Pointfuse has released the latest version of its advanced point cloud processing software that converts the millions of individual measurements captured by laser scanning and photogrammetry.
Featuring new streamlined classification to ensure maximum efficiency and multicore processing for unlimited conversion power, the new version of Pointfuse is set to transform workflows within digital construction, facilities management and virtual design applications.
“Pointfuse is designed to make the use of point cloud data more accessible by removing many of the traditional barriers to use,” said Mark Senior, regional sales director at Pointfuse. “Obstacles such as processing time and computer power, incompatibility within existing workflows and outputs files that are large and complex; these have all been obliterated with the latest Pointfuse release.”
Pointfuse now includes a new streamlined workflow which makes object classification easy, using templates and shortcuts to ensure maximum efficiency. This ability to classify objects within Pointfuse has had a huge impact on how as-built data is utilized within digital design workflows; being able to quickly compare specific as-built objects with the design enables more accurate clash detection, reducing the number of false clashes being flagged.
IFC (Industry Foundation Classes — an open format data model that is intended to describe architectural, building and construction industry data) templates can also be created and edited for specific applications. With applications including architectural, MEP and HVAC, selected objects can be classified and mapped to ensure compatibility with onward workflows.
Pointfuse also includes a new conversion engine which uses multicore processing to manage and enable unlimited point cloud conversion to provide real scalability. In addition, Pointfuse’s mesh models are intelligently optimized, reducing the working data size by a factor of up to 100, making them easy to share with online 3D collaboration platforms, such as BIM 360, 3D Repo, Revitzo and Trimble Connect.
“Using Pointfuse we can create intelligent 3D mesh models in a fraction of the time,” commented Ben Callan, BIM coordinator in global construction services company ISG’s UK Fit Out business. “This accelerated modelling and reduced risk of error contributes to a direct reduction in costs when compared against traditional methods of modelling and point cloud data analysis. The easy to use, easy to consume outputs are also paving the way for new applications of the data including existing versus design clash avoidance and checks of temporary works against required construction activities.”
In a case of fortuitous happenstance, I found myself in an operations support center for an undersea expedition with two, large, flat screens mounted on a wall peering into the deep through the remote viewer slowly gliding through a dark blue barren abyss.
The NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer. (Photo: NOAA)
Deep dive into ocean exploration
That encounter led me on a deep dive of my own into undersea expeditions and becoming this month’s article.
I have been interested the deep sea since my youth growing up in the age of Sealab and watching The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. Later in life, I served in the U.S. Navy and took part in one of the first successful real-world tests of a geospatially enabled, full-spectrum battlespace using tactical oceanography, which ultimately steered me into the field of Geographic Information Systems and Imagery Analysis.
That accomplishment helped in my being selected to establish one of the first operational GIS units for supporting Special Operations Forces.
After retiring from the military, I briefly worked as a nautical charts cartographer. So, from a practical perspective, for five years I worked supporting maritime, near-shore and riverine environments. However, going back another 10 years, I was formally trained in oceanography as part of my overall career in the Navy as an aerographer, which also included the disciplines of meteorology, astronomy and astrophysics.
Many years I spent observing and contemplating the ocean of air above, the waters below, and the heavens beyond. One cannot meditate upon the firmaments and assuage the wonder within. Whether for war or love, to ponder the sea and sky emotes an imprint on the heart.
Ocean, the larger part of Earth, alive and thriving, captivates our imagination. What must we, the conscious beast, have wondered when the first of us standing at land’s end looked out upon the mysterious deep of the Great Waters stretching from where he stood to the base of the celestial dome? Did he think it marked the end of the habitable world where mortals dwell and that the great expanse of waters separated us from the heavens where the sun rises and sets and where the moon and stars reside?
I shall reveal a secret; it is a mystery [of the gods] I tell you. There is a plant that grows at the bottom of the ocean, it has a prickle like a thorn, like a rose; it will wound your hands, but if you succeed in taking it, you will hold that which restores lost youth to a man.
