) from the FAA to fly UAVs for commercial purposes. This applies even if you want to fly above your own land or even if you don’t charge for flying. If you fly for any other purpose than as a hobby, it gets complicated very quickly.

Look for more content on UAVs in the near future. I’m pushing consumer UAVs to the maximum to see what we can reliably expect from them.

See you next month.

Follow me on Twitter.

January 28, 2016
Boxes and Boxes of Professional-Grade Tools
Geospatial data is everywhere. Many times I’ve shown the following photo I shot at the Esri User Conference several years ago. At the Field Technology Conference in November, I talked about this. Actually, I believe I’ve talked about the topic at nearly every Field Technology Conference since the inaugural event in 2010. Geospatial data long ago left the user domain of thousands and is rapidly headed toward billions.

One of the many developments driving that growth was the appearance of Google Earth in 2004, sprung from Google’s acquisition of Keyhole. Suddenly there was easy-to-use software to visualize geospatial data. At about the same time, Navteq (now HERE) and TeleAtlas (now TomTom) — two of the premiere geospatial data companies at the time — were gaining tremendous momentum in the exploding GPS car navigation market because they were, and still are, the two companies that provide the vast majority of the map data to the Garmins and TomToms (and others) of the world.

Professional Mapping

Today, Google Earth and Google Maps are still the defacto standard for “desktop mapping” by the general consumer. Google Earth Pro, the company’s offering to the high-end mapping market, formerly available on a subscription basis, will soon be free, as of January 2016. Previously the user received the following, and one supposes the same will continue to hold true:
- Advanced measurements: Polygon area measurement. Determine affected radius.
- High-resolution printing: Print images up to 4800 x 3200 pixels.
- Pro data layers: Demographics, parcels, traffic count.
- Import spreadsheet data: Import up to 2,500 addresses at a time.
- Import Esri and MapInfo-formatted data: Import .shp and .tab files.
- Make HD movies: Make Windows Media and QuickTime HD movies.
To download Google Earth Pro, register for a license key and download for Windows or Mac.

Creating 3D Visualizations

Trimble offers another cool geospatial tool that was once part of the Google portfolio. SketchUp is a powerful software for creating 3D visualizations (think 3D structures and objects).

Building that was modeled in SketchUp and overlaid in Google Earth

Both free SketchUp and fee-based SketchUp Pro versions are available. If your work includes generating renderings for clients, the latter can be valuable. You can download a free trial version here.

SketchUp pro is designed for architects, engineers, and design and construction professionals, as well as members of the global maker community. Its capabilities include:
- Professional Drafting: Using a 2D drawing and documentation tool, users can manage drawings and display data from their information models, applying object classifications and accessing that info with an annotation tool.
- Modeling Tools: With a 3-point arc tool, users can draw arced edges four different ways. A rotated rectangle tool allows for drawing precise rectangles unbound by default axes.
- 3D Warehouse: Models of popular brand-name building products are among a broad free content offering, more than 2.5 million models.
Integrating with Other Geospatial Tools

In coordination with Google, Esri has prepared a transition offer to ArcGIS for Google Earth Enterprise and Google Maps Engine customers and partners. ArcGIS provides 2D and 3D mapping and analysis in desktop, server and hosted environments. The system provides an infrastructure for making maps and geographic information available throughout an organization, across a community and openly on the Web.

Among its features:
- Geoprocessing: a 3D analyst incorporating a LAS dataset toolset and visibility toolset; and conversion, data management, multi-dimension and spatial analyst toolboxes.
- Geodata: connections to read-only databases or geodatabases in Oracle.
- Extensions: 3d analayst and spatial analyst extensions.
Esri will provide no-cost software to replace Google Earth Enterprise or Google Maps Engine technology, and will include no-cost training in ArcGIS.

Realizing the value and momentum of Google Earth to reach the consumer users of geospatial technology, Esri has also announced ArcGIS Earth, and its website says it is accepting beta testers.

At Play in the Fields of Google Earth Pro

For just a quick-and-dirty exercise, I imported some unsmoothed, 1-foot contour lines generated from a UAV flight and overlaid them in Google Earth Pro.

Planimetric view

Then, in true Google Earth fashion, I zoomed in to have an oblique ground view (with Mt. Hood in the background, some 74 kilometers in the distance).

