Bruce Donaldson of Red Hen Systems LLC gave a presentation about MediaMapper Mobile, an Android app with extensive utility for ISR professionals and civilians, on a panel at the Innovative GEOINT Application Provider Program (IGAPP). IGAPP was held in St. Louis on Oct. 20. Donaldson is Red Hen’s Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) manager.
During his years of field service, Donaldson worked to address the need for Mobile Geo-Intelligence platforms that can rapidly collect, process and disseminate geospatial data and other multimedia within 24 hours of a mission.
At its essence, MediaMapper Mobile enables users to:
Geotag video, photos, audio and other notes. Annotate ground track logs. Create audio and visual notes connecting them to points of interest. Tag features from a touchscreen.
See track log (a.k.a breadcrumb trail). View on a map along with GPS details about location, including latitude, longitude, and altitude. Inspect media objects and other sensor streams. Share with others with XML and KML/KMZ.
Use with Vectronix, LTI or Trimble laser rangefinder (compass, tilt, range, calibration). Or, triangulate your location by taking two or more photos of the same object. Once the feature is identified in these images, MediaMapper Mobile will do the calculation to show you where the object was and where you were when you took the photos.
Configure settings for GPS devices, cameras, shuttering automations for intervalometry (time/distance).
Log files, manage collection projects, and complete inspection forms on site.
Transfer your raw multimedia data files and their track logs from your Android device to a laptop, tablet or server to view and analyze on Google Earth, Esri ArcGIS, FalconView or MediaMapper for desktop.
Patrol/Event Recorder with NMEA compliant record schemas compatible to MediaGeotagger and GEM2MISB for Esri ArcGIS and the free Full Motion Video module.
Leica Geosystems has teamed with NCTech, developer of reality imaging systems, to deliver automated, colorized 3D point clouds. In Leica Cyclone, 3D point cloud processing software, users can now automatically import and align high-dynamic range (HDR) data from NCTech’s iSTAR camera database, producing enhanced deliverables quicker and easier, Leica Geosystems said.
“It is not only about attractive images but also the accuracy to which these images fit the 3D point cloud data that is paramount, and NCTech’s iSTAR camera produces high-quality HDR imaging at the accuracy everyone expects,” said Faheem Khan, vice president, business development for Leica Geosystems High-Definition Surveying (HDS). “Including this capability directly into Leica Cyclone provides fully optimized workflows for maximum productivity. This starts from data collection through to deliverable production that leverage new products, such as Leica TruView Global and JetStream to tackle the increasingly complex challenge of multi-platform, multi-device and multi-discipline project delivery.”
Previously, Leica Cyclone users accessed iSTAR imagery database through NCTech’s ColourCloud software application, which produced colourised point clouds in E57 format. With the new partnership, export and re-import of this highly-accurate data is eliminated, speeding up and simplifying the overall 3D point cloud creation process.
“We are excited to collaborate with Leica Geosystems on this development, which provides direct access for Leica Cyclone users across the world to colourise their point clouds using iSTAR’s panoramic HDR imaging,” said Cameron Ure, CEO of NCTech. “With our iSTAR products, we are focussed on capturing the most accurate colour data as rapidly as possible, and everyone benefits when that data is seamlessly integrated into our partners’ applications.”
The Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Center has teamed up with the University of Cincinnati to conduct research and development on systems necessary to execute precision flight control algorithms for small UAS. Outcomes from this research are targeted to help emergency responders but may also be leveraged for other industrial purposes. The small UAS leased by the UAS Center is a rotocopter that weighs 15 pounds and has a payload capacity of 10 pounds.
The FAA granted a two-year Certificate of Waiver or Authorization to the Ohio/Indiana UAS Center and Test Complex. Testing of the aircraft will take place at Wilmington Air Park in Wilmington, Ohio.
“We will continue to support safe and cost effective research and development efforts across the state in partnership with the FAA, providing the foundation for this rapidly emerging industry,” said Ryan Smith, UAS director for the State of Ohio.
Once this technology is developed, the University of Cincinnati plans on transitioning it to industry. “The type of research being conducted right here in Ohio is what will help the UAS industry grow. Interested Ohio businesses can leverage this technology for commercial purposes,” Smith said.