— Utnapishtim, Epic of Gilgamesh (Sumeria 2100 BC)
Coral treasures
The Greeks, the race of ancient seafarers knew well the secrets of the sea. Aristotle, the wise philosopher of the ages, still teaches us through his pupil Theophrastus, who spoke of a deep sea plant, red and hard like a stone. He named it korallion. We call it coral.
Photo: NOAA
Aristotle also observed that sponges were better from deeper depths and invented the diving bell to collect them. Another of his students, Alexander of Macedonia, the warrior king, had a diving bell made of glass, a Colimpha, so he could walk the seafloor. Perhaps, on his conquest of Babylon, Alexander heard about the secret of Gilgamesh and sought the plant for himself. How valuable would such a plant be to a warrior king?
Corals have always fascinated man, like treasures from another world — not from this dry land called Earth ruled by air-breathing, upright beings, but from a world of water with bizarre and terrifying creatures and plants made of stone.
Photo: NOAA
Corals, as it turns out, are not a plant at all. They are the smallest of animals, called a cnidarian, and millions of them together form the broad-limbed, rock-like structures. They take many thousands of years to develop into the large, picturesque arrangements beneath the waves.
Colonies of corals form reefs. The largest of these is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia’s northeastern waters. The second largest is the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef in the Caribbean Sea. wherein lies the Great Blue Hole off the coast of Belize. The Great Blue Hole was deeply explored this summer.
Corals are the cornerstone of the ocean. By some estimates, the world’s corals are worth nearly $10 trillion, but that diminishes their real value because if they perish the ocean itself could die. Corals are the proverbial canary in the coalmine, and throughout the world they are ailing.
The ocean’s health is in decline. There have been six severe coral bleaching events in the past 30 years and they are occurring more frequently and for longer periods each time. Over 20% of the world’s corals are already gone. Saving them is a concern for us all.
The United States is leading the effort to protect the ocean’s corals and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is at the forefront. The President’s Budget for 2020 funds NOAA for Ocean, Coastal and Great Lakes Research at $218.5M, which is an increase of $12.7M from FY 2018.
A team of scientists and researchers at NOAA are mapping deep sea corals in Alaska and Hawaii and along the coastlines of North America. Operations are underway aboard the Okeanos Explorer, one of NOAA’s ocean exploration vessels. It is on the second leg of Expedition 19-05 taking place from Tuesday, Aug. 27, through Sunday, Sept. 15.
The expedition begins in Canada’s largest underwater canyon, a marine protected area called The Gully 125 nautical miles (NM) off Nova Scotia, and then continuing south along the continental shelf. A deep-sea remotely operated vehicle (ROV), a modern-day Colimpha, is exploring the depths to over 10,000 feet (3,050 meters).
The ship’s location can be tracked online. Clicking on the ship icon will reveal details of the ship’s speed, heading, weather conditions and bathymetry
The Okeanos Explorer tracker allows users to follow the course of an Okeanos cruise. (Screenshot: NOAA)
NOAA’s Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program maintains the National Database for Deep-Sea Corals and Sponges, which is an interactive map portal with more than 650,000 records. It can be accessed here.
A Calling for the Ocean
I had the honor and privilege of interviewing Kasey Cantwell, an expedition coordinator for NOAA, after she returned from Halifax helping setup the command center for Expedition Deep Connections 2019 (EX1905).
In June and July of this year, Kasey led the Windows to the Deep Expedition (EX1903) from onboard the Okeanos Explorer, diving into a vast field of deep-sea corals known as the Blake Plateau about 100 miles off the coast of the southeastern U.S. It is one of the largest, most dense and diverse coral fields discovered at those depths.
Control room of the Okeanos. (Photo: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research)
Kasey’s seven years working at NOAA has been her dream come true. How every mission unfolds is what holds her fascination for the job. As the ROV Deep Discoverer descends, no one knows what they will find, but everyone knows they will be exploring an area never seen before.