Zoomed in oblique ground view

Finally, following is the UAV imagery overlaid in Google Earth Pro.

Screenshot of the UAV imagery overlaid in Google Earth Pro

Actually, the Google Earth Pro imagery looks pretty good, but you start to see the differences as you zoom in. It’s hard to beat UAV orthophoto resolution.

Google Earth imagery

UAV imagery shot with a 12-megapixel camera at 200 feet AGL (above ground level.)

Last month, I wrote that I’d post the presentations from the Field Technology Conference. Well, they aren’t quite ready, so we’ll have them for next month. There’s a great mix of presentations on GPS/GNSS, mobile devices, UAVs for mapping, laser rangefinders, various sensors and GIS software.

Happy Holidays and cheers to a prosperous New Year!

See you next month.

Follow me on Twitter at @GPSGIS_Eric.
December 17, 2015
Field Technology Conference: The forest and the fish

PORTLAND, Ore. — Two weeks ago, I attended (and hosted) the Field Technology Conference here in Portland, Oregon. This is the fifth year of the conference. In years past, it’s had a forestry emphasis primary because the Western Forestry and Conservation Association has been a major partner in organizing it.

This year, the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission and Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership joined the organizing committee. The result was a 50-percent increase in attendance and a more diverse audience.

Another newcomer to the conference was a Civil GPS Service Interface Committee (CGSIC) U.S. State and Local Government Subcommittee meeting, which was co-located with the Field Technology Conference, offering a direct connection between civil GPS users and U.S. government representatives who are involved in GPS.

The conference was a two-day event comprised of three technology tracks: a track for general field technology and two tracks for industry-specific (forestry and fisheries) subjects, hands-on technology demonstrations and a field trip. Although forestry and fisheries professionals were the featured user groups, nearly all of the subject matters — GPS, UAVs, smartphones, tablets, laser rangefinders, lidar, photogrammetry, and field data-collection software — is applicable for a wide range of natural resource users involved with GIS (geographic information systems) technology.

As one of the hosts of the conference, I started out moderating the general session with all of the attendees in one room. This year, my general session topics include geospatial awareness and growth, GPS/GNSS technology, mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) and UAVs.

Something new I tried this year, which worked out really well, was using audience response “clickers.” These small handheld devices were given to each audience member and allowed them to answer multiple choice questions that I posed in my Powerpoint presentation. I’ve always been a fan of audience input, and started polling the audience during webinars I conducted many years ago. For this conference, I used an audience polling system from Turning Technologies. I’d like to share with you the questions I asked the audience and the responses that I received.

Question #1: Are you here?

Comment: This was a test question to see if the audience response system was working properly. I’m still not sure if the audience just had a great sense of humor or a technical problem. I think the former was true. ☺

Question #2: Have you attended this conference before?

Comment: This was great news that the conference is attracting new attendees. It’s an annual event held in November, so keep your eyes on it for next year!

Question #3: After a brief discussion about the availability of higher accuracy geospatial data (eg. GNSS, UAVs, etc.), I was curious about the level of accuracy the audience required in their typical tasks.

What geospatial data accuracy do your typical tasks require?

Comment: I wasn’t sure what to expect with this question, but since I’ve polled a fisheries audience before, I had a feeling accuracy requirements would vary, and they did. Previously, a fisheries audience had told me that they were satisfied with 5-meter accuracy.

Question #4: The last question leads to this one. I wondered if the audience accuracy requirement was driven by requirement or by availability.

Are you satisfied with the accuracy of the geospatial data you use?

Comment: The answer is clear that, generally speaking, the audience would use higher accuracy geospatial data if it was available.

Question #5: The next question was a pure technology one. In the day of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), I’ve been very interested in monitoring the trends in mobile devices. The question about operating systems is relevant because it determines which data collection software you can use. For example, if a specific data-collection software is written only for Windows, it will not run on an Android or Apple (iOS) device.

Which operating system do you use on your mobile device(s)?

Comment: These responses surprised me a bit. They certainly don’t match the global market share figures that I’ve read. Following are the latest mobile device operating system market share numbers reported by IDC and Statista.