The Association of Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI) estimates the UAS market in Ohio is projected to be a 2 billion dollar industry with a potential to create 2,500 jobs over the next 10 years.
Hurricane Patricia — “Extremely Dangerous” Category 5 Hurricane — Is the Strongest Storm Ever Recorded.
Esri is providing a continuously updated hurricane map that shows the projected paths, storm surge, weather warnings and precipitation of Hurricane Patricia, the “strongest hurricane ever recorded.” In addition, the real-time effects of the storm can be seen via social media posts. The website, Hurricanes & Cyclones, is part of the Esri Disaster Response Program.
Hurricane Patricia became the most powerful tropical cyclone ever measured in the Western Hemisphere on Friday morning as its maximum sustained winds reached an unprecedented 200 mph (320 kph).
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is offering updates through its National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Hurricane Patricia is heading toward Mexico’s west coast, and is expected to make landfall near Puerto Vallarta. “Confidence is high that Patricia will make landfall in the hurricane warning area along the coast of Mexico as an extremely dangerous category 5 hurricane this afternoon or evening,” according to a Friday morning forecast discussion from the National Hurricane Center.
It will then cause massive rainfall in Texas after it hits landfall. “The global models continue to depict the development of a cyclone near the Texas coast over the weekend. This system should be non-tropical in nature. However, this cyclone is expected to draw significant amounts of moisture from Patricia’s remnants, and could result in locally heavy rainfall over portions of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico coastal area within the next few days,” according to the NHC discussion.
EHang, a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) technology company, will launch a new consumer drone on Nov. 4, with a flash sale on starting the same day on the company’s website, which is displaying a countdown clock for the launch.
With the Ghost Drone, EHang introduced a significant step forward in making drone flight an accessible reality for millions of consumers around the world. The company is dedicated to bringing easy, intuitive and user-friendly methods for controlling drones to the masses. The Ghost’s largest contribution to this effort has been eliminating the complexity of using a radio-control transmitter by creating a first-of-its-kind pilot system controlled entirely through the EHang mobile app, making drones more easily accessible by everyone.
EHang also announced it had acquired its own independent factory production lines in the company’s new headquarters in Guangzhou, China.
MAPPS has accepted an invitation from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to be a member of the UAS Registration Task Force (RTF) Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC).
MAPPS is a national association of private-sector firms in the surveying, spatial data and geographic information systems field in the United States and a leader on the use of unmanned aircraft systems in the geospatial field.
The UAS RTF ARC was announced on Monday by Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx to help minimize potentially unsafe UAS operations and incidents. The task force will work to develop minimum requirements for a UAS registration process for safe integration of UAS into the National Airspace.
MAPPS has tapped John Perry, founder and CEO of Altavian based in Gainesville, Fla., to represent the association on the task force.
“We are pleased and honored that the FAA has invited MAPPS to participate in the UAS RTF ARC,” said MAPPS President Susan Marlow. “MAPPS has actively called on the FAA to move forward with UAS rulemaking, and we are thrilled to be a part of the process.”
MAPPS has been a voice for the commercial use of UAS for geospatial data acquisition. The association has been engaged with FAA on UAS issues since 2009 and testified before state legislatures and participated in Congressional roundtables. MAPPS Executive Director John Palatiello was appointed to serve on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) working group on beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations of commercial unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), and the association serves on a committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) to develop policy recommendations to the 50 state legislatures on UAS.
On Nov. 17-18, MAPPS will host sessions on geospatial activities at Drone World Expo, at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, Calif. The geospatial content will explore factors to consider when planning the start-up of a stand-alone UAS business, or a department in an existing surveying or mapping firm. It will kick off with a presentation on “What You Need to Know Before Starting Up Your Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Department,” as well as instruction on issues including system operating limitations, flight training, crew responsibilities, operator authority, client expectations, standards and licensing. Speakers at the policy conference will include Bryan Baker, UAS sales manager, Leica Geosystems; Jeff Lovin, senior vice president, director of Geospatial Services, Woolpert; Andy Nickerson of Aerovel Corp.; Mike Tully, president, Aerial Services, Inc.; and David Yoel, CEO, American Aerospace, Inc.
