SimActive Inc., a developer of photogrammetry software, has announced a new subscription-based offering for Correlator3D UAV. The rental option allows users with a dynamic workload to access a high-end product at minimal cost.
“Correlator3D UAV was developed for leading mapping firms, military and government organizations, with a constant emphasis on ease of use,” said Philippe Simard, president of SimActive. “The subscription model now makes the only professional UAV processing tool available for all.”
To download a free trial and view different pricing options, visit www.simactive.com.
To see the latest version of Correlator3D, sign up for SimActive’s next webinar on Tuesday, Oct. 18, at 2 p.m. Eastern Time.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) has released National Transit Map data, a geospatial database containing the information from 270 transit agencies that provides open, machine-readable data about their stops, routes and schedules.
The national, openly available map of fixed-guideway and fixed-route transit service in America will allow the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to demonstrate the importance and role of transit in American society and to identify and address gaps in access to public transportation.
It will also support research, planning and analysis on the benefits of transit, such as the economic impacts of transit on a community’s economic development, or on reducing poverty in low-income neighborhoods.
Figure 1. National Transit Map — 198 Participating Agencies.
The national Transit Map can be used to support DOT’s Ladders of Opportunity initiative to promote the use of existing transportation networks to connect residents to jobs, education, health, government and other essential services.
The initial National Transit Map consists of General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data feeds registered with BTS in response to a March 2016 request for the data from U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. Data from 270 transit agencies provided information on more than 398,000 stops and stations and almost 10,000 routes.
This first version of the National Transit Map contains data for 84 percent of the top 25 urban transit agencies with fixed route service, 74 percent of the top 50 agencies, and approximately one-third of all urban transit agencies with fixed route service.
DOT is working to bring additional transit agencies on board for the second version of the map, scheduled to be released in late 2016. See Figure 1 for the locations of the transit agencies that are participating.
Figure 2. New York City Stops, Routes and Schedules on National Transit Map.
BTS has worked jointly with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the DOT Office of the Chief Information Officer to develop and release the inaugural map.
The National Transit Map includes the National Transit Layer — national data feeds that provide open, machine readable spatial and tabular data about the nation’s transit systems stops, routes and schedules. It also has a National Participation Map that shows which agencies have volunteered to take part in the National Transit Map. In addition, Interactive Mapping Apps that provide tools such as calculators for distances from transit stops, trip frequency and time of day coverage will be released shortly.
Figure 2 shows a sample of the New York City routes and stops data contained in the National Transit Layer. It highlights schedule and stop information for a specific bus trip that is available from the data.
The National Transit Map will be a National Geospatial Data Asset (NGDA) within the National Transportation Atlas Database (link is external) (NTAD), a set of nationwide geographic databases of transportation facilities, networks and associated infrastructure. It will be a substantial update to the previous transit-focused map, which was released in 2004 and only included the location of fixed-guideway transit such as rail systems. The new map includes fixed route systems such as bus.
gvSIG 2.3, the new gvSIG version, is now available to download.
According to the gvSIG association, this version has been a qualitative leap — on a functional level as well as an architecture one — because of all the improvements and features.
Downloads are available from the project website, and there are two distribitions: installable and portable.
Features of this version include distributions for Mac and Windows 64-bit; PRJ file support for projections; access to Google Maps, Bing Maps or Street View; and lidar data support.
If users have questions or experience any errors, they can be sent to the user mailing list. Feedback is important to continue improving gvSIG, the association said.
NVIDIA and TomTom announced they are partnering to develop artificial intelligence to create a cloud-to-car mapping system for self-driving cars.
The work combines TomTom’s HD map coverage, which spans more than 120,000 kilometers of highways and freeways, with the NVIDIA DRIVE PX 2 computing platform. Together, the solution accelerates support for real-time in-vehicle localization and mapping for driving on the highway.
“Self-driving cars require a highly accurate HD mapping system that can generate an always up-to-date HD map in the cloud,” says Rob Csongor, vice president and general manager of Automotive at NVIDIA. “DRIVE PX 2 for AutoCruise provides TomTom with a real-time, in-vehicle source for HD map updates.”
The NVIDIA DriveWorks software development kit now integrates support for TomTom’s HD mapping environment. The open solution is available for all automakers and tier 1 suppliers developing autonomous vehicles.
Esri launched its new Global Content Challenge, where qualified students use the Esri Story Map Journal app to explore a variety of scientific themes. The contest is open from now until 5:00 p.m. PST on Nov. 11.