Question #6: The next part of my presentation discussed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, also known as UAS or drone) technology. UAVs were a significant part of the conference this year. We had many presentations and some static demonstrations on UAV technology. On this subject, I had several questions for the audience.

Do you currently use a UAS?

Comment: These answers were not surprising. Flying UAVs commercially in the U.S. requires a special permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). To date, the FAA has only issued about 2,000 such exemptions.

Question #7: Do you anticipate using a UAS?

Comment: These answers surprised me a bit. I had no idea the audience would be so interested in personally flying a UAV. This has me thinking about this the same way I think about GPS receivers — just another tool in the toolbox.

Question #8: How much are you willing to spend on a UAS?

Comment: These responses don’t surprise me, although I polled another audience at a different venue that was more engineering-oriented, and the answers were a bit different. The engineering-oriented audience was willing to spend more for a UAV.

Furthermore, in speaking with various attendees during the conference, there was quite a bit of interest in attaching different sensors to UAVs for various requirements. For example, lidar, multi-spectral and thermal (temperature) sensors were commonly mentioned as payloads they would like to see. The challenge is that the cost of a UAV rises sharply when these types of payloads are accommodated, and conflicts with the audience’s response about how much they are willing to pay for a UAV.

In next month’s column, I’ll post links to the papers presented at the Field Technology Conference as well as videos of papers presented by the CGSIC folks.

See you next month.

Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric

Source: FTC

November 30, 2015
Commercial UAV Expo: Seeking monetizable opportunity
Last month I wrote about the drone industry experiencing giddy enthusiasm. One of the points I mentioned was the upcoming Commercial UAV Expo, in which there were predicted to be 100+ exhibitors and 500-700 attendees — an exhibitor-to-attendee ratio of 1:5-7, an unusually low ratio for a conference. At INTERGEO in September, from where I wrote last month’s column, the ratio was 1:31.

Well, I attended the Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas last week. The organizers reported ~1,500 attendees instead of the predicted 500-700. Apparently, attendance even surprised the organizers because they ran out of attendee bags by the time I picked up my badge the day before the conference began.

It was a very good conference because there were legitimate users and potential users of drone technology. During sessions, the audience was focused, more so than at most conferences I’ve attended. I think the reason is clear. The audience, consisting of drone users, potential users and manufacturers, wants to know where in the rapidly developing drone market is there a chance to make money?

One of the more interesting presenters was Commonwealth Edison, an electric utility based in Chicago with more than 5 million customers. ComEd discussed its experience and applications for drones from substation tower inspections to transmission line surveys. A representative from CNN, the news organization, spoke about how they are using drones to capture images and videos of breaking news events such as the recent refugee crisis in Europe. Chad Colby, a farmer who claims more than 3,500 drone flights and is active on the drone conference speaking circuit, showed the audience the value of drones in agriculture, which is one of the no-brainer markets for drones. Presentations such as these and a handful of others struck home with the audience because they present meaningful, that is to say monetizable content.

Commonwealth Edison’s use cases for drones.

CNN use case for drones.

Chad Colby/Nolan Berg describe the impact of drones in the ag market.

Moving from current uses to future uses, British Petroleum (BP) displayed its drone wish list — likely one that most drone dreamers would like to see:

Platforms (hardware/software):
- Interoperability
- Continuous operation
- Autonomous air, land, water
- Robots that can maneuver around a facility
- Non-military pricing
Regulations:
- Tech standards — iSafe, ANSI, HSAC
- Beyond line of sight
- Data exchange formats
- Certification programs
- Night operations
Payloads:
- Miniaturized
- Varied – full EM spectrum, acoustic, gas sensing
Several of the items on BP’s wish list were recurring themes at the conference, with the big elephant in the room being beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS). The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has largely not allowed BLOS operations even for 333 Exemption holders like me. Following is an excerpt from the CoA (Certificate of Waiver or Authorization) issued by the FAA:

d. The PIC is responsible to ensure visual observer(s) are:
– Able to see the UA and the surrounding airspace throughout the entire flight

The Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) requirement seriously inhibits the value of drones for commercial use. When you consider that a rotorcraft (helicopter) might be less than two feet in diameter, it doesn’t have to travel very far before it’s difficult to see (without the aid of binoculars or similar devices, which are prohibited). However, rotorcraft are very flexible in that they can be controlled in a small area. They can hover and they can land in very small or constrained areas relatively safely. Fixed-wing (airplane) drones are a different story. At 30-50 miles per hour, it doesn’t take long for a fixed-wing drone to be out of VLOS. So, practically speaking, a fixed-wing drone for production-oriented flying is very limited, unless the operator disregards the FAA VLOS rule.