Blue Marble’s Global Mapper V17‘s Lidar Module is an optional enhancement to its software that provides advanced lidar processing tools, including automatic point-cloud classification, feature extraction, cross-sectional viewing and editing, faster surface generation, and more. It is designed for anyone using or managing terrestrial or airborne lidar as well as other point cloud datasets.
The Lidar Module was first released with Global Mapper V15, and a host of new lidar tools have since been added. Building on the existing functionality for identifying ground, building and vegetation points in an unclassified point cloud, the latest release of the module includes a powerful new tool for detecting and automatically reclassifying above-ground utility lines.
After customizing the reclassification parameters, such as minimum height above ground and linear offset threshold, the points representing power lines are automatically attributed with the Wire – Conductor ASPRS lidar class. Analysis of linear patterns in these reclassified points can subsequently be used to create 3D vector lines.
Addressing a major concern among lidar users, the latest release of the Global Mapper Lidar Module provides an efficient and effective way to remove noise from point cloud data. This powerful filtering tool can reclassify or automatically delete any points that are beyond a prescribed elevation or height above ground threshold within a local area.
Other enhancements to the module include dramatically faster data rendering and processing as well as updated filtering tools for selecting and, if necessary, removing points based on class, return intensity, color range, and many other parameters.
Additional functionality offered in the Lidar Module includes:
A convenient Lidar Toolbar for easy access to key editing and analysis functions
Multiple gridding options for faster DSM or DTM generation
Access to point cloud files containing a billion points or more
Automatic point classification tools that automatically distinguish building, ground, vegetation and power lines and above-ground utility cables in unclassified layers
Feature extraction functionality to automatically create 3D building footprints, trees and power lines
Cross-sectional rendering using Global Mapper’s Path Profile tool for viewing and editing the point cloud in a vertical perspective
Advanced filtering options to efficiently remove erroneous or unneeded points
Detect and reclassify or delete noise points
Lidar scripting commands for streamlining workflow
Point colorization from underlying imagery offering photo-realistic point cloud rendering in Global Mapper’s 3D Viewer
Support for reporting lidar statistics
Support for importing and exporting most common lidar formats
Building Radar GmbH — providing a global, satellite-based online database for new construction projects — has been named this year’s overall winner of the international Earth observation competition Copernicus Masters.
Thorsten Rudolph (Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen), Dr Josef Aschbacher (European Space Agency), Paul Indinger (Building Radar GmbH) and Ulrike Daniels (Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen). (Photo: Anna Kreuz)
Founded in Munich by Paul Indinger, Leopold Neuerburg, and Artem Ostankov in 2014, the start-up came out on top in the competition’s European Space Imaging High-Res Urban Challenge and went on to edge out the winners of seven other categories for the grand prize. The Building Radar online platform, which already contains more than a million construction projects and over 200,000 company profiles, uses a custom-developed algorithm to identify new building projects around the world. Its customers include companies active in the new construction and maintenance sectors. With building project leads accounting for some EUR 72 billion in revenue each year, Building Radar makes it possible to verify online search results and track changes in projects by means of satellite imagery. The platform thus enables its users to monitor many different construction endeavours while providing much greater cost-efficiency than its competitors thanks to its innovative data research methods.
The Copernicus Masters’ EUR 20,000 grand prize was presented to Building Radar’s managing director, Paul Indinger, by Dr Josef Aschbacher, Head of Programme Planning & Coordination within the European Space Agency’s Earth Observation Programmes Directorate. “Building Radar’s innovative combination of Earth observation data including Sentinel-2 optical data, machine learning, and data mining has created an all-new service for the construction industry,” Aschbacher stated. “It also clearly demonstrates both the usefulness Copernicus provides to a wide range of sectors and the Copernicus Masters ability to discover market-oriented applications of Earth observation data.”
Since 2011, the Copernicus Masters has recognised each year’s best ideas for making innovative use of such data. The 2015 edition received more than 200 entries from close to 50 countries around the world. The applications submitted this year offer a fantastic glimpse of the next generation of Earth observation services along the entire value chain.