They might find a shipwreck, or a plane crash, or a new species, or some strange geological formations. She very much enjoys listening to experts from around the world who are tuned in to the live feed from the ROV, discussing what they are seeing and — even with all that expertise — how often they are all surprised or stumped coming across something unexpected or never before seen.
Better ROVs on the Horizon
Deep-sea exploration is relatively new. Technology continuously improves. The ROV’s ability to remain in place with its high-resolution zoom camera makes exploring and observing the deep-sea environment possible like never before. New discoveries happen with almost every dive.
Limitations exist with the present class of submersibles because they are loud, bulky and bright, scaring off much of the marine life. But the next evolution of deep-sea submersibles are being developed.
The next generation will be stealthy, artificially intelligent, autonomous systems with improved battery life and a suite of sensors able to accomplish much more than we can today. Several of these submersibles will be able to operate in a network, providing us new and fascinating discoveries and observing marine life more naturally.
The best way to stay informed about NOAA’s expeditions is subscribe to NOAA’s Faceook page.
Protecting Our Oceans
America can be proud of its ocean services. NOAA is standing as the vanguard protecting our seas, balancing environmental concerns and commercial demands helping ensure our oceans remain thriving and healthy into the future.
NOAA is identifying areas to be designated as marine protected areas (MPAs) that need safeguarding. There are 15,059 MPAs in the world, and more than 10% are in U.S. waters. MPAs prevent over-fishing and minimize the effects of pollution and further damage to coral reefs and marine environments.
In closing, the biome of the sea has been under explored and undervalued, resulting in less funding, care and attention; but recent discoveries in biotechnology have scientists believing corals hold potential for medicines and life-saving drugs.
Already, more than 40,000 compounds from aquatic resources have been identified for possible medical benefits. This interest is stimulating investment into undersea exploration and development.
In the future, doctors will prescribe pharmaceuticals originating from coral farms on the ocean floor — a secret revealed over 6,000 years ago inscribed on clay tablets in the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the earliest writings in human history.
The sea summons us to its edge providing a moonlit path by night, and by day a diadem of sparkles herald the sun.
The majestic ocean, rhythmic and soothing yet chaotic and raging, is a tempest that both calms and terrifies the soul. And we, the conscious, land-dwelling beast seeks understanding and harmony with our sister the Sea. That calling is the mission of NOAA’s Ocean Exploration Research.
Strange fluid extrusions found on the escarpment of Verrill Canyon at a depth of 7,972 feet (2,430 meters) on Aug. 30, 2019. (Screenshot: NOAA Okeanos Explorer ROV livestream)
NOTE TO THE READER: In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim preserved mankind from destruction, and as a reward was given eternal life. He was ferried across the “Great Waters” known as Ea, separating the land from the heavens, and sent to live in the city of Dilmun where the Sun rises. Urshanabi, the boatman, was the only one who could pass over the waters between the two worlds. Gilgamesh tricked Urshanabi into taking him in his boat to the edge of Ea to the gates of Dilmun where Utnapishtim came and told Gilgamesh the secret.
The Geospatial Management Office (GMO) is the designated coordinator of geospatial activities throughout the core of the Department of Homeland Security headquarters and its component agencies.
Part I described how and why the GMO was formed and some of the early activities when resources were limited and expectations were low. Following the devastation along the Gulf States from Hurricane Katrina, the efforts to coordinate and empower the GMO gained focus and energy.
Image: USDHS
Needed: Better coordination
The magnitude of devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, the uneven response and the inability for all levels of government to act in a unified manner prominently showed the gaping hole in the nation’s geospatial coordination mechanisms. The irony in this lack of coordinated government action, and the blame placed on President Bush’s administration, was that the lack of a geographic framework had been identified as a vulnerability since the late 1800s following the Civil War and never fully addressed.