The other challenge with fixed-wing drones is the take-off, and more importantly, the landing space required to bring a fixed-wing drone back to earth in one piece. One fixed-wing manufacturer said you’ll need several hundred feet to land their aircraft, and that’s assuming a full payload (maximum weight). One has to wonder how fixed-wing drones will be deployed. One can quickly see how impractical it may be to launch a fixed-wing drone in something less than a city park, high school sports field or a crop field.

Ignoring the FAA VLOS (and other) rules is clearly what is happening. There is seemingly no constraint for manufacturers to tell prospective buyers “go ahead and operate on your own property, no one will care.” Farms, mining operations and some construction sites might be so rural that there’s not a human being in sight. In those scenarios, it seems the “no harm, no foul” rule is in effect, or more likely “don’t ask, don’t tell.” It’s definitely happening, to the point that critics are arguing that the FAA rules are so restrictive that it promotes illegal operations. Even a former NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) member wrote an article entitled “Unreasonable UAS Rules Promote Culture of Non-Compliance”.

However, just when you think it’s a drone free-for-all to fly where you want, the FAA pulls one out of its hat like it did last week and proposed a $1.9M fine to a Chicago-based company, SkyPan International, for conducting 65 drone flights without authorization. Mind you, these weren’t flights in rural Iowa taking pictures of corn fields. According to the FAA, the company flew 43 missions in New York City’s restricted airspace without prior authorization. Well, now we know where the FAA’s tolerance lies.

Back to the Commercial UAV Expo. While the enthusiasm during the technical sessions showed some restraint, it knew no bounds in some areas of the exhibition area. Vendors, especially the venture capital-funded ones, were looking to book orders now. Prices ranged from sub-$1,000 for a “prosumer” drone for snapping high-resolution images to a $100,000+ for the drone equipped with lidar or other specialized payload.

The exhibit hall at the Commercial UAV Expo.

Please don’t take my message the wrong way. There’s a lot of opportunity for drones in the commercial market segments, from agriculture to utility inspection to photography — but the game is very early. While the technical hurdles can be conquered, the regulatory hurdles are substantial. The FAA is working on rules for BVLOS, but as the FAA chairman said, a solution for that is a few years from now.

Thanks, and see you next month.

Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric
October 15, 2015
Drone Industry Experiences Giddy Enthusiasm

Last week, I attended the INTERGEO exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. It’s the largest geospatial conference in the world with more than 17,000 attendees from 92 countries flooding the exhibition halls. It’s quite different from other conferences I attend in that there are very few technical presentations to distract the attendees, so they swarm the exhibition halls like bees to a hive throughout the three-day event.

On the last day, yours truly was interviewed by INTERGEO TV on my thoughts about this year’s event. I had to restrain myself from promoting INTERGEO North America (I made that up). In a day when conferences are generally suffering, I think it would be a smash success to have a similar INTERGEO event in North America. It’s completely vendor-independent, so the attendees can enjoy a taste of a broad range of geospatial technology, no matter what their name is or who they compete against. To view a ~5 minute interview on my thoughts of this year’s INTERGEO conference, click below.

Our trusted videographer, Joelle Harms, was on fire this year and shot more than a dozen videos in various exhibition booths. They’ve been very popular in the past because they give a snapshot of various products and services offered by exhibitors at INTERGEO. The following ~10 minute video provides a solid overview of Day 3 at INTERGEO including comments from Trimble VP Bryn Fosburgh, Topcon Executive VP Eduardo Falcon, Esri Director Chris Cappelli, and Hexagon President/CEO Ola Rollen.