With access to Esri content, students will tell their own compelling scientific stories using the Esri Story Map Journal app. Entrants will use personal geographic analyses, visualizations, predictive models and more, according to Esei.
“Esri views science as helping us to understand not only how the earth works but also how the earth should look,” says Dawn Wright, Esri chief scientist, in a news release. “Science is the study of how we should look at the earth. GIS places scientific data in a visual context.”
Esri says judges will select the best map journals to be awarded prizes, and the company will share the winning map journals on its Collaborative Resource portal, as well as feature them at Esri’s Federal GIS and Education GIS Conferences and Esri Young Professionals Network events.
Esri’s Global Content Challenge is open to undergraduate or graduate students at colleges or universities and to high school students enrolled in an advanced-placement human geography or environmental science course. Esri’s land, ocean and population categories of premium content libraries will be made available to entrants.
Three winners will be awarded their choice of a cash prize or Esri software in each category. The first-place winner will receive $10,000 or software of equivalent value. Second- and third-place prizes are $5,000 and $2,000, respectively, or software of equal value. The competition is open from Aug. 29 until 5:00 p.m. PST on Nov. 11.
Phase One Industrial has introduced the iXU-RS aerial camera series, featuring a breakthrough central lens shutter design, according to the company. The new shutter technology is based on an innovative direct-drive concept with electronic charging that enhances exposure speed to as fast as 1/2500s, while guaranteeing half a million exposures, an unprecedented shutter life span.
The series’ flagship 100MP iXU-RS1000 camera system, with the advanced lens shutter, an exceptional capture rate of 0.6 seconds per frame and its CMOS sensor with superior light sensitivity of 50-6400 ISO, is uniquely designed to expand the efficiency of aerial imaging operations, including under deteriorating weather conditions or on days that were previously not conducive to image capture. This allows for faster flights and larger surface coverage.
For a small-bodied medium format camera, the iXU-RS1000 offers a large-format-quality experience thanks to its sensor technology and high-performance optics, which can deliver 11,608 pixels cross-track coverage. Users can gain more image coverage during a flight, while maintaining the same ground sample distance (GSD), or a lower GSD, while flying at the same height. Its small form factor supports multiple uses — as a standalone camera for photogrammetric work or as part of an array (to cover a larger swath) or as part of an oblique camera system.
Other iXU-RS series cameras include the 80MP iXU-RS180, and 60MP iXU-RS160 and 160 Achromatic systems. All iXU-RS series cameras feature accurate metric calibration, scalability to form multi-camera arrays, and easy integration with popular flight management systems and GPS/IMU receivers. There are seven available lens options, including: 32mm, 40mm, 50mm, 70mm, 90mm, 110mm and 150mm. Lenses have been designed and built for aerial photography by Rodenstock and Schneider Kreuznach, and factory calibrated for infinity focus.
Easily integrated into existing or new set-ups, the cameras offer maximum connectivity with diverse systems and help operators execute and manage missions, such as: surveying, mapping, critical infrastructure inspection and many other applications with greater reliability, cost effectiveness and operational efficiency. The iXU-RS1000 is also suited to four band-imaging applications.
DT Research has released the DT395CR and DT395GS rugged tablets. While designed for field professionals, the tablets cost less than consumer-grade tablets over the lifetime of the product, DT Research said.
The DT395GS rugged tablet by DT Research.
Both DT395 tablets are highly durable to withstand extreme environments, designed with fully integrated options to eliminate easily broken attachments in mission-critical scenarios, and include security, privacy and productivity settings.
The DT395GS tablet is designed for field applications with a high-accuracy GNSS module that is compatible with existing GIS software for mapping applications and brings together the advanced workflow for GIS data capture, accurate positioning and data transmission. The u-blox M8 GNSS module is capable of concurrent reception of GPS and GLONASS for up to 2-meter accuracy.
“Many businesses have adopted mobile tablets with the goal of increasing productivity by leveraging the versatile tablet form-factor,” said Daw Tsai, president of DT Research. “But companies within construction, field service, logistics, manufacturing and warehousing have found that consumer-grade tablets are too fragile for their environment — requiring costly repairs and replacements that introduce expensive downtime. Our new DT395 rugged tablets give vertical industries exactly what they need with high reliability and lower TCO (total cost of ownership) over the lifetime of the product.”
According to a VDC Research study, the average annual TCO of a ruggedized tablet is 22 percent lower than the average annual TCO of a non-rugged tablet. The study found average failure rates for non-rugged tablets is 15.2 percent compared to 6.9 percent for rugged tablets. Lost productivity, as a result of mobile device failure, was a leading contributor to higher TCO for non-rugged tablets. Mobile workers lost an average of 52-80 minutes of productivity when their mobile device failed. (Source: VDC Research, “Total Cost of Ownership Models for Mobile Computing and Wireless Platforms,” Third Edition.)