A patchwork of Executive Orders and other stop-gap actions were in place, but action was needed by the Legislative Branch to finally address this, and, as is too often the case, it took a major disaster to cut through the politics and make this happen, resulting in the Geospatial Data Act. For a more in depth analysis of the Geospatial Data Act read the November 2018 Geospatial Solutions article “Geospatial Data Act Will Bring Huge Changes to America and the World.”
Hurricane Katrina had a sobering influence on federal agencies, providing renewed focus to find new ways to share information, and communicate openly and effectively using a common standard and language.
Dan Cotter, director of the GMO from 2005 through 2007, understood this challenge. Following his predecessor, Ryan Cast (the first director of the GMO), Cotter furthered the relationship with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), establishing a Homeland Security Working Group with several sub-groups to advance DHS’s mission. Heavy lifting began on the symbol standards, data model and the U.S. National Grid (USNG).
This collaborative effort was furthered when the GMO secured funding for the first agency-wide enterprise license agreement (ELA) with Esri for GIS applications, training and services. The ELA reduced the cost and administrative difficulties surrounding procurement of GIS software. This dramatically increased the number of GIS practitioners seeking to partner with DHS, FEMA and the GMO.
Cotter was tapped to be the DHS chief technological officer in March 2007, passing leadership to Jeff Booth, who advanced the portfolio and led significant efforts to optimize the geospatial toolset of DHS while migrating it into the federal data-center environment.
Establishing a culture of trust does not come easy in bureaucracies, and this was no different for DHS. Being a relatively new agency, agility and eagerness were key traits, especially with a very fast-paced and high-stakes environment. People would volunteer to take on requested tasks, but that blurred the lines of responsibility.
The launch of GeoCONOPS
The HSE GeoCONOPS is a strategic roadmap to understand and improve the coordination of geospatial activities across the entire spectrum of the Nation. Updated on July 22, 2019, (Graphic: GeoPlatform.gov)
The FGDC and other working groups helped make introductions for the DHS GMO, which furthered the need to clarify each department’s role in the bigger geospatial picture. Defining these various operational roles and responsibilities led to the creation of the Geospatial Concept of Operations, or GeoCONOPS.
GeoCONOPS was a multi-year initiative, and is a playbook for a range of disaster-related events. Though initially limited to the disaster response and FEMA’s mission, GeoCONOPS was a structured community effort to clarify the types and timing of critical geospatial data and analysis needed in a disaster and continues to grow to address other DHS mission areas.
GeoCONOPS was initially published annually as a book, but changes were made too often and it is now only maintained as a website. GeoCONOPS describes the use of geospatial technology in the five mission areas of DHS:
Prevent
Protect
Mitigate
Respond
Recover
It also contains a curated inventory of geospatial resources available to the homeland security enterprise. The final version of the book (v.6, 2015) is available for download. Though often seen as a product, it is likely that the process behind the GeoCONOPS development was of equal or more value as it helped to define the lanes and build much-needed trust among the federal geospatial actors.
Cover of HSE GeoCONOPS resource book, v.4. (Image: Geoplatform.gov)
Through this effective collaboration model, the GMO benefitted from other significant advances elsewhere in the agency and the broader geospatial community. The development of the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) delivered value as a portal for the exchange of information and geospatial products on a common operating network among DHS member partners. If there is a major event taking place, such as political conventions, the Super Bowl, or the Boston Marathon, HSIN is sure to be part of the event’s command and control.
Its value was further proven by leveraging HSIN’s user-authentication capability, providing a trusted access-control mechanism for HSIN and other web-hosted geospatial capabilities. These access controls greatly reduced the deployment burden on the Geospatial Information Infrastructure (GII), which is an on-premises version of Esri’s ArcGIS Online suite.
The GII allows for trusted partners to gain access to hosted data, create working groups, and develop and share maps and geospatial applications. The GII also provides access to customized Common Operational Picture (COP) applications providing geospatial situational awareness for a number of operational partners.