“Through the Copernicus Masters, we’re aiding visionary companies in bringing their innovations to market. Working with the European Space Agency and its ESA incubation programme (ESA BIC) has enabled us to assemble an ideal platform for providing these projects with long-term support,” explains Thorsten Rudolph, CEO of competition organiser Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen. “We’re proud to have witnessed a constant rise in the start-ups involved in commercialising Earth observation services since the Copernicus Masters was initiated in 2011 and are confident that the number will continue to grow with the launch of further Sentinel satellites. Meanwhile, it’s great to hear that we’ll have the chance to support Building Radar further at ESA BIC Bavaria follow its big win in this year’s competition.”
Much of the international Earth observation industry came together at the ddb Forum in Berlin on Tuesday for the 2015 Copernicus Masters Awards Ceremony. Along with the overall winner, those who emerged victorious in nine topic-specific categories took home prizes worth more than EUR 300,000 in total. These included cash, consulting, data packages, and other assistance designed to help the winners refine their ideas for an eventual market launch at one of Europe’s 11 ESA Business Incubation Centres.
As in the previous year, the awards ceremony was held in parallel with the Satellite Masters Conference. This afforded the winners the opportunity to introduce their ideas to the international Earth observation and navigation community and discuss innovations in space-based technologies and services.
The Winners
Since 2011 more than 700 participants submitted their innovative solution for business and society based on Earth observation to the Copernicus Masters. Many of the ideas submitted in previous years have been implemented and successfully launched into the market. Within the last five years, 40 winners have been awarded within the competition.
University Challenge
Foresight Crops – Insect Swarm Prediction Modelling, submitted by Dr Oluropo Ogundipe from University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.
ESA APP Challenge
Wave – The City Assistant, submitted by Patrick Wolowicz from subzero.eu software, Austria.
DLR Energy & Environmental Challenge
Beehive Locations – Monitoring Habitats with Satellite Data, submitted by Deepak Bhatia from Poland.
T-Systems Big Data Challenge
ImageQuerying – Real-time Image Analysis and Querying, submitted by Dr Dirk Tiede and Team from the Department of Geoinformatics – Z_GIS, University of Salzburg, Austria.
Smart Cities and Intelligent Transport Challenge by the Satellite Applications Catapult
eXude – Flood Monitor and Drain Effectiveness, submitted by Steve Lee from Stevenson Astrosat Ltd., United Kingdom.
NCMA Spatio-Temporal Data Visualisation Challenge
CybEarth – First-Person Visualisation of EO Data, submitted by Asst Prof Panagiotis Partsinevelos and Team from SenseLab, Technical University of Crete, Greece.
CLOUDEO – The Going Live Challenge
Crop Analytics – The Future of Farmland Diagnostics, submitted by Nicolas Ackermann and Team from Gamaya SA, Switzerland.
European Space Imaging High-Res Urban Challenge and Copernicus Master
Building Radar – Construction Detection and Monitoring, submitted by Paul Indinger and Team from Building Radar GmbH, Germany.
GEO Illustration Challenge
Two Halves Of One Heart, submitted by Dieter Pikulski from Germany.
Trimble will provide access to Trimble geospatial software products and online training for UNIGIS post-graduate distance learning students. Students can also take part in Trimble’s User Community to access training materials and participate in forums and discussions.
The UNIGIS International Association is a distance education initiative offering masters and postgraduate diploma and certificate programs in geographical information science and systems.
“We are pleased to provide geospatial software and online training programs to students in UNIGIS programs,” said Alain Samaha, business area director of GIS and Software for Trimble’s Geospatial Division. “Working with UNIGIS, we can further support the industry by providing technology tools that enable students to be prepared for their careers.”
Trimble will provide UNIGIS distance learning students worldwide with access to eCognition, Inpho, UASMaster, GPS Pathfinder Office, SketchUp Pro and other software technologies for their study assignments and thesis development.