I know I’ll receive some feedback on using the word “Drone” instead of UAS or UAV. I’m sorry, but the word “drone” can be used without explanation. Every reader immediately understands the context. The same can’t be said for the term UAS or UAV. That said, I’m trying… :-)

Cruising through the INTERGEO exhibition, I experience drone saturation: drones for every conceivable purpose, in every conceivable corner of every exhibition hall. It’s giddy enthusiasm at its best. The reason is that there is very little proprietary technology used in drones, so the barrier to entry to design and manufacture a drone is low. The result is A LOT of competition. Drones of every size and shape filled the halls at INTERGEO. By far, it was the dominant technology on display. But how many buyers are there?

Yes, the industry giant, China-based company DJI at ~70% market share will be the first drone manufacturer to exceed annual revenue of $1B this year, up from $130M in 2013 according to the Wall Street Journal. Not bad for a college dorm room start-up that was founded just nine years ago. They are the Garmin or TomTom of the drone world. I own a DJI drone. It’s the real deal. In second place is 3D Robotics, founded in 2009, and is estimated to finish 2015 at $40M in revenue. A distant second, and nearing a place where there’s a sea of sameness.

The drone industry is a place of sellers looking for buyers, in a ratio rarely seen. For example, at INTERGEO, there were ~17,000 visiting ~550 exhibitors which computes to ~31 attendees for every exhibitor. In two weeks, I’ll be attending and speaking at the Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas. There will be in excess of 100 exhibitors while the number of attendees will range somewhere between 500 and 1,000. That could be as few as five attendees for each exhibitor. With that ratio, the cost of customer acquisition is excruciatingly high, perhaps non-sustainable.

The investment banking community is on hyper alert. Venture Capitalists invested $108M in drone companies in 2014 according to CB Insights. That number is expected to double in 2015. The supposition is that the market will explode because; think about it, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has still not modified its rules to incorporate small drones for commercial use into the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS), which is expected to occur in late 2016. Therefore, the assumption is that the U.S. drone market is constricted by government policy and poised to go nuts when the new regulations are released. That’s true to a point; however “damn the regulation” is the modus operandi (MO) for many drone operators using them for business.

An FAA press release notifying Washington, D.C., visitors to “leave your drone at home” prompted a reader to comment “The FAA can go to hell. I’ll fly my drone where I damn want.” It will be interesting to see how the investment community reacts when (not if) a drone crash with serious consequences occurs.

Giddy enthusiasm? Yes. But I cannot deny the coolness factor and value of the technology. I own a drone, and it’s a lot of fun. Look at what I was able to produce with just 35 minutes of flight time and with a piece of software called PhotoScan from Agisoft (in demo mode):

3D Model from 35 minutes of drone flight.

The same 3D Model from a different perspective.

With only 35 minutes of flight time with a consumer-grade drone and a couple of hours at my computer, it’s not difficult to see myself becoming giddy, no, wildly enthusiastic.

Thanks, and see you next month.

Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric

September 24, 2015
First Day at INTERGEO: UAVs and RTK GNSS Receivers

Every fall thousands of geospatial professionals are drawn to Germany, like bees are to honey, for the largest geospatial exhibition on Earth. This year in Stuttgart, more than 17,000 attendees from 92 countries are flooding the halls of the Stuttgart Exhibition grounds located adjacent to the Stuttgart International Airport. Attendees are being treated to a vast array of geospatial technology treats from 500+ exhibitors representing 30 countries.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

I recall a few short years ago, there were only a handful of UAV vendors at the entire exhibition. Now, there is hardly an aisle that does not contain a quad-copter, fixed-wing aircraft or a UAV-related accessory. The growth of UAVs into the geospatial market growth has been the most explosive geospatial technology introduced in the past 25 years, the span of time that I’ve been involved in the geospatial industry. It’s over the top — there is so much hype surrounding UAV technology that there might be more sellers than buyers. It’s become so crazy that there are vendors presenting UAVs that haven’t even been built yet! It reminds me of the days that Atari would announce a new game system nine months before it was ready to ship.

In the UAV space, I wonder which companies are actually making money. My guess is very few. A few of the big players like DJI, Parrot (owns senseFly) and 3D Robotics are doing well, plus a few others. But it’s an unhealthy buyer/seller ratio. Something’s going to give.

The sensefly eXom UAV in flight.

Today’s winners in the UAV market are companies like Pix4D, Agisoft and others who make mission planning and image-processing software for UAV-collected data. They are smart in that they aren’t competing against the hundreds of other UAV airframes on the market; they work with data from most of them. Following is a 3D example of what the Agisoft software can create given a bunch of images shot with a $1,500 DJI Phantom at 200-foot elevation.

The resolution is very good, and you’re able compute material volume such as the piles of aggregate on the west side of the river.

Inexpensive RTK

In the past, I’ve written a lot about inexpensive RTK GNSS receivers. At the InfoAg Conference a couple of months ago, Swift Navigation announced it is testing its $500 RTK receivers. At INTERGEO, CHCNav introduced L1 RTK GNSS in a mobile phone (check our website for a video on that). It’s not capable of centimeter accuracy yet, but quickly heading in that direction. NVS Tech is also pushing sub-$500 L1 RTK GNSS modules.

It’s interesting because L1 RTK is nothing new. That technology was first introduced almost 10 years ago, and wasn’t accepted very well. Now, the UAV phenomena is breathing new life into L1 RTK receiver technology because it’s driving the requirement for low-cost, high-precision GNSS receivers. L1 RTK GNSS are finally getting the love they were looking for nearly 10 years ago.

In case you weren’t able to make it to INTERGEO this year, Joelle, Michelle and I are shooting a bunch of short (~2-minute) videos at various exhibition booths while we are here. We hope to give you a flavor of the geospatial technology being offered this year in Stuttgart.

See you next time.

Following me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric

September 15, 2015
Esri UC Plenary Explores Democratization of Geography
Last week, Esri held its 36th International User Conference in San Diego. With 15,000+ attendees from 130 countries, it is the largest gathering of geospatial professionals in North America.

The general plenary presentation on Monday morning is always an interesting event. Founder Jack Dangermond leads the plenary and presents his vision for the year, and years, to come. Here’s the opening Plenary video (3 minutes):

The message of this year’s Plenary was “Applying Geography Everywhere” with the central theme was Web GIS. Here is a video of Mr. Dangermond’s GIS vision (12:42 minutes):

For the past few years, he’s spoken quite a bit about the democratization of geography by making GIS capability available to an audience other than the GIS professional by expanding its impact across an organization at many levels. Here’s a slide he’s presented in the past, and I think it’s consistent with where he sees GIS heading; a global awareness and global usage of GIS apps and data.

Esri thinks that Web GIS is an enabling technology that will be a catalyst for the democratization of GIS across all of an organization’s departments.

How GIS has evolved. (Credit: Eric Gakstatter)

During the Plenary, Bern Szukalski outlined Esri’s take on the current trends in Web GIS:
- Portals. The windows into GIS. Thousands of public and private portals serve up GIS data and services.
- Content. A collection of authoritative and curated content that Esri calls a living atlas, with some data being updated daily or even hourly.
- Analysis tools. For the non-GIS professional to answer simple (or complex) queries such as emergency services coverage in a particular municipality, leveraging the living atlas content to use the most up-to-date data.
- Smart mapping. New data-driven web cartography functionality and data exploration that leverages the right tools presented at the right time. Think of it like Google search that shows you relevant web sites based on your past web surfing.
- Story maps. A combination of Web GIS and rich media to tell a compelling story. A new and unreleased type of Story map presented by Bern is the Story map Cascade, an immersive experience as you advance through the story and interact with map, amplifying the value of GIS.
If you want to view Bern’s plenary presentation on Web GIS trends, see the following 9-minute video:

Esri Product Roadmap

I get the feeling that ArcGIS Pro will be Esri’s premiere desktop product. When you buy ArcGIS, in addition to ArcMap, you also get a concurrent license for ArcGIS Pro (and ArcGIS Online), and you can see from the following slide that ArcGIS Pro incremental upgrades follow ArcMap. The following slide also shows the timing for the ArcGIS 10.4 release.

Another product Esri is going to release later this year to further promote the democratization of digital geography is a product called ArcGIS Earth. Just by the name, you can imagine the type of product it’s going to be. It’s all about 3D visualization.