These COPs are a result of their own evolutionary pathway, leveraging technology developed by and for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (Palenterra) and through a first-generation viewer called the Infrastructure Critical Asset Viewer (iCAV). Now, with the tools in the GII, highly customized COPs and dashboards are developed for specific events and incidents and shared on an as-needed basis with the full range of stakeholders.
Where NGA and DHS intersect
DHS’s development of a national geospatial dataset put NGA and DHS on intersecting paths. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) only focused on foreign threats and supporting the warfighter, but after the attacks of September 11, 2001, homeland defense was added to its mission.
NGA’s proven success internationally allowed it to quickly focus on acquiring and developing the best available sources of data. This conventional mission for NGA led to the formation of a new stakeholder group; hence, the creation of the Homeland Foundation Level Data (HIFLD) committee, which developed the first national dataset designed for homeland security and critical infrastructure protection, the Homeland Security Infrastructure Program (HSIP).
Having been initiated in the intelligence community, HSIP’s distribution was strictly limited, which inhibited its adoption across the mission space. To broaden its use, plans were developed to migrate all or much of the program to DHS and to shift the burden of restriction from the need-to-justify sharing to the need-to-justify restricting. With this new emphasis on sharing and openness, HSIP evolved to the current HIFLD Open and HIFLD Secure versions.
The GMO solidified its mission and purpose with the elements of community, transparency, security, technology and data falling into place. Through the leadership of the former GMO directors, the foundation they laid established the GMO as a respected and strong advocate throughout the agency and its partners, from local governments up to the federal level, becoming known as the Homeland Security Enterprise (HSE).
The HSE established a very real link extending from the on-scene first responder to the White House. By the time David Alexander, Ph.D., passed the baton to David Lilley in 2016, the GMO could deliver on its promises and was ready to expand outward. Lilley focused on realigning efforts to match DHS’s policy supporting National Special Security Events (NSSE) and community outreach through its network of 78 fusion centers.
Shortly after Lilley departed DHS, Hurricane Harvey’s torrential downpours and historic deluge began. Acting Director Michael Donnelly agreed to an innovative HIFLD solution to support FEMA operations to help mitigate the flood of data and requests that typically accompanies events of this magnitude.
Hurricane Harvey was Donnelly’s initiation. Following this and storms that followed, Donnelly focused on steadily maturing the GMO through deliberate outreach efforts and strengthening partnerships, building on outreach to regional fusion centers and non-traditional mission areas such as cybersecurity.
While not typically an operational player, the DHS Geospatial Management Office has become a trusted partner to those on the front lines, providing expertise, data, insights and architecture. The GMO is a foundational resource for operators, elevating their capabilities as a force multiplier.
While we can only hope against another cataclysmic natural disaster or major attack, when one does occur, the nation’s geospatial community is better prepared to respond to and recover from whatever comes.
As the saying goes, the better one strives to become, the greater becomes one’s enemies; so, as threats continue to evolve, our investments into geospatial technologies and critical infrastructure will pay dividends now and in the future helping to secure America’s safety here and abroad.
Remember, next time you are watching a large, national level sports game or a big storm approaching, know that others are watching, too. Behind the scenes another game is being played — one with much higher stakes. The players, you’ll not see, and the names, you’ll never know, but safety is their mission and GIS one of their primary tools.
Nate Smith — co-author and main contributor because of his work with the GMO — gave the following presentation to GeoDC, Washington, D.C.’s, geospatial community of interest on GeoCONOPS.
Epilogue
An inspiration for this article was to recognize the DHS GMO and its partners for their growth and utility as demonstrated during Hurricane Harvey, on the assumption that it was not otherwise acknowledged by the community. Well, awkwardly, in between this two-part drama, recognition did come from the Federal Geographic Data Committee in the form of the 2018 Doug D. Nebert National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Champion of the Year Award.
Nate Smith has worked at the confluence of geospatial information and disaster management in both the domestic (U.S.) and international domains since 1992. He has been an innovator and pioneer in this discipline through his work supporting USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, FEMA’s GIS Solutions Branch and the DHS Geospatial Management Office.