Unlike consumer-grade tablets, the DT395CR and DT395GS ruggedized tablets are designed to be used in a variety of indoor and outdoor environments with full HD anti-reflection outdoor viewable displays. The tablets are IP65 and MIL-STD-810G rated to withstand 4-foot drops and extreme temperatures (-4° F to 140° F), and resist water, dust and humidity.
“We tried iPads, but they were not suited for our environment,” said Marty Phillips, director of engineering at Murray Equipment, Inc. “Our customers do millions of dollars of fertilizer loading within an eight-week window in a broad range of weather conditions. If a remote control tablet is down for even an hour, it’s a significant revenue loss. We have used DT Research rugged tablets in our automated liquid-handling facilities across the U.S. for more than three years with no downtime or repair/replacement costs. The reliability of DT Research’s rugged tablets is unmatched.”
Both the DT395CR and DT395GS have an 8.9-inch display with 1920 x 1200 resolution and capacitive touch, and weigh 2.87 pounds. The tablets run on an Intel Atom Quad Core CPU with 4GB RAM running Microsoft Windows 10 IoT Enterprise OS.
Security, privacy and productivity settings
“Security, privacy and productivity are a growing concern in many organizations,” Helen Fanucci, GM of Americas Device IoT Experience, Microsoft. “We are pleased to see DT Research utilize the Windows 10 IoT Enterprise-grade security to support mission-critical rugged tablets for customers and deliver a safer device experience, which enhances productivity for a variety of mobile scenarios in manufacturing, field service, logistics and other industries.”
The DT395 tablets leverage advanced Windows 10 IoT Enterprise OS security including Device Guard, combining hardware and software security to lock down a device so that it can only run trusted applications. The DT395 also includes lock-down features to protect against malicious users while providing a custom-defined user experience.
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and RFID can pose a security issue when using consumer-grade tablets within a business environment. DT Research DT395 rugged tablets can be purpose-built with a camera privacy mode and
preconfigured with Bluetooth, RFID and Wi-Fi disable functions. The DT395 rugged tablets can also eliminate access to internet or social media applications to address productivity challenges.
Customizable options
DT Research offers customizable options for the DT395CR and DT395GS including an optimized OS and BIOS. Customers can choose to have the options below fully-integrated.
3G WWAN or 4G LTE
2D Barcode Scanner
Class 1 Bluetooth (1000 feet)
Camera (5 Megapixel back camera)
GNSS Module (u-blox M8)
HF/RFID 13.56MHz reader
HDMI-in and Ethernet port
Six-pin push/pull connector for EIA/RS-232/485/422, USB port and Ethernet port
BIM 360 Layout is designed to provide vertical construction contractors the ability to connect the coordinated model to the field layout process — helping to increase job site productivity, while improving the accuracy of staked or installed building components.
“We are committed to the interoperability between our products and Autodesk software making workflows increasingly simple for common customers,” said Ray Kerwin, director of global surveying products. “Now operators taking advantage of the iX series’ smoothest and most accurate prism tracking ability can also layout or QA/QC (quality assurance/quality control) with the BIM 360 Layout app.”
With the addition of the iX series, operators now have a choice of instruments in the Sokkia family with BIM 360 connectivity, including the SX total station series.
Lockheed Martin is set to launch the WorldView-4 high-resolution imaging satellite for DigitalGlobe aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on Sept. 16. WorldView-4, also built by Lockheed Martin, will capture photos and data about Earth.
With the WorldView-4 satellite, DigitalGlobe more than doubles its ability to deliver images of Earth at 30-centimeter resolution — sharp enough to identify the make of an automobile. WorldView-4 will orbit the Earth every 90 minutes, capturing 600,000 square miles of imagery everyday.
Artist’s rendering of the DigitalGlobe WorldView-4 satellite in orbit. (Image: Lockheed Martin)
Rocket/Payload: Atlas V 401 flying the WorldView-4 mission for customer DigitalGlobe.
Location: Space Launch Complex 3 East at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
Date/Time: Friday, Sept. 16, 2016
Launch Time: The launch window opens at 11:30 a.m. PDT and closes at 11:44 a.m. PDT. Separation occurs approximately 20 minutes after liftoff.
Mission Description: This mission will deliver the WorldView-4 satellite into a 617 km, sun-synchronous orbit for DigitalGlobe, the global leader in earth imagery and information about our changing planet.