“UNIGIS is addressing the geospatial industry’s critical bottleneck of capacity building. This needs the sustained support of leading-edge companies like Trimble. Working together we can enhance the educational experience for students to promote future innovation and advancement of the geospatial industry,” said Prof. Josef Strobl at University of Salzburg and chair of UNIGIS International.
The Western Forestry and Conservation Association (WFCA) has announced that registration for the Fifth Annual Field Technology Conference (FTC) is open. FTC 2015 is hosted by WFCA, Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership (PNAMP) and StreamNet. The conference will be held Nov. 18-19 at the Holiday Inn Convention Center in Portland, Ore.
The Field Technology Conference offers attendees an insightful look at trends in field data collection hardware (smartphones, handheld/tablet computers, GPS receivers, laser rangefinders, and other data collection instruments), remote sensing (UAVs, photogrammetry, lidar) and mapping software (data collection, data processing, map building) along with outdoor demonstrations and a field trip.
“This will be our fifth conference. With the addition of the fisheries track and participation from the Civil GPS Interface Committee, we should have a significant attendance increase this year,” said moderator/co-organizer Eric Gakstatter. “We continue to attract speakers with strong expertise in their disciplines to present their work and thought leadership.”
The conference offers three tracks:
Common field technology: Discussing field data collection technology used across all disciplines such as UAVs, GPS, and mobile devices.
In addition to the three technical tracks, there will be outdoor technology demonstrations as well as a fisheries field trip to a local slough for a live demonstration of field data collection technology (space limited).
On the second day of the two-day conference, there will be presentations from the Civil GPS Interface Service Committee (CGSIC). CGSIC is the only forum in which civilians have the opportunity to interact directly with US GPS authorities.
FTC 2014 attendees included representatives from Federal/State/Local government, Fortune 1000 companies, Native American tribes, higher education and natural resource consultancies.
The registration fee is $250 if registered by Nov. 5 and $295 if registered after that date. The government rate is $195 and $245 if registered after that date. Attendance to the CGSIC presentations on November 19 is free of charge and open to the public (lunch not included).
The registration fee includes lunch on both days as well as refreshments during breaks. The conference room rate is $99/night plus tax. After Oct. 27, the reduced rate will be subject to availability.
To register or learn more about the conference agenda, go to the conference website.
Sponsorship opportunities are available. Please contact Richard Zabel [email protected], 503/226-4562.
Mapillary, a community-based mapping photo app, is partnering with Esri to help governments and businesses see their cities evolve in real-time through the ArcGIS platform integration.
Mapillary creates detailed maps that go beyond street view by instantly stitching together hundreds of thousands of crowd-sourced photos, giving cities the ability to gain insights immediately rather than weeks or months later. The ArcGIS integration provides governments and cities with a tool to help them manage inventory and city assets, monitor repairs, inspect pavement quality, assess sites for public transportation projects, and more.
With ArcGIS support, Mapillary users will be able to:
Navigate photos in a web-based viewer
Load any ArcGIS data layer or base map
Use Mapillary street-level photos to edit and update their data
Working with large scanning projects with billions of data points can be a tedious and time-consuming process, often resulting in breaking the project into manageable pieces and duplicating data sets across your organization. However, a new solution by Leica enables users to instantly load point clouds regardless of size and create CAD deliverables with increased productivity.
In this 60-minute webinar, Wallace shows how Leica JetStream, when paired with CloudWorx, can cut project time by up to 40 percent while allowing multiple users to stream the full data set simultaneously for added efficiency.
Covered topics include:
How to greatly improve data processing speed
How to reduce storage requirements with enhanced data management
How to accelerate the loading, display, and rendering of point cloud images for an application.
The free Leica TruView panoramic point-cloud viewer enables users to view, zoom in or pan over point clouds naturally and intuitively. In this 60-minute webinar, Wallace and David Langley provide a exclusive behind-the-scenes look at this point-cloud sharing tool.
Covered topics include:
How to communicate more effectively through point clouds by sharing them from any browser on any device, with no plug-ins required.
How to use new project management tools to make a team’s performance — and clients’ interaction with the data — more efficient.
How to take deliverables to the next level by incorporating strategies from some of today’s most successful innovative thinkers.
At its essence, MediaMapper Mobile enables users to:
