Today I attended the “GEOINT Forward” which is a pre-conference day consisting of over a dozen loosely related sessions. If there was a common theme it would have to be the increasing evolution of the GEOINT community toward Human Geography, Social Media, Big Data, Small Satellites and Chaos Management.
A most interesting keynote speaker was Dave Snowden (no relation to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden) founder and chief scientific officer of Cognitive Edge working to analyze complex issues relating to strategy and organizational decision making. He pioneered a science based analysis of organizations drawing on anthropology, neuroscience and complex adaptive systems theory. The key analysis tool they created is SensesMaker, a survey tool that extracts and organizes how respondents make sense of the world through micro-narratives in social settings. Using a patented method the respondent interprets their own story into a series of abstract constructs that feel more like a game than a survey, but allows profound meaning to emerge. This interpretation adds layers of meaning rather than simply interpreting the story and provides quantitative data which can always be linked back to the original material.
There were several sessions related to Chaos Management of disasters both natural and man-made. Dr. Shay Har-Noy of Digital Globe demonstrated TomNod (www.tomnod.com/nod/) which is a crowd sourcing effort of Digital Globe in which the public has access to thousands of images so that millions of eyes could help scour the imagery looking for signs of the missing aircraft. Once potential sites were indentified, experts could then focus their attention on the sites. Here is a short video clip of some examples. (Excuse the quality of the video, the room was dark, sound system poor and the built-in microphone less than ideal)
This month’s column is a short one since I’m attending GEOINT 2013* in Tampa. The asterisk on 2013 is a way for USGIF to save a few bucks by not reprinting banners, displays and handouts for the 2014 date. In talking to the USGIF staff, I learned this will be the only symposium for the year, with the next GEOINT Symposium being held in the spring of 2015. The location will be announced soon.
For your information, this is the latest list of keynote speakers:
The Honorable James R. Clapper, Director of National Intelligence (DNI)
LTG Michael T. Flynn, U.S. Army, Director, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
Ms. Letitia A. Long, Director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
ADM William H. McRaven, U.S. Navy, Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM)
Ms. Betty J. Sapp, Director, National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
Mr. Robert Scoble & Mr. Shel Israel, Co-Authors, “Age of Context”
While attending next week, I’m going to shoot video clips and write blogs that will be posted to this publication. If you’re attending GEOINT and see me (bald head, easy to spot), please stop me and say hello.
If you won’t be able to attend and need eyes on a particular presentation or exhibitor, please contact me. I’ll try my best to sit in on the session and take notes, or visit an exhibitor’s booth to get the information you need. I may shoot a video clip, or at least give you my impression of the session or booth.
In the early 1990s, when I was the GIS manager for the Atlanta Regional Commission, I saw many counties and municipalities get into financial and political trouble by jumping into expensive “Cadillac” GIS operations without understanding the pitfalls. Occasionally the euphoria of the cutting-edge technology gave way to panic, as some local governments lost their GIS managers to fatter paychecks, leaving a GIS that no one could operate. That’s why I recommended that GIS newbies take baby steps first, starting with simple low-cost systems such as ArcView I and II fed with free GIS data from state or federal agencies. As their experience and comfort level grew, they could then ease into six-figure GIS operations with full aerial imagery collects. Although, to a lesser extent, the same pitfall still exists today.
A somewhat analogous situation existed in the early days of the Internet with organizations wanting their own websites. To have a website, an organization had to hire or have in-house HTML programming talent. The process was slow and expensive, and changes to the website could only be made by the HTML programmers. Today, numerous services such as www.wix.com or www.web.com permit anyone to build and update their own websites in the cloud without HTML experience.
The same kind of capability was needed for geospatial applications. ESRI, Intergraph, TerraGo, Google and others have provided online geospatial tools, but not the kind of environment that would encourage mass adoption. Digital Map Products, Inc., of Irvine, California, sort of backed into the vacuum with several web service solutions (LandVision, GovClarity and CommunityView) that embed GIS functions into real-world workflows to deliver geospatial capabilities for non-GIS professionals.
These services grew out of years of experience in the geospatial data business. In 1990, DMP started work as a data collector and integrator of parcel-level data. DMP developed public-private partnerships with county governments to continually update and share this valuable GIS data with a variety of public and private users. As a result, it now maintains one of the largest nationwide parcel boundary databases available. From these beginnings, DMP started creating applications around the data and deploying them through the Internet for the real-estate industry and local governments. DMP products became an authoritative and continuously updated source of parcel data that was quickly adopted by many counties, municipalities, home builders, commercial brokers, utilities and even some federal agencies.
Experience with cloud-based geospatial delivery services such as LandVision caused DMP to realize that it had a potentially powerful capability that could be expanded to meet broader local government needs. This led to the development of an entirely new generation of services, GovClarity and CommunityView, which drilled even deeper into the day-to-day work processes needed by governments. These two cloud-based services provide GIS capabilities that could only be matched by a strong in-house GIS team with considerable hardware and software support. GovClarity provides enterprise GIS tools and capabilities to municipal employees, while CommunityView improves public service by providing map-based query tools and information open to all public users.
Talking with several users of the three services, I learned that GovClarity and CommunityView are seeing increased adoption by local governments. Just like current website publication services, the DMP cloud-based services are providing GIS capabilities to customers without the headaches and expense of maintaining their own in-house GIS team. DMP does the heavy lifting by combining established geospatial services such as Bing and Pictometry, overlaying locally produced data, and then delivering the total package with custom-designed interfaces. The service, delivered through the local government’s website, is designed to be intuitive even by non-GIS staff members and constituents.
The City of San Juan Capistrano, California, is a good example that you can view for yourself. The site integrates Bing ortho imagery with street centerline data, and parcels and links to oblique views from Pictometry. There are numerous local data layers such as tracts, neighborhood associations, trash pick-up, hiking trails, and many others. The interface is limited but very easy to navigate for non-GIS users.
A nice feature is linked videoclips of their trails so a user can do a virtual walk/ride through in preparation for actual use (see image below).
For those who want to extend the capabilities of GovClarity and CommunityView, DMP provides API access to its underlying platform for further customization. There is even a capability to connect GovClarity to ArcGIS to leverage all GIS assets within the organization.
Talking with San Juan Capistrano’s City Engineer, Ziad Mazboudi, PE, about his experience with GovClarity and CommunityView, he cited several uses and benefits that the city experienced. GovClarity is being used as a GIS viewing and analysis platform by all departments without the need for separate GIS software or dedicated GIS staff. Users can view imagery and city data, do measurements, and update both feature and attribute data. The city has one GIS technician who builds local data layers that are uploaded to DMP for inclusion in GovClarity and CommunityView. Additionally, use of both ortho and oblique imagery with change detection has proved to be a powerful tool for code enforcement. As you can imagine, GovClarity is also a strong visualization environment for commission and public meetings. They project maps, ortho and oblique imagery on a big screen as an interactive viewing environment so everyone can see and quickly comprehend the issues being discussed.
CommunityView is the city’s public access site. The city has terminals at the front counters of many public offices that permit citizens to view and print maps and imagery. This has significantly reduced the time and difficulty answering questions and responding to the public. The same site is available 24/7 through home computers, and has resulted in strong customer satisfaction.
Many large counties have sophisticated geospatial operations, but the bottom line being the bottom line, those kinds of systems are not always practical for small municipalities and agencies. Ziad was pleased to report that building the city’s geospatial capability using a traditional in-house GIS department would have cost four to five times as much as the DMP cloud service.
Does DMP have a perfect solution? I don’t know, but time will tell. A downside is the need to maintain Internet connectivity, but DMP is working to build a work-around by caching data locally for limited periods of time in its mobile and tablet-based applications. DMP may or may not be a perfect solution, but the company seems to have hit a sweet spot with local governments and other clients by meeting their needs with a low-cost, low-risk and easy-to-use option. I believe DMP is worth your serious consideration.
R/Art
P.S. I’m going to attend GEOINT in Tampa next month. If you see me, please stop and say hello. I enjoy meeting my readers.
Over the past decade, there have been numerous efforts to capture and deliver street-level imagery of major urban areas. The big players, Google Street View and Bing Map Streetside, are well accepted, and most of us use them regularly to get around. But as both indicate in their user agreements, they are for entertainment and marketing and not intended for critical applications. Other than geo-referencing the camera location, there is no metadata and no measurement capability.