Lastly, many of you may have missed the discussion about a new Esri Mobile GIS app called Survey123. There wasn’t a big announcement made, but it seems to be a powerful little app. For those of you who think Collector is a bit too structured, Survey123 might be the app for you. You can easily author smart forms following the XLSForm specification and quickly set up data-collection workflows. This is a really neat feature of Survey123, because you can create your mobile GIS data-collection pick lists and use form logic in an Excel spreadsheet instead of having to create it in the Esri environment.

It might end up being my favorite Esri mobile GIS app. But, you’ll have to wait to give it a spin because it’s not slated for release until later this year.

In other mobile GIS news at the conference, it appears as though Microsoft is concerned about Android and iOS dominating the mobile device space, so much so that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates made a recorded presentation at the plenary. Even more interesting is that Mr. Dangermond suggested that perhaps Mr. Gates might make a live appearance at the Esri UC sometime in the future.

Bill Gates delivers an address to the Esri plenary audience. (Photo: Eric Gakstatter)

On the technical side of Microsoft, it looks like the end is in sight for the separate software development platforms for Windows Desktop and Windows Phone. With Windows 10, I heard that the software development environment for Windows Desktop and Windows Phone (or whatever it’s going to be called) is going to be the same, so you should start seeing Windows devices pick up some momentum next year.

That’s it for now. See you next month.

Follow me on Twitter.
July 30, 2015
My Favorite Geospatial Traveling Tools
The narrow streets of the historic city of Prague. (Photo by Eric Gakstatter)

I’ve spent the past couple of weeks running around in Europe working on some GIS and GNSS projects. I usually travel outside of the USA two or three times a year to Europe or other destinations. For me, probably the single greatest challenge while traveling outside the U.S .is mobile phone connectivity. I don’t think I travel enough to justify an international plan. I’m probably a bit too cheap and could justify it, but I also sort of like the challenge. When I was in Prague, Czech Republic, last week, I sent the following tweet:

“If u want a reminder of what a great productivity tool ur smartphone is, go 2 where it doesn’t work n see how much time u spend on logistics”

Please excuse the abbreviations and general butchering of the English language, but staying within 140 characters can be challenging when trying to make a point. The point was clear in the tweet. Your smartphone is a tremendous productivity tool. If your life is anything like mine, you’re trying to get from one place to another as efficiently as possible, coordinate with colleagues, and generally optimize your time. Texting, emailing and navigating (directions) are three key components in keeping my life running smoothly, especially when I’m in an unfamiliar city. Further complicating things is when I’m in a city where English is not the primary language and where street signs and other directional help is little or no help.

Primarily through periodic moments of desperation, I’ve discovered some tools and methods that have helped me in some tight spots when I had to be somewhere and my smartphone wasn’t connected to its familiar Sprint towers (BTW, Sprint doesn’t operate in any country other than the USA).

When I find myself outside of the U.S. and want to light up my Sprint Samsung Galaxy 5, the first order of business is finding a Wi-Fi hotspot. In the U.S., it’s pretty easy. In other countries, it’s not so easy and most of the time they want to charge you for Wi-Fi access. Whenever I book a hotel room, I always make sure offers Wi-Fi service.

Skype for iOS, Android, Windows.

If your smartphone isn’t connected to a wireless network (sans Wi-Fi), you can’t send text messages. The best way (and most universal) to solve this is by installing Skype on your smartphone. Skype is free universal messaging software for your smartphone that allows you to call any other Skype user in the world for free, as long as you have an Internet connection (Wi-Fi). Of course, Apple has its own messaging software, but Skype is cross-platform. It runs the same on iOS, Android and Windows phones, as well as desktops. You can also run conference calls and video calls. I use it every day, more so on my notebook computer than smartphone, except when I’m traveling somewhere without wireless coverage (such as Prague). Then I use Skype a lot on my phone, mostly the messaging function. It’s just like text messaging.

With Wi-Fi + Skype, I can call any other Skype member in the world for free, and the app is free. Now, I pay Skype ~$130/year to be able to call any landline in North America from anywhere in the world, so I make free calls home from anywhere. It’s a powerful combination.

Triposo Main Screen

My second favorite smartphone tool for international traveling is not Google Maps, but a rather unknown app called Triposo.

Triposo is designed to be an app for the leisure traveler, but it’s a powerful app for the business traveler. There are Triposo apps for countries and even for individual cities. The apps are huge in size (100+ MB) for each city or country, so it’s not practical to download every city and country app. When I arrive at an unfamiliar city outside of the U.S., one of the first things I’ll do is download the Triposo app for that city using the hotel Wi-Fi.