By leveraging DigitalGlobe’s advanced constellation scheduling system to operate in concert with WorldView-3, WorldView-4 will more than double DigitalGlobe’s coverage of the world’s highest-resolution 30 cm commercial satellite imagery.
Once launched, the satellite will orbit earth every 90 minutes, traveling 17,000 miles per hour and capturing as much as 680,000 square kilometers of the Earth’s surface daily (18 terabytes) – the equivalent of the land area of Texas.
Also aboard the launch will be seven U.S. Government-owned CubeSats that will be deployed after separation of the WorldView-4 satellite.
Launch Provider: Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services is the exclusive provider of Atlas V rockets to all non-U.S. government customers. With dedicated launch sites and unparalleled orbital insertion accuracy, Atlas V is unmatched for performance, reliability and schedule assurance.
Updates: To keep up-to-speed with updates to the launch and learn more about the WorldView-4 mission visit www.lockheedmartin.com/worldview4.
Topcon Positioning Group announces the release of two new mapping kits for its Sirius Pro fixed-wing unmanned aerial system (UAS). The kits are designed to produce the most accurate solutions for automated mapping of construction sites, building facades, mines, quarries, disaster areas — and more without regard to terrain.
Both systems include an enhanced MAVinci Desktop Flight Planning software upgrade.
The first new package — Sirius UAS City Mapping Kit — includes a Fuji X-M1 8 mm lens designed to better capture urban surroundings.
“It allows the image capture of vertical facades such as buildings, infrastructure and construction sites,” said Charles Rihner, vice president of the Topcon GeoPositioning Solutions Group. “The upgraded flight planning software optimizes the planning, preparation and processing to automatically produce a textured 3D model. Additionally, the kit allows the acquisition of 3D models and orthophotos when flying below 50 m altitude,” he said.
The second new package — the Sirius UAS High Resolution Mapping Kit — comes with a Fuji X-M1 27-millimeter lens. “This package allows the collection of images at the highest possible resolution for applications such as construction site monitoring, survey and mapping topography,” Rihner said. “It allows operators to obtain higher resolution images at the same altitude as compared with a standard lens.”
“Every QGIS user now has access to the vast volumes of mobile mapping data,” said Peter Bonne, CEO of Orbit GT. By connecting to Publisher, the QGIS user has access to spherical imagery and point-cloud data of unlimited volume and size onto their desktop.
With the Orbit GT plugin for QGIS, the use of native Mobile Mapping content becomes easy, the company said. Any challenge of volume and performance is tackled by the Orbit Publisher. Users can measure, copy any measurement into QGIS, and overlay QGIS features on the Mobile Mapping imagery.
Phase One Industrial has introduced its Phase One 4-Band Solution, which incorporates an innovative batch-processing tool that automates and simplifies the four-band aerial image generation process.
Adding a fourth band of near infrared (NIR) image data to three-band color (RGB) image data yields multispectral information useful in vegetation studies — in applications ranging from crop metrics for optimization, to vegetation health, environmental contamination and city observations for green site monitoring.
Synchronized Phase One metric aerial cameras.
The solution is composed of two synchronized Phase One metric aerial cameras mounted side by side on a specially designed base plate, a Phase One iX Controller and Phase One iX Capture software.
Images are captured in NIR and RGB bands simultaneously, and processed automatically to generate distortion-free images and perform fine co-registration of the pixels from NIR to the RGB images — including processing different image sizes — with seven different output options, including multispectral CIR images.
Complementing the solution’s software functionality, the use of two separate cameras to support higher system sensitivity permits operators to separately control capture settings so that they can operate under a wider range of lighting conditions.
“We very easily installed the cameras into the gyro mount, and all power and communications were automatically configured with the iX-Controller,” said Peter Bochmann, operator of Aerial SurveyS GmbH. “The output four-band images were incredible, showing an area of forest vegetation straight-away that needed attention; we would not have seen this detail with RGB images alone. The flexibility of the solution is also great, since you can combine any two Phase One metric medium-format cameras and accomplish multiple jobs without changing the setup.”
The Phase One 4-Band Solution offers a variety of benefits:
100MP sensors for RGB and NIR images, no NIR up scaling is needed;
CMOS sensors for maximum sensitivity;
Post processing is automatic, using the solutions’ iX Controller along with iX Capture;
Automatic individual aperture control and auto exposure mode is available for both cameras;
Direct connection to GNSS/IMU systems; coordinates are stored inside the EXIF data of each image to speed later post-processing;
Also available with 80MP RGB and 60MP Achromatic Sensors.