More serious users such as tax assessors, transportation planners and emergency responders look to companies like iLookAbout, Facet, Tyler Technologies (formerly Yotta MVS), Geospan and others for imagery that is geo-referenced, measurable with good metadata. IMTS has even been used in overseas combat areas to gather baseline data for intelligence and tactical planning. Its accurately positioned imagery has been used to fill in detail and occluded areas of 3D models derived from aerial imagery.
Although most of the above systems produce excellent geo-referenced imagery, the imagery is not geo-referenced to the pixel, and measurements are generally derived from linked ortho, oblique or LiDAR data. The exceptions are earthmine of Berkley California and a Dutch firm called CycloMedia, which has been in the imagery business for more than 30 years. Both have similar technology, but CycloMedia seems to have significantly more coverage and a more refined toolset.
The patented CycloMedia system uses a process that captures overlapping ground-level 360° panoramic images, called Cycloramas, at 5-meter intervals. The company initially tried merging its imagery with LiDAR data to derive point locations, but that method proved cumbersome and not very accurate, so CycloMedia developed a system that used only its images. Using its system of stereo pair analysis, CycloMedia is able to derive 3D location information with accuracies of 10 cm. The automated system is fast enough to collect those 5-meter interval images at speeds up to 70 mph.
The car-mounted system simultaneously collects accurate location information for the camera system using IMUs, RTK GPS, temperature sensors and precise ground-tracking odometers. The detailed location information combined with imagery from high-resolution cameras then forms the basis of an accurate three-axis location and measurement system. Although this is a very sophisticated system, no special vehicle modifications are needed, and the entire equipment package can be installed and removed when not in use. The system can even be installed on boats and compensates for the boat’s motion.
Once captured, CycloMedia then uses its GlobeSpotter viewing software to accurately locate and measure features in the imagery. The system uses two or more Cycloramas to determine the location of any point in 3D space using geometry between different views and achieving 10-cm accuracy. Earlier versions of GlobeSpotter required the user to identify corresponding spots on two or more Cycloramas to accomplish the point location calculations. That process has now been streamlined with the single spot “Smart Click” selection tool and process. When a user clicks on an object or spot in a Cyclorama, algorithms identify the same spot in adjacent Cycloramas. This facilitates the geometric calculation of the spot in 3D space. The software can then calculate distance measurements in 3D space between the accurately located points.
There is a very good video that shows the process better than I can explain it in this short article. The video shows how the images are organized and accessed in an ArcGIS Desktop integration including measurements, GIS data overlay and polygon creation from the imagery. The creation of these precision 3D environments then opens the door to other capabilities such as 3D model creation and the ability to accurately overlay GIS vector data. Note this example of the Cyclorama footprint locations with planimetric data overlaid on this road and overpass. The same system accuracy also facilitates very accurate edge matching of imagery as a user moves along a road.
CycloMedia and GlobeSpotter are designed to operate as a web service with all imagery stored in the cloud, but the system can also be run as a thick client with the imagery stored on local media. GlobeSpotter integrates Cycloramas, aerial imagery, GIS vector data and documents. It performs the calculations and builds the visualizations. Currently, all leading GIS software suppliers including Esri have built interfaces that allow for the integration of CycloMedia’s GlobeSpotter software with their solutions.
Note this screenshot of an ArcGIS Online session showing the Navy Memorial on Pennsylvania Avenue. You can view the same site and try navigating it yourself. Search for Washington, DC, and zoom in far enough to see and click on the silver balls linking to CycloMedia images.
Uses
The very robust and accurate thre-axis measurement capabilities of CycloMedia make it a natural for tax appraisers as well as a tool for city planning work. Features such as street lighting, road markings, bus stops, benches and other infrastructure are easily viewed, measured and inventoried. The extensive metadata, including location and date of capture, will help anyone needing accurate historic data or images for forensic work.
An especially strong capability of CycloMedia is signage inspection and inventory. When I was with the Atlanta Regional Commission, we spent considerable time and effort working with the Georgia Tech Research Institute to develop an automated video street sign identification and inventory system. The ability of CycloMedia to display each sign with high-resolution imagery, facilitate accurate measurements, and easily geo-locate and link each sign to a GIS database makes the system a powerful tool for transportation managers. The same capabilities could prove invaluable for firefighter pre-plans as well as police tactical planning.
Additionally, extensive work is underway to use the data rich imagery provided by CycloMedia to create photo-realistic and photo-accurate 3D models that could be interactively navigated. See more here.
CycloMedia seems to be a significant improvement in street-level imagery capture. The accurate geo-referencing combined with strong metric tools and the ability to build 3D models could prove especially valuable for military applications as well as disaster response and recovery. My thoughts jump back to Katrina recovery efforts. CycloMedia could have inventoried affected areas by car or boat. The resultant imagery could have been annotated and exported as a GIS layer. It would be interesting to measure the cost vs. benefits of CycloMedia compared to other technology and delivery platforms.
How will 3D printing and the geospatial community affect each other?
Many of us in the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) business chuckled at the publicity stunt Amazon pulled by demonstrating UAV doorstep delivery of packages. This was smart marketing by Amazon, and although the technology may not be farfetched, the institutional issues are and will create a long, steep hill for Amazon to climb. There is, however, a growing revolution that Amazon is not talking about that could give them some serious challenges in the not-too-distant future — 3D printing. Last August I wrote about significant improvements in 3D printing demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), including creation of metal parts. This technology will most likely affect the geospatial community in ways we haven’t considered, but we geospatial experts will also have an impact on the 3D printing community.
How far has 3D printing come?
The first 3D printer I saw in action was a terrain printer at the Esri User Conference about five years ago. The concept was very simple. The printer laid down a thin 12-x-12-inch layer of special powder, followed by inkjet print heads that laid down ink that both colored and fused the powder. The process took hours as layer on layer of powder and ink built the terrain model. When complete, the uninked powder was brushed away, revealing the solid 3D model. The model could have complex undercut shapes such as a highway overpass, but the material was also somewhat brittle like unfired clay. Users could create more durable objects by using the models as forms to make castings out of aluminum or epoxies.
Developers of the budding technology have not stood still. New printers use plastic filaments to build up 3D objects, and some even use exotic technology to build objects made of fused metal such as this example. Repair parts can be created by using a 3D laser scanner to create 3D CAD models that can then be modified to add reinforcement where needed to make the replacement part better than the original. Bio-medical printers are being used to create human body parts such as ear cartilage, artery sections and dental appliances like this replacement jaw. There are even some experiments planned next year as Performative Architecture to print buildings with plumbing and other components included. On a micro level, scientists are printing complex nano devices and chemical compounds to create objects that can’t be produced in any other way.
An 83-year-old woman has become the first person to have a 3D printer-created jaw fitted. (from The Telegraph).A 285 µm racecar, printed at the Vienna University of Technology (from Phys.org).
A common phase used by 3D printing practitioners is that “complexity is free” in that it takes no more effort to print something complex than it does something simple. In fact, 3D printing becomes more economical as complexity increases, because labor costs decrease and a greater number of voids reduces the amount of raw material needed to build objects. So, look for objects such as bikes or cycles that look very organic, perhaps made of titanium, with very strong and economic internal cellular construction that may mimic the bones of birds.
How fast are things moving?
Microsoft has just added a “direct pipeline” to 3D printers from 3D printing applications such as Autodesk. If you still aren’t convinced that 3D printing is going mainstream, consider this. Staples office supply is now offering 3D printing at some of its printing/shipping centers. Add to these developments the concepts of self-assembly and of use of nano devices and we are entering a very disruptive period and environment. I believe that geospatial aspects of our world will be significantly affected by this technology, but we will also play a significant part in the development and implementation of 3D printing. So let’s speculate on the possible impact on both communities.
Our impact on the 3D printing community
Those trained in geospatial tools and techniques are well positioned to develop and operate 3D manufacturing systems. Most of us have excellent computer skills as well as the ability to visualize complex 3D objects, while also working with abstract concepts. We also understand 3D modeling software, linked databases and web development tools. Many of us have sophisticated software development knowledge and the ability to manage complex systems and processes. If architectural printing actually becomes a reality, GIS/CAD/BIM will be an integral part of the total process. So whether you remain on a geospatial career path or evolve into these new technologies, your knowledge and skills will serve you well.
3D printing’s impact on the geospatial community
“The cheapest 3D printers, which print rudimentary objects, currently sell for between $500 and $1,000. Soon, we will have printers for this price that can print toys and household goods. By the end of this decade, we will see 3D printers doing the small-scale production of previously labor-intensive crafts and goods. It is entirely conceivable that in the next decade we start 3D printing buildings and electronics.” Slashdot
Transportation
My first speculation is transportation and city growth. You may remember from your geography classes that center cites and edge cities grew out of the need to centralize manufacturing, sales, specialized activity, meetings, etc. If 3D printing becomes ubiquitous, there will be less need for large manufacturing plants, little need for warehouses, and significantly less shipping activity. The primary need for shipping will be for bulk materials used in 3D printing. Since raw materials can be more efficiently shipped than finished bulky goods, there will be greater use of tankers and pipelines.
When I was at the Atlanta Regional Commission, a large portion of our efforts were geared toward regional transportation planning. Using GIS data layers that defined where people work and where they live were key components of these “Origin – Destination” models used to predict traffic patterns. Large manufacturing facilities were always key employment centers. If small local 3D print shops or even home 3D printers could manufacture almost any item, large centralized plants becomes obsolete and the transportation needs change significantly.
Retail
Commercial shipping could be relegated primarily to raw materials. What happens to WalMart or Amazon if everyone has a home 3D printer and all you need is to download a digital file and have some raw materials on hand?
Real estate
In my early GIS career, I spent considerable time doing ring studies, trade area analysis and targeted marketing. The reduced need for retail stores and corresponding warehouses could turn that process on its head. Couple this kind of manufacturing with other technology, such as video conferencing and robotic medicine, and location favoring city centers is reduced. This would certainly impact real estate values as location factors evolve away from crowded centers.
Energy, environment and resources
A very positive impact could be on the environment. Reduced transportation requirements will cut traffic and corresponding pollution. The more efficient use of raw materials and better direct recycling of many plastics is another positive factor. I’m not sure how the energy equation would work with mass production vs. individual replication and reduced transportation but my gut feeling is that it would be a net positive result.
Military and emergency responders
The U.S. Navy is already experimenting with 3D printers to reduce the number of repair parts that are stored on ships or in the supply chain. I personally experienced the early benefits of shipboard digital technology by reducing huge libraries of paper repair manuals. An average three-foot stack of international paper navigation charts on each ship recently went digital. First responders could replicate emergency equipment repair parts on demand at NIMS Area Command Centers providing logistics support for major incidents.
Geopolitics
Internationally, many large overseas manufacturing facilities could become obsolete. U.S. companies are bringing some operations back home. The geopolitical consequences could be significant. This even applies to the manufacture of clothing. Imagine having clothing that fits perfectly, printed on demand at a neighborhood 3D print store. A positive effect could be that less developed countries may have access to goods that currently are not affordable.
Unknown unknowns
Although 3D printing has made great strides in five years, it’s still far from being competitive with traditional mass production. Speed, object size and mixed materials/media are still an issue. There are many naysayers on 3D printing sites. Many believe that the technology is too slow and limited along with a myriad of other problems. I have no doubt that many if not all these issues will be resolved or augmented with other technologies. We are also viewing the technology in terms of our current knowledge and perspective. My first experience with digital mapping was a 286 PC driving a xy pen plotter that mimicked the job done by draftsmen. At the time, no one imagined that HP could spray micro drops of ink on paper to rapidly produce billboard-sized plots with color imagery as we do today.
I believe we are in for a wild ride as the technology evolves. The above speculations are just my preliminary thoughts. I’ll bet that many of you have additional observations and speculations. I’d like to hear from you in the comments section. To learn more, you may want to attend a key 3D Printing conference in New Your April 2-4.
A Report on the Annual GIS Conference of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI)
By Art Kalinski, GISP
“Plexus is defined as any complex structure containing an intricate network of parts. The Spatial Plexus annual event elevates Geographic Information Science as the cross-disciplinary application of GIS and geo-technologies against so many interconnected issues.” — Spatial Plexus website
Two weeks ago, I attended Spatial Plexus 2013, a GIS conference put together by Danielle Ayan of GTRI. Her reputation of building well-organized conferences helped draw some very interesting and influential speakers. The conference was held at the historic Academy of Medicine at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. The academy is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and even has a connection to the movie Gone with the Wind. Built before television and movies, the auditorium was designed for doctors to view medical demonstrations using actual cadavers on the stage. Fortunately, none of the Plexus presentations were cadaverously dull.
The conference opened with several pre-conference workshops, including Course Development Workshops to advance GIS-related education based on DACUM (Developing A CUrriculuM) and the Geospatial Technology Competency Model (GTCM). This was tied in with a GeoTech Advisory Council Meeting. The GeoTech Center, funded in part by National Science Foundation, is a collaborative effort between colleges, universities and industry to expand the geospatial workforce by providing professional development and curriculum resources.
A workshop I attended covered new capabilities of ArcGIS Online. The hands-on workshop was conducted by Dr. Tom Mueller of California University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Rich Schultz of Elmhurst College, Illinois. If interested, you can go through the same tutorial online.
I liked the linear format of this conference rather than separate break-out sessions found in mega conferences, because I always get frustrated missing competing break-out sessions. Additionally, we tend to overly focus on our primary areas of interest to the exclusions of other topics. The linear format pulls your mind and attention through a variety of subject areas, expanding the breadth of your knowledge. That was certainly the case with Spatial Plexus — lots of variety. The following are just a sample of the presentations. You can go to the Spatial Plexus website for a complete list, including many of the presentations and associated SharePoints.
The opening keynote was given by Daniel Edelson, vice president of education for the National Geographic Society. He discussed “The Importance of Geo Literacy for College, Career and Civic Readiness.” His presentation was reinforced by Dr. Max Baber, the director of academic programs for the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF). He discussed the multitude of excellent positions in the geospatial intelligence community, both at NGA and associated contractors. He also stressed the growing need and demand for GEOINT analyst certification, which is becoming a way to ensure qualified personnel in government and contractor positions.
Tamarin Gullett-Tyrrell, GIS analyst for Cherokee County, Georgia, demonstrated the county geospatial Situational Awareness website. The Esri/Silverlight system by GeoCortex was designed to serve the public as well as emergency responders. Tamarin and Joe Woycke, Director of GIS and Mapping, built the well thought out and elegant system by bringing together all the county stakeholders early in the process. They determined that the complexity and diversity of stakeholder requirements pointed the way to two separate sites — one for tax work / county planning and the other for the public and emergency responder situational awareness including the sheriff, police, fire departments, EOC and the 911 call center. The early collaboration and consensus building saved a lot of time and expensive change orders. The result is two systems that all users are happy with. Shown below is . It not only incorporates county data and imagery, it toggles Bing and Google geospatial data.
Situational awareness website SAGE.
Joe Francica, editor-in-chief of Directions Magazine in Huntsville, Alabama, gave a rapid-fire summary of new technology he was following that he believed will impact the geospatial community. These include:
WiFiSLAM, an indoor location technology
geofencing, which sends location-based notifications to consumers approaching a store
In one of the open group discussions related to my presentation on Soft Power, I mentioned the 2010 Foreign Affairs magazine article on the disruptive effect of social media and mobile devices on second- and third-world countries. I discussed my amazement at the ingenuity of people who find a way to communicate without the benefit of a well-established communications systems. FabFi is a very low cost and simple wireless network developed by MIT students that is being used in Kenya and Afghanistan to provide wireless communications between villages. The system uses inexpensive $40 off-the-shelf wireless routers and home-made parabolic antennas of plywood and chicken wire to send wireless signals from one village to another. The networks are so quick and easy to establish that governments may no longer have the power to turn off the Internet when they feel threatened. This is democratization at its best.
The FabFi program brings the Internet to villages in developing nations.
There were several presentations on the use of GIS in medical applications, especially the work being done by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and even a presentation by Chris Smith, director of IT Services for the U.S. Architect of the Capitol on how GIS had streamlined the management of Capitol facilities.
Chris Smith, director of IT Services for the U.S. Architect of the Capitol.
The closing keynote was given by Major General William Reddel, the National Guard Adjutant General for the State of New Hampshire, who also serves as the chair of the U.S. Adjutant Generals Association Cyber/GIS/IT Committee and was the keynote speaker at last year’s ESRI Federal Users Conference. The General seems to be a good steward of our tax dollars, since he quickly realized and acted to reduced 54 separate state National Guard Esri licenses to one enterprise license, saving us 1.5 million dollars annually. He also discussed how the needs of the National Guard had evolved and are moving to cloud services such as Virtual USA and Web EOC. He closed with a slight redefinition. He said most people use the term “Common Operational Picture” (COP), but he prefers the growing reality of “User Defined Operational Pictures” as capabilities and user needs evolve.
As you can surmise from this short sampling, Spatial Plexus 2013 was a very diverse and interesting collection of GIS practitioners and presentations. The linear format exposed all us attendees to corners of the community that we might not otherwise investigate, so it was especially informative. The conference was certainly well worth the time, and I strongly encourage all who can to attend next year.
As you would guess, it takes a lot of planning and preparation to put on a technical conference of the scope of GEOINT. So imagine the hand wringing the USGIF staff went through deciding to postpone a conference of about 4,000 attendees and 300 exhibitors because of the untimely government shutdown. There really was no choice, with the majority of federal attendees canceling due to travel restrictions. Without their participation, holding the conference would have been futile. Since the city of Tampa was so accommodating and easy to work with, USGIF rescheduled the conference at the same Tampa venue, April 14-17. They tried their best to minimize scheduling conflicts with other geospatial and USGIF conferences such as the NGA Tech Showcase West (also scheduled for April) and USGIF’s GEOINT Community Week, including Tech Days.
Prior to a major conference, manufacturers send out press releases and invitations to see new products being shown on the exhibit floor. So, although GEOINT 2013 was postponed, I’m still doing my column as a “virtual conference” report. This is a very broad sample of new developments that I received from vendors who planned to be at the October conference, now rescheduled for April.
Thermopylae focuses on commercially-based knowledge-fusion capabilities in the geospatial, cloud, and mobile arenas. It has three solutions: iSpatal, a web-based collaborative framework that leverages Google Earth and Maps in a flexible, task-based approach to solve complex problems; iHarvest, a standards-based enterprise analytic service that organizes, analyzes, and reports activities to enable critical decisions; and Ubiquity, a proprietary platform for creating dynamic, customized, and geocentric native mobile applications. Thermopylae is also bringing back the popular Liquid Galaxy immersive virtual-reality display showcasing Google Glass and Leap integration, showing a unified demonstration of all of its products in the Liquid Galaxy display.
KEYW’s geospatial capability exploits cyberspace as a domain for collecting, processing, and supporting actionable imagery intelligence to the warfighter and for civilian and commercial uses. The company matches aircraft to mission requirements and modify the aircraft with integrated airborne sensor systems for onboard, geospatially referenced digital imagery collection and processing. KEYW planned to showcase its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) imaging and mapping; and its Precision Geo-location via handheld, backpack and mobile solutions, along with several other innovations.
Brocade provides networking solutions for government agencies and has expanded its product line with a new compact, fanless switch that simplifies network operations. It’s a secure, enterprise-quality network that is responsive to the complex needs of warfighter and civilian missions. The ICX 6450-C switch is deployable outside the wiring closet, without interfering with other critical activities. Using power over Ethernet, the switch can operate in remote locations, where access to an external power source is limited or not available.
TouchShare has extended its multi-touch solutions for immersive geospatial collaboration to anyone, regardless of location or device, through the TouchShare Mobile Access. The new TouchShare Mobile Access significantly improves teamwide productivity as it gives all collaborators the ability to simultaneously view and contribute to what other team members are seeing in real-time and interact with visual geospatial information (live data, 2D imagery, video, etc.) via any device. This allows all participants to easily and quickly see the big picture for making better decisions faster.
Surrey Satellite Technology provides small satellite solutions, applications, and services for Earth observation, science, technology demonstration, and communications. Since 1981, Surrey has launched 41 satellites as well as provided training and development programs, consultancy services, and mission studies for NASA, the United States Air Force, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and other institutional and commercial customers.
GameSim planned to show off its latest version of Conform, a software product for geospatial visualization. Conform imports, fuses and renders LiDAR content in near real time, while offering a variety of unique abilities, including an instantaneous 3D view of raw source data. Users are able to easily import large amounts of data (such as Shape Files, DTED, GeoTIFFs, LIDAR) and immediately view them in both 2D and 3D displays.
Hyperspectral sensing offers advantages over traditional multispectral imaging with respect to the number of spectral bands being covered. Use enhances target recognition, material identification, and elimination of false positive alarms. Hyperspectral imaging yields much more spectral data than multispectral by producing a continuous spectrum of data representing the chemical composition of objects or spectral “signatures” of everything within the sensor’s field of view. Headwall’s Micro-Hyperspec have been miniaturized and optimized for deployment aboard small, tactical UAVs, including small hand-launched versions.
Orbit Communication Systems provides ground-station solutions for Earth observation and remote-sensing applications. It has a new product family known as the Gaia series that supports a range of antenna sizes. These ground stations offer an ideal combination of high performance in a compact footprint. “With our new Gaia family, Orbit addresses a void in the market, and opens the door to new Earth observation markets that could not afford to purchase legacy ground stations due to their size and cost,” said Ofer Greenberger, Orbit CEO.
The antennas are designed to withstand extreme weather conditions and to handle a broad range of applications, operated anywhere on Earth. The series comprises three different sized antennas: 2.4 meters (7.9 feet); 3.7 meters (12.1 feet); and 4.5 meters (14.7 feet). Each antenna supports X-band or S-Band (both transmit and receive) feeds, as well as a dual-band (S&X) feed.
Astrium’s Street Factory, an advanced 3D urban mapping solution, was awarded “most valuable product in the geo-information field 2012” at the World Geospatial Developers Conference. Building on that success, Astrium planned to demonstrate WorldDEM, a high-resolution elevation data set that covers the Earth’s entire land surface, pole to pole. The accuracy of the German high-resolution radar satellites TerraSAR-X produces data intended to replace SRTM data. It has excellent ground-position accuracy with vertical accuracy of 2m (relative) / 10m (absolute) in a 12m x 12m raster GSD. WorldDEM will be available in 2014 with data less than 2.5 years old. Shown above is a comparison of STRM 90 elevation data compared to WorldDEM.
Ever since my experience supporting Katrina recovery efforts, I’ve be a strong advocate for simple low-tech hard-copy imagery plots overlaid with vector data to support emergency responders. Many times this low-tech embodiment of our high-tech capability suits the needs of first responders better than computer displays. However, paper plots ideally need to be laminated on foam core to be useful in wet and windy environments. Epson has one solution, a plotter that prints on ridged media. Epson engineers developed the SureColor T-Series printers with an all-new design that prints directly on ridged substrates that have a thickness of 1.5 mm. This is especially important to agencies that have a need for fast print output on thick media eliminating the hassle of laminating or marrying to thicker carriers for immediate use. The SureColor T-series also features Epson UltraChrome XD pigment-based ink technology for smudge and water-resistant prints.
This is just a sample of the nearly 300 exhibitors that will be at GEOINT in April. I’ll bet you thought that GEOINT was just imagery and big data. Quite the contrary — it takes a lot diverse players and pieces to build a strong GEOINT capability.
Last week I attended the ION GNSS+ Conference (Institute of Navigation / Global Navigation Satellite Systems) in Nashville, touted as the largest GNSS conference in the world. Although Geospatial Solutions is closely aligned with GPS World, my focus is on GIS, and like most GIS people, we look at GPS devices as data collection tools and most of us don’t get heavily involved with the workings of the equipment or GPS community.
Since I only live two hours away from Nashville, my editor, Alan Cameron, invited me to attend so I could meet the GPS World staff and peek over the wall into the GPS community. It was time well spent, since I was exposed to the ongoing evolution and problems being addressed by the GPS community, which seems to have a higher percentage of Ph.D.s than any other conference I’ve attended. There was a lot of hardware and software outside my realm of experience, so some of my observations may be simplistic or old news to some of you. Please bear with me as I share topics that I believe may be of interest to the GIS community.
For starters, GPS is just a modern tool to do global navigation, not much different from when I was doing celestial navigation on a Navy destroyer in the ’70s and ’80s. The concept is fairly simple, although the execution is not.
Every star in the sky is fixed in space with an observer on earth either at the nadir point where the star is directly overhead at 90 degrees or most likely somewhere between 90 degrees and the horizon, 0 degrees. A sextant is used to measure that angle, and all possible points at that angle describe a unique circle on the Earth where that measurement can exist. Intersection of two other star circles can then locate a unique point on the earth. This sounds simple in theory, but the actual process is not, since the Earth is constantly rotating, wobbling and moving through its annual orbit. Additionally, cloud cover can obscure the stars, and rough weather can make precision observations all but impossible. Then, after shooting the stars, over an hour of work was required looking up data in celestial tables and doing tedious computations to get each line of position.
British Atmospheric Data Centre (BADC).
Early electronic navigation systems such as Omega and Loran C helped made some navigation a bit easier. They used time delay and phase shifting between radio transmitters to create hyperbolic lines of position between two transmitters. Three transmitters produced two sets of lines, and the intersection was your position. Both celestial and early electronic navigation were not very accurate and not particularly easy to use. Both were phased out in favor of GPS, which sort of combines the concept of celestial with electronic navigation.
GPS even uses the term a “constellation” of satellites. The satellites provide very exact position information to GPS receivers, which calculate the observer’s position similar to celestial fix. Additionally, accurate and precisely measured time is so important that scientists actually take into account the theory of relativity and dilation of time caused by the very fast travel of GPS satellites to have system accuracy that is adequate.
New Players
GPS was developed in the ’60s and ’70s by the U.S. military, but opened to civil use by Ronald Reagan after the shooting down of KAL flight 007 by the Soviet Union. They thought the 747 was spying, but in reality the inaccurate navigation systems erroneously put the civilian airliner into Soviet airspace. In the late ’90s, the U.S. Navy moved to GPS and away from traditional celestial and land-based electronic navigation because it was so tedious and prone to errors. However, there are second thoughts about complete reliance on GPS. The Naval Academy and Navy navigation school currently teach a shortened celestial course using a sextant and specialized calculator that performs the complex and tedious calculations.
Although GPS was developed by the U.S. military, there are other players — the Russian GLONASS system operational in 1995, the more recent European Galileo, Chinese Compass (now called BeiDou,) and soon India’s IRNSS and Japan’s proposed QZSS. What that means for us users is cheaper systems with greater accuracy, redundancy and better coverage.
RTK (Real Time Kinematics)
Several years ago, RTK satellite navigation was developed to enhance the precision of GNSS, usable with GPS, GLONASS and/or Galileo. Rather than relying only on the GNSS position information, the RTK system also uses phase measurements of the GNSS carrier signals and combines that with a single or network of ground reference stations, similar to Differential GPS, which provides real-time corrections with centimeter-level accuracy. RTK hardware is becoming ubiquitous, and prices are dropping dramatically. A new entry, Piksi by Swift Navigation, is promising a complete RTK system suitable for UAVs for less than $900.
Geodesy and MSL
I never had a strong interest in geodesy, but talking to Kevin Kelly, ESRI’s geodesist, I was surprised to learn that something as basic as mean sea level is being challenged by GPS measurements. There has been a concern for years that the universally used datum has numerous intrinsic errors (See an ESRI paper for more information). The errors are caused by local conditions such as variations in the Earth’s gravitational field, sea currents, air-pressure variations, temperature and salinity variations, etc. Scientists are looking to move from MSL to a GPS-generated gravity model to serve as a more accurate datum.
Indoor Location Technology
I’ve had a long-term interest in indoor location technology after learning how critical the need was in tracking first responders inside buildings. Two years ago, I wrote about a promising device by NAViSEER that combined GPS with a new microchip-based IMU (inertial measurement unit). The IMU contained three accelerometers and three gyroscopes capable of measuring inertial acceleration and movement in three axes. Regrettably, drift of the IMUs have limited their usefulness.
Another approach is reading of RFID tags, but these have to be installed and mapped in advance.
A technology I was able to test was a Time Domain ranging radio. The low-cost device has 2-mm accuracy and is being used in many robotic plant operations. Although very accurate, it is a line-of-sight device. Bottom line: There still is no overarching solution to indoor tracking.
GNSS Problems and eLoran
There were several presentations on how vulnerable satellites were to jamming, spoofing, cyber attacks and even severe solar storms. Several presenters discussed defensive strategies and equipment. Other presentations discussed current efforts to reestablish Loran as an alternative to GNSS. A new Loran system, eLoran, seems to have strong following in some foreign countries, with serious ongoing discussions with U.S. users. Enhanced Loran (eLoran) is built with modern transmission and receiver design that increase the accuracy and usefulness of traditional Loran, with reported accuracy as good as ± 8 meters. Not great, but a good alternative if GNSS goes down.
Other Non-Satellite Positioning Systems
A keynote presentation that created a stir with the GNSS crowd was given by Nunzio Gambale, founder of the Australian firm Locata. His thesis was that satellites have run their course and are potentially vulnerable to numerous hazards and limitations. You can view his keynote speech video.
His firm invented a radio-location technology that gives precise positioning in environments where GPS is either marginal or unavailable, or to use during GNSS outage. Locata also offers a precision indoor navigation solution using a patented VRay antenna technology that defeats errors in high-multipath environments.
Locata antenna as White Sands.
The basic system consists of a local network of terrestrially based transceivers that provide well-synchronized signals that operate in combination with standard GPS or totally independent of GPS. The system has the ability to replicate a GPS satellite constellation locally — on the ground. He envisions a cell-phone-tower-like system that could back up GNSS. The system is especially useful in mines, construction sites, warehouses, airports, strategic infrastructure, and heavy urban canyon cities that suffer from multipath interference. A Leica/Locata system is being used by Newmont in open-pit gold mining with better than 10-cm accuracy. The Air Force installed Locata at the expansive White Sands Missile Range as a reference system that can provide truth reference data during GPS vulnerability testing (jamming experiments). The Locata system delivers <18-cm 3D positioning over 2,500 square miles.
A Geospatial Vendor
There was one geospatial vendor in the Expo, so my attention was caught. Consolidated Resource Imaging, LLC (CRI) was demonstrating its LodeStar real-time camera system. It’s a persistent wide area airborne surveillance system similar to Gorgon Stare that is touted as offering smaller size and lower weight, power and price. Dr. Gregg Wildes, CRI’s senior program manager, demonstrated examples of Wide Area Motion Imagery (WAMI) with their tracking and analysis tools.
Shown here is a CRI LodeStar wide area imagery screen capture with tracks and a time playback feature.A CRI LodeStar wide area imagery screen capture showing zoomed-in tracks of vehicles.
The system has the ability to track and back track vehicles to their origins within the motion imagery footprint. The geo-referencing is accomplished by mounting a high-accuracy CRI NAV 100 GPS/IMU navigation system to the camera plane. This approach is similar to the system used by Pictometry to capture geo-referenced oblique imagery. The actively stabilized sensor system provides improved resolution and accurately geo-referenced imagery exportable to Google Earth and other WMS GIS applications.
Conclusions
My key takeaway was that, like Moore’s Law, GNSS equipment continues to get faster, cheaper and more accurate while other location technologies grow in use and capability. My one nagging concern is the potential vulnerability of satellite systems. We’ve become extremely dependent on GNSS and I don’t need yet one more thing to worry about.
Two weeks ago, I attended a USGIF workshop in Huntsville sponsored by GEO Huntsville, through the considerable efforts of Directions Magazine Editor-in-Chief and Vice Publisher Joe Francica and his staff. The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) is a non-profit dedicated to promoting the geospatial intelligence tradecraft across industry, academia, government, professional organizations and individual stakeholders.
GEO Huntsville’s Geospatial Intelligence (Geoint) Workshop was held August 14 at the Von Braun Center Civic Arena in Huntsville, Alabama.Keith Masback, USGIF chief executive officer.
The workshop was a collection of geospatial-related presentations starting with Keith Masback, the USGIF chief executive officer, who gave an interesting history of NGA based on his extensive experience in the geospatial community. He reviewed that NGA had a somewhat shaky start that grew out a vision of Rear Admiral Bill Owens, which was part of the 1996 “Joint Vision 2010” that formed the concept of network-centric operations. Looking at the past, the Joint Vision participants saw that the future would require a new way of doing intel business. They determined that information had to be brought near the user, not at some distant command center. It would need to be as close to real time as possible. It would have to be precise and able to ID combat targets. It would have to be integral with missile defense and provide detailed urban data.
So in 1996, the NIMA (National Imagery and Mapping Agency) was formed by combining the DMA (Defense Mapping Agency) and the CIO (Central Imagery Office). The merging of mapping and imagery communities proved very difficult as the two cultures collided. Even the internal NIMA commission was bent on dissolving the marriage. Fortunately, after working through the issues, the commission came to the conclusion that the marriage was really in the best interest of the country and both communities.
It was also at the same time that Jim Clapper took over the week of 9/11. That event sharply focused everyone’s minds. General Clapper decided that the best way to unify the command was to get rid of the separate words “imagery” and “mapping” — thus was born the new title National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, and to put it in the same company of other three-letter agencies, it was dubbed NGA. NGA really worked hard to meet the vision set in 1996. Keith cited the Bin Laden apprehension as a good example.
He then explained how NGA felt it needed to evolve. He cited the example that our troops needed to be as location enabled as kids are with their mobile devices. Crowd sourcing is playing an ever-increasing roll, and despite the belief that the cyber world is locationless, location is a very real aspect of cyber warfare. Users have locations as well as servers and the interconnecting framework. Asymmetrical urban warfare demands even more precise location mapping, including building interiors. Keith cited Robert Scoble’s keynote at The Next Web Conference Europe as a must-view video by everyone in the geospatial community, to place his comments in context. Robert Scoble and Shel Israel are going to be keynote speakers at GEOINT 2013.
Additionally, although the military is taking a lion’s share of sequestration cuts, the two areas that are not seeing significant cuts because of WMDs are ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) and cyber. He said that some people question the need for geospatial capabilities in a cyber world, but he quickly cited that servers have locations, that networks have locations, and most hackers/persons of interest have locations, which also point to the growing need for indoor urban tracking of users. And all this takes on even more significance with the proliferation of WMDs. Although not as immediate, NGA is also very supportive and promotes STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education so we maintain the pipeline of talent. He also talked about the growing drumbeat for geospatial intel certification, especially for contract work.
Randy Jones of the Missile and Space Command spoke of the much shorter timelines of intelligence and needed action, that we have a flood of information but have a poverty of attention. That there is a growing need for “object-based intelligence” or, as some refer to it, “activity-based intelligence.” The flood of data is overwhelming analysts, and NGA is looking for increasingly sophisticated algorithms to sort the massive data collections. The are many opportunities for small, innovative companies in this arena to help DIA, NGA, and NSA.
Robert Zitz of SAIC gave his take on current actions in Washington. He quoted James Clapper as saying, “We’ve run out of money, so now we have to think.” He also cited Latisha Long that although DoD was seeing 5% sequestration cuts, DHS may see increases to its budget due to WMD and cyber concerns, specifically power, water and transportation. (As a side note, I harp to all my family members and friends the need to heed the DHS warning for all citizens to maintain a two-week supply of food and water in their home.) There is also special attention being given to joint efforts of special operations, cyber security and border security. Those intel dollars are increasing especially for real-time data collection, multi-int fusion and predictive analytics.
A representative from Sierra Nevada and L3 talked about wide area air surveillance (WAAS), specifically Gorgon Stare and the domestic manned aircraft version Vigilant Stare, which is also being linked with full-motion video. The key issue is analytics to filter and provide timely actionable intelligence.
MIC cameras from Bosch Security Systems feed a Coastal Remote Monitoring Program for the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
A very clever use of lower cost, off-the-shelf hardware to solve a critical need was presented by Major Scott Bannon of the Alabama Marine Resources Division and Tim Erwin of Crystal Data International. Major Bannon’s small staff is tasked with monitoring more than 600 miles of Gulf Coastline. They installed a network of ruggedized video cameras, some in very remote locations, that were connected via a wireless network with all the cameras controlled by the users. This is not much different than many systems seen in urban areas, but the challenge was building a rugged system with some very remote locations lacking power or connectivity. The cameras were geo-referenced on Google Earth and controllable by his staff from mobile devices. Although the images are not directly geo-referenced, their position coupled with user knowledge permitted them to search and identify objects in the water accurately enough to task rescue assets to craft in distress. The night low-light imaging capability helped in several high-interest events. A new version will provide accurate azimuth data recorded with the imagery.
Dr. Michael Botts presented his work to develop common standards for web enablement of sensors. SML (Sensor Markup Language) is being backed by the OGC to permit sensor web enablement (SWE). See the OGC website for more details.
The workshop was closed by Sandra Broadnax, the NGA Small Business Programs director. Her presentation was probably the best received session because of her infectious enthusiasm. She explained how NGA Director Long was extremely supportive of small business innovations and contributions to the intelligence community. She explained how NGA maintains a very comprehensive list of changing requirements on both the high and low sides. She strongly encouraged all geospatial firms to monitor the NGA site, since there were many opportunities that are not published in FedBizOps. At the session she wasted no time building connections by identifying those who had SCIFs in Huntsville and those who might need access so they could view and respond to classified requirements.
So, the key topics that I believe will dominate GEOINT 2013 are:
Persistent wide area air surveillance
Social media, big data, human geography
Every individual a consumer and provider of intel data
“Object” or “Activity” based intelligence, even inside buildings
Integration of real-time actionable intelligence to users in the field
The geospatial links of cyber threats
As you can see, even in the short span of one year, the geospatial community continues to evolve significantly. I’m going to attend GEOINT 2013 in October and the GaTech Research Institute GIS conference Spatial Plexus in November. If you see me, please introduce yourself.
Last month we looked at old and new providers of oblique imagery. I mentioned what a strong proponent I am of oblique imagery because it’s such a powerful visualization tool, easily comprehended by non-GIS users. My experience with police, firefighters and the Atlanta Regional Commission demonstrate that many first responders and politicians have difficulty reading blueprints, technical drawings or maps, but can visualize an area of interest much faster with oblique imagery.
Jack Maguire, a colleague and GIS Manager for Lexington County South Carolina, coined a very descriptive phrase. He said that most non-GIS people have “map blindness,” in that they have difficulty comprehending maps even if merged with ortho imagery. However, those same users will have no difficulty getting oriented viewing an oblique image. (See my July article for a more detailed explanation). That’s why both Google Earth and MS Bing now include oblique views and even some interactive 3D models for a growing number of urban areas.
Most oblique imagery data sets are generally limited to four cardinal directions along with an ortho view. That’s why I believe 3D models are a notch above, because they offer infinitely adjustable oblique views for even better visualization. It’s the oblique views that are the key attraction of 3D models. If you observe someone using an interactive 3D model, they almost always look at multiple oblique views. I’ve never seen a 3D model user navigate to the ortho view and stay there as they navigate around a city.
PLW Modelworks
There are many ways to create 3D models, ranging from manually produced models using CAD/CAM/BIM/GIS programs to fast simple 3D modeling tools such as Google Sketch Up. Over the years there have been many vendors in the business of building 3D models, some extremely detailed and sophisticated. In my opinion the best 3D models being produced are from PLW Modelworks. Their models are very detailed, photo realistic and photo accurate. There is a precision and “correctness” to their models that is missing from many other models I’ve seen.
Most of their models are built from measurements taken directly from Pictometry metric oblique imagery. The same oblique imagery is then “draped” on each building face resulting in 3D models that are true to life and fully measurable, including length, width, height and even angular measurements from one building roof to another. This YouTube video will give you an appreciation for their models.
One aspect of PLW models important to first responders and military operators is that no part of any building in their models is cloned, textured or faked. The buildings are draped with the actual building image. If all or part of a building is occluded, then the PLW people indicate that as a black “no-data” area that looks like a black shadow. That way operators know that any window or door that is visible on a building is actually there and measurable.
Street Factory
A recent addition to 3D modeling is Street Factory by Astrium Services, which does automated 3D models as complex TINs built from existing oblique imagery. The process is advertised as photogrammetrically corrected for high accuracy with a quick turn-around in the range of several hours. Unlike PLW models where each building is a separate object in the database, Street Factory models are one continuous surface requiring extra processing tools to extract individual buildings/features and link to attributes. See the brochure for additional information. I hope to personally see their system and products soon and will let you know what I learn and observe.
Although PLW and Street Factory models are the state of the art, there are some limitations. It does take time to build the models ranging from hours to weeks if the area is large and complex. If new imagery has to be captured, the aerial flights can add significantly more time to the entire process. So, for my GIS budget, the ultimate “holy grail” of visualization would be accurate, high resolution, full color, interactive and measurable 3D models that are easy to produce and close to real time.
Well, hang on to your surveyor’s helmet; that time has arrived.
Ball Aerospace FLASH LiDAR
For several years, I’ve observed refinements of a technology developed by Ball Aerospace called FLASH LiDAR. Simply put, Ball Aerospace created the ability to capture continuous rapid multiple LiDAR images/point clouds merged with continuous high-resolution optical images to create full-color 3D models in real time. Yes, real-time full motion video resulting in interactive geo-referenced metric 3D models.
Shown here are screen shots of the system software showing the LiDAR data colored by height, the optical image captured at the same time, and the resultant full-color 3D model of the merged data in real time.
The first time I saw the system was at GEOINT 2010 where the Ball engineers had their FLASH LiDAR running in sync with a video camera creating continuous 3D fused images. That first demonstration was somewhat crude but I could see the significant potential. They’ve continued to refine the system to a point where the models now look extremely good. This is one technology that needs to be viewed as video clips which you can access through the Ball Aerospace website.
Since the capture process is fully automated, complexity is not an issue as both simple buildings and complex trees are modeled at the same speed. Since the resultant 3D model is assembled from multiple views, trees look like trees and not like bushes. Additionally, since the very accurate LiDAR point cloud is an intrinsic part of the capture process, relative and real positional accuracy suitable for targeting is continuously maintained. Another benefit of the integrated system design is that mounting the camera pod is not complex nor does the aircraft have to be modified. Installation is quick and easy on large or small fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
The optical sensor can be a RGB, IR, low light, night vision or multi-spectral cameras. The resultant models can be down-linked to ground computers or hand held devices for real-time viewing and analysis.
According to Roy Nelson, Ball’s Senior Advanced Systems manager, FLASH LiDAR is tailor made for time critical 3D mapping for critical missions, enhanced situational awareness, battlefield characterization, tactical mission planning and improved targeting. For emergency responders it can help with disaster response planning and event forensics. Roy also cited a discussion he had with an EOC manager who indicated that the real-time models could be a valuable tool to communicate with the public via television, kiosks or the Internet. Since the real time 3D/oblique images are easily comprehended by the public, he could show the actual progress of a fire or flood and communicate to the public evacuation needs and routes.
The Future
So, what will be the ultimate word in visualization? I saw two possibilities at recent GEOINT conferences. First, immersive virtual reality and augmented reality keep improving and are making deep inroads in many different applications. Second, Zebra Imaging, producers of compelling 3D holograms, may eventually have the real “killer” visualization product. Their ZScape holographic motion displays are full motion holographic 3D video displays that are still in the early stages of development. I can easily imagine where this Star Wars technology will be in five years when combined with real-time full motion 3D models.
Last month I covered current vendors of ortho imagery with some pros and cons regarding the different sources. There wasn’t room to also include oblique imagery, so I’m covering that topic this month.
I’ve been a very strong proponent of oblique imagery for many years based on my experience as the GIS manager for the Atlanta Regional Commission, where I found that there was no single geospatial tool that had such a positive and dramatic impact on our first responders as oblique imagery. (See my 2008 article that describes why.) I felt so strongly that it could make our troops more effective and help save lives that I joined Pictometry for a few years to help promote oblique imagery military projects. At that time, Pictometry was the only oblique game in town, since it had patent protection dealing with much of the technology. However, the patent protection is ending and many new players are entering the field.
A Graflex camera circa World War I.
Early History
Few people realize that the first serious aerial surveillance collections were oblique images taken with old Graflex cameras held out of a biplane cockpit. The images were good but users soon learned that it was a nightmare to try to assemble the oblique perspective images into a large mosaic. So analysts switched to ortho imagery that could be stitched together nicely, and we’ve been pretty much stuck in that straight down world. Fortunately, sophisticated algorithms and digital image processing have changed all of that.
The underlying reason that oblique imagery works so well for visualization compared to ortho imagery is a function of our mind-eye vision referred to as anamorphic illusion. Our eyes can look at 2D images and perceive them as 3D objects if the right visual cues are present. There are some interesting examples of anamorphic illusions on the web.
So let’s look at the current sources of oblique imagery.
Pictometry International, Corp.
Pictometry has been the dominant force in oblique imagery capture for more than a decade, thanks partially to patents and surrounding technology the company has developed. Not only does Pictometry have the tools and technology to capture, serve and exploit the oblique imagery, it also amassed a huge library of images covering almost 90 percent of U.S. populated areas. Pictometry has desktop viewing software that permits users to view and measure almost any aspect related to the oblique image — x,y location, length, width, and very accurate heights, while also displaying overlaid GIS data including elevation data and contour lines. Pictometry does this by re-projecting the GIS vector data to match the trapezoidal footprint of a perspective oblique image. Pictometry also serves its extensive library of images, over two petabytes, through an online service called POL (Pictometry On Line). Users can view imagery and do the same measurements as with the desktop software.
Pictometry’s desktop viewing software.
My experience showed that the positional accuracy ranged in the 3- to 15-foot range. To meet USGS National Map standards, Pictometry developed AccuPlus, which includes ground surveys and image correction of the ortho view to meet USGS’s 30-cm product specification.
For users who want to view and use the oblique imagery inside the ortho footprint ArcGIS environment, the Pictometry engineers developed a transform tool that effectively stretches the back of the trapezoidal oblique footprint to a rectangular image that can be used just like an ortho image but with an oblique view. The only downside is that without perspective the image looks a little funny. Note this example and the fact that the garage is the same width in front as in back. This is what happens when the perspective is removed. This transform tool is now part of ESRI’s ImageServer so users can import an oblique image and the transformation is automatic. Pictometry also supplies oblique imagery for Microsoft Bing, called the Birdseye View. The imagery supplied for Bing has slightly less resolution and cannot be measured, as with Pictometry software.
The Pictometry transform tool.
Woolpert, Inc.
Woolpert has been in the oblique imagery capture business almost as long as Pictometry, but it uses a completely different technology, the push broom method. Most oblique capture systems take five oblique single frame photos — north, south, east, west, and straight down. Those oblique images show natural perspective so the image footprint is a trapezoid. Woolpert uses a three-camera system – one ortho and a forward and aft oblique image scanner. The continuous 45-degree scanning has a big benefit in that the system produces an oblique image with a true ortho footprint right out of the box, so the resultant oblique image can be viewed by GIS software as if it was an ortho image. The down side of push broom capture is that the geometry of tall buildings is distorted so that some of the buildings seem to lean toward each other.
The Sanborn Map Company, Inc.
Sanborn is a large and well-established aerial imagery firm now getting into the oblique business. Although I haven’t had any broad experience with its imagery and navigation tools, the online demo has a very slick interface and very nice quality imagery. Try it yourself. As an oblique newcomer, Sanborn’s coverage is limited, and I can’t judge its accuracy, but it has a strong reputation of producing quality work and products so it is a company to watch. Some of the company’s imagery is credited as part of Google Maps, but both are secretive as to the extent or parameters.
Fugro EarthData, Inc.
I’ve had no personal experience with Fugro data and software, but I did see a trade show demo of its software, PanoramiX. The software and imagery looked good, but as a newcomer its image library is limited and the accuracy of its imagery is unknown.
GEOSPAN, Corp.
On its website, GEOSPAN lists oblique imagery capture in addition to Street level imagery, orthophotography, 3D models, street centerline creation, and GIS feature extraction. There is no information available as to coverage or accuracy.
ControlCam
ControlCam is the newest entry into the oblique market. It is a Florida-based aerial imagery company that pioneered and perfected a process of identifying cable TV leaks through the use of aerial surveillance. The company owns and manages its own fleet of aircraft capturing both orthogonal and oblique imagery. ControlCam will soon launch a software platform, including a mobile app, that will permit clients to have quick and seamless access to the imagery with measurement tools. The sample image shown here is 2-inch GSD, very nice for a newcomer to the oblique business.
A ControlCam image.
Microsoft Bing and Google
If you have any doubt about the popularity and value of oblique imagery, just look at Bing Maps and Google Maps, the two elephants battling for eyes-on-site time. Both have incorporated oblique imagery in their viewers. Both bring up the oblique views as you zoom in from a high-level ortho image, then transition to street-level imagery. The key difference is that Bing uses Pictometry oblique images, which show a natural perspective, and Google uses oblique imagery from different sources. Bing shifts from one optimal oblique to another while Google stitches together multiple oblique images. This multiple-image stitch is good at ground level, but causes funny building lean similar to a push-broom capture (see the sample images). Both are very good for their intended purpose, but neither permits measurement, nor do they include accurate metadata.
By their own admission and licensing agreements, neither Bing nor Google claim to be authoritative GIS data sources. So be cautious how you use their imagery. Note the problem I cited in my article last month about a police SWAT team raid using Google. Another issue for federal users is FARS and licensing restrictions, so make sure your legal staff reads the fine print.
A Google oblique image.A Bing oblique image.
Other Systems
If you’d like to do a deep dive into oblique cameras and capture systems including overseas operations, I recommend reading “Systematic Oblique Aerial Photography Using Multiple Digital Cameras” by Professor Emeritus Gordon Petrie of the University of Glasgow. In his presentation he quotes the ISPRS 2008 Congress that “There is a strong movement towards combining traditional nadir images with oblique images acquired at high angles to build 3D models of cities with the texture of building walls taken from the oblique photos. For non-specialists in the emergency services (military, police, fire and ambulance), the combination of oblique and nadir images improves their interpretation while special software allows simple measurements on the oblique photos.”
The Future
I have no doubt that within a few years the zoom-in from space to orthos, obliques, accurate 3D models, ground-level imagery, and interiors of buildings will be smooth and seamless. Ultimately, accurate, detailed and up-to-date 3D models draped with actual imagery, not textures, will be optimal. This will be especially important if 3D or holographic display technology reach acceptable quality levels. 3D model creation keeps improving, and I believe that the merging of ortho imagery, oblique imagery, LiDAR, and ground-level photos with more powerful computers and software will make accurate 3D models practical and ubiquitous.
For some closing amusement, somewhat related to our current discussion, take a look at what 360 Cities is doing with very high resolution fixed panoramic cameras. Note the 80 gigapixel photo of London and this zoom-in to a London Eye giant Ferris wheel pod. Although coverage is limited to one viewer location, I could see this being one of several resources to drape 3D modes.
Several weeks ago I attended the ESRI Federal Users conference where Jack Dangermond announced his agreement with Digital Globe to supply the company’s extensive image library to ESRI users. Under the agreement, Digital Globe, which recently merged with GeoEye, is providing its historic imagery library along with very current imagery that is near real-time. The coverage map Jack showed and seen here was quite extensive and covered significant areas around the globe. This prompted a discussion with a long-time GIS colleague, Nancy von Meyer, who suggested that it sure would be nice to have a column that sorts out the current major imagery providers with the pros and cons of the various products and services. So here it is.
In the mid-eighties, when I retired from the Navy and started my second career in GIS, very few users had access to geo-referenced imagery other than intelligence agencies. By the mid-nineties, that changed as digital aerial imagery became cost effective and usable for heads-up digitizing and GIS base map creation. Now there are many imagery collection firms with a lot of content being provided seemingly for free. Too often I’ve heard GISPs fighting budget battles with push-back from non-GIS staffers that goes something like this: “Why do we need to pay for imagery when we can get Google for free?” Some of the following information and samples may be useful if you need to explain why.
The ASPRS (American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing) Ten Year Forecast and Survey is a superb source of imagery statistics and trends. Charles Mondello, the project team chair and ASPRS Fellow, highlighted several key points in the survey. By an overwhelming margin, respondents listed ortho imagery as the single most important layer in their GIS work. They also cited the following factors as most critical in making the imagery useful: resolution, positional accuracy, coverage and currency.
Google and Bing
Most ortho imagery is captured by satellites or aircraft and is the dominant type of imagery in use today, with many free sites such a Google or Microsoft Bing offering this imagery. Both websites understand that the better the users’ experience, the more traffic the sites will generate, so they are motivated to constantly improve and update the information. Among the new features being announced by Google is collation of imagery from Google Earth, Google’s Street View, and special projects including its space and underwater imaging. Instead of having to bounce around between products, you’ll now be able to get all of that in one place. Google provides significant support for non-profits and NGOs to map activities worldwide, which builds use and Google’s reputation.
However, the old adage “You get what you pay for” holds true with imagery. If you just want to look at stuff, both Bing and Google are fine, but we must all understand the limitations. By their own admission and licensing agreements, neither Bing nor Google claim to be authoritative GIS data sources. Both are extremely good, but designed for entertainment and to attract users to their sites to expose them to advertising.
A common complaint from Bing and Google users is that they are composites of many different data sources, and they have neither the time nor the need to organize and publish metadata regarding positional accuracy. Metadata is available but very difficult to access. Users cite positional accuracy estimates of Bing and Google of RMSE of +/- 10 meters. Another issue for federal users is FARS and licensing restrictions. So make sure your legal staff reads the fine print.
Certified ortho rectified aerial imagery
On the other end of the quality and cost spectrum is certified ortho rectified aerial imagery. Well-known companies such as Sanborn, Woolpert, Dewberry, MJ Harden, and a host of smaller aerial imaging firms provide top-notch imagery by contract for specific areas. Ortho rectified aerial imagery is scale-accurate images that have been corrected horizontally and vertically to account for variations in the terrain. Combining digital aerial images with digital terrain models can cause distortions of elevated features such as buildings, bridges and overpasses. These distortions are corrected during the ortho rectification process. Here is an example from MJ Harden Associates, Inc. showing pre- and post-correction imagery. This is a labor intensive process and not cheap when combined with surveyed ground control, but the end result is a very accurate image on which GIS users can do heads-up digitizing to produce accurate base maps.
ESRI and DigitalGlobe
In the middle are imagery vendors that capture imagery for resale and distribution such as DigitalGlobe and others. Some of the imagery is the best currently available, with excellent resolution and positional accuracy and easily accessible and complete metadata. Using the Identify tool in ArcMap or ArcGIS Online, users can see the resolution, collection date, and source of the imagery at the location clicked. Here is a short matrix of imagery sources and characteristics.
Authoritative data vs. Visualization products
It’s very important that we GISPs are mindful of the critical differences between “products” such as DigitalGlobe imagery purchased or delivered via ArcGIS, Bing and Google, and “services” of licensed engineers and photogrammetrists. Many imagery products are superb visualization tools, but should not be confused with authoritative datasets delivered through a licensed and certified process. There is an excellent comparison chart published by the ASPRS that compares the difference between products, professional services and technical services. If your application is critical and has the potential of legal liability, you may want to have your legal department review and understand the differences. It could save you from the false economy of getting cheap or free imagery.
Some examples
The following are some examples of old and new imagery since 1999. This is a non-scientific sample using a piece of property that I bought years ago near Lake Guntersville, Alabama. I’m using it because I know exactly when improvements were made so I can judge the accuracy of the date stamps shown with the images.
Here is the property shown on county-purchased 1996 panchromatic one-meter imagery.
Here is the same property with county purchased 2001 color 2’ imagery.
This Microsoft Bing Image was taken in early 2011 after a cabin was built but before a garden shed and driveway ramp were added. Looks like 1’ imagery supplied by DigitalGlobe but tagged in Bing as 2013.
Google has the most recent imagery, tagged as 2013 but most likely taken in early 2012. This DigitalGlobe imagery looks the best. I’m guessing 6” imagery, but the address marker is off by about 300’. Not terrible in this area, but could be a real problem with a row of houses.
So which imagery is best?
That depends on how you plan on using it. Bing and Google have become so good and ubiquitous that it’s easy to forget that they make no warranties regarding the data quality or suitability for your use. If you are showing friends the location of your favorite fishing spot or displaying a route to a restaurant, Google or Bing will be just fine and most likely better than a boring certified ortho-rectified image. But if the application is critical and puts your organization in legal crosshairs, you may want to use authoritative data produced through a licensed and certified process that has documented metadata.
A good real-world example that I observed several years ago was a failed drug raid in a county near Atlanta. The drug dealers got wind of a potential raid and cleverly switched numbers on their mailbox with a neighbor. The SWAT team did their initial planning on Google and raided the wrong house based only on the mailbox number. Although no one was hurt or killed, the resultant judgment cost the county more than $1 million. That police department no longer relies on free online maps and house numbers. They verify the information using authoritative county 911 data, parcel maps and imagery along with street-level surveillance photos. This was a very costly mistake that might have been prevented. Hopefully your county or agency has heard about this raid and has learned from that mistake.
With the significant expansion of oblique and 3D players, next month I’ll review this growing visualization technology.
UPCOMING GIS WEBINAR
GPS World’s next webinar, “Nightmare on GIS Street: GNSS Accuracy, Datums and Geospatial Data,” is accepting registrations. The webinar will be held Thursday, June 20, 10 a.m. PDT / 1 p.m. EDT / 6 p.m. GMT. Registration is free.
“‘Nightmare on GIS Street: GNSS Accuracy, Datums and Geospatial Data’” is a look at the challenge of dealing with horizontal datums in your GIS,” explained moderator Eric Gakstatter, survey editor and editor of Geospatial Solutions. “We are moving into a new era in dealing with datum transformations. Geodata 2.0 is coming, and it can create big headaches when attempting to combine disparate geospatial databases. Sensors such as GPS receivers, remote sensing imagery, and 3D scanning provide much more accurate data, setting up a collision with outdated and mismatched legacy horizontal datums.”