From a business perspective, there are two things I love about Triposo. First, the download includes a map of the city that you can access offline. This is very similar to how the navigation system works in your car. The app uses the GPS receiver in your phone and plots your location on the map. Sometimes, knowing precisely where you are is half the battle. While it doesn’t have turn-by-turn navigation functionality like your car navigation system, it will provide you navigating instructions in text form and show you where you are on the map and where you need to go. As you move, your location is updated on the map in real-time. Crude, yet very effective.

Triposo Map screen. The purple icon is the GPS position.

Secondly, Triposo is a great tool for finding nearby restaurants and other places of interest. Sure, you can use Google for this too, but Triposo serves up this information a lot quicker and with less fumbling than Google Maps does. Since Triposo is built for the leisure traveler, it also provides interesting information about local landmarks, bus and subway routes, as well as plenty of other useful information for efficiently moving around the city.

My third travel tool is Google Maps. While it groans and chokes when the wireless connection is slow, and it doesn’t do well with the lack of connectivity, it has saved my behind at least once. I was on a project in the boonies in another country, about an hour from a large city where I was going to drop the rental car and board an airplane to come home. When I’d picked up the rental car, I had a local person with me who provided me directions to the project site. However, on the return trip, no one was available to ride with me. I thought I’d “wing it” and figure it out myself. I looked briefly at Google Maps in the office to estimate about the time I would need to exit as well as the exit name. I knew I wasn’t fully prepared with detailed directions, but I thought I had enough information to complete the journey even though Google Maps said something about the maps in the area possibly not being accurate.

I began my journey towards the city (pop. ~5 million). As expected, it was uneventful for the first half hour of the journey, since I was only following the main freeway. Then it became complicated. Lots of Y intersections, lots of speeding traffic, lots of exits, and lots of signage I couldn’t interpret quickly enough while moving along with the traffic. At some point, I figured out that I missed my exit and was heading for the city center. Not good, and approaching rush hour. If you’ve ever been to a large city in a developing country during rush hour, you can get hung up for a while.

I found an exit and was able to switch directions, now heading the opposite direction, southbound. I figured I would go south of the exit I was supposed to take then head northbound again and pay more attention to catch the exit. Nothing. I didn’t see the exit name I was looking for and was again heading towards the city center. At this point, I was becoming concerned. While I’d left myself a bit of a time buffer, by the time I found myself heading towards city center again, my time buffer was nearly exhausted. So here’s where I’m at:
- No GPS navigation system in the car.
- No mobile phone service so I could call the office for help.
- No Internet connectivity to take a fresh look at the directions.
- Can’t speak the local language.
For some reason I don’t recall, I booted up Google Maps on my mobile phone to see if I could derive any valuable information from it. Viola!

I learned about a valuable feature (the hard way) in Google Maps. It saves a cached map of your previous actions (not sure how far back). It just so happens that I had been looking at Google Maps on my phone at the airport when I rented the car about a week earlier. I also saw that if I turned on Location Services on my phone, my GPS location was displayed on the map. Granted, without connectivity I couldn’t zoom in on the map and it wouldn’t give me turn-by-turn directions, but I could see my position move on the map as I drove along the highway so I knew where I should be exiting (which, by the way, wasn’t named anything close to what I had read on the map during my preparation at the office).

Now, maybe I’m a slow learner, because when I mentioned this to some colleagues, they exclaimed “Oh, yeah, I knew that.” And, since my experience (I think), Google has provided a method of downloading maps for offline use. Or, it’s possible it was already there but I didn’t understand how to use it. :-(

So, those are my foreign country road-warrior tools. They may not be pretty, but they are free and effective. By the way, Google Navigator really isn’t that good for navigating in cities. Even with GPS and GLONASS satellites being tracked by my Samsung Galaxy 5, urban canyon drives it nuts. Although Triposo didn’t have as fancy of a navigation interface or street-level resolution, it is much less flaky in urban canyon environments than Google Navigator is.

Urban Canyon in Madrid.

Happy traveling, and and see you next time.

Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric
June 18, 2015