He refined his knowledge of requirements through work as an emergency first responder and international humanitarian, and has shared his knowledge and experience through courses delivered at a number of Universities. His background includes deployments to disaster locations around the world in support of operations and coordination efforts for events ranging from insect infestation to conflicts.
He is currently an independent consultant affiliated with the Florida International University Extreme Events Institute and FIU’s Academy for International Disaster Preparedness. He earned a BA in Geography from UMBC and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Tech.
A new night map integration feature is available for all Concept3D maps. The toggle-on map overlay is designed to enhance campus safety and security by making it easy to find the best, well-lit routes and critical resources such as emergency phones.
The Concept3D interactive mapping platform is used by hundreds of major universities, colleges and schools, as well as convention centers, hospitals, resorts, retirement communities, data centers and businesses.
The night map feature offers all of these clients a way to provide their audiences with important safety and security information for visiting and navigating the campus at night.
The University of Denver, Boise State University, and Pacific Lutheran University are the first to integrate this feature into their Concept3D-powered interactive campus maps.
The night map of the campus of Boise State University. (Image: Concept3D)
Boise State University is using the new night map feature to highlight Public Safety Dispatch Centers, Emergency Blue Light and Refugee Phones and locations of automated external defibrillators (AEDs). Each item has a display box that further explain the exact location of the service and additional information.
Pacific Lutheran uses the night map to display campus AEDs, emergency telephones, and its safety building.
Colleges and universities that participate in federal Title IV student financial assistance programs must comply with the Clery Act, which requires annual security reporting, details and geographic information about crimes committed on campus and on public areas immediately adjacent to the campus, and timely warnings and emergency notifications, among other requirements.
Airbus has enlarged its high-resolution imagery portfolio following an agreement to leverage capacity from the S1-4 satellite built by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL). The new imagery offer — called Vision-1 — delivers end-to-end imaging operations to Airbus’ customers.
Vision-1 provides 0.9-meter resolution imagery in the panchromatic band and 3.5-meter in the multispectral bands (NIR, RGB), with a 20.8-kilometer swath width. These specifications are ideal for defence, security and agriculture applications, while this extra revisit opportunity further strengthens Airbus’ satellite fleet.
“This new asset will reinforce our monitoring capabilities for sub-metre imaging, and feed our OneAtlas digital platform to provide increased freshness,” said François Lombard, director of Intelligence Business at Airbus Defence and Space.
Vision-1 operations will be coordinated by Airbus in the UK, following integration into the UK Mission Operation Centre, which operates the commercial imaging of the DMC Constellation. This is an important step for UK sovereign imaging capability, Airbus said, adding sub-meter data to the existing UK imaging capabilities.
As Vision-1 was launched in September 2018 together with NovaSAR, this opens significant opportunities for applications combining optical and radar satellite imagery.
Along with Vision-1, Airbus offers commercial access to the largest fleet of Earth Observation satellites: Pléiades, SPOT 6/7, DMC Constellation and the weather-independent radar satellites TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X and PAZ.
The National Geographic Society, working with partners at Google and World Resources Institute, is building a living map of the world.
National Geographic is calling on the community of land cover and photo interpretation experts by September to help annotate and curate Sentinel-2 satellite imagery needed by machine learning algorithms. Experts who can spend 20-40 hours on this task in the next 6-8 weeks should send their resumes to [email protected].
“Our vision is to produce the world’s first open global time series map of land cover and land use at 10-meter resolution with annual updates using public satellite imagery,” the society said in a statement.
A living map of the world is a foundational dataset for knowledge products driving understanding and forecasting of the world as a system and enabling data-driven conservation, resource management and policy making for sustainable development.
Simultaneous advances in global satellite imagery, super-computing on demand in commercial cloud, and powerful open source machine learning algorithms in high-performance software frameworks, combine to enable production of a global time series map of land cover and land use at a scale, speed and cost that is within reach for large NGOs and global governments.
The major roadblock to production of a global time series map is availability of a large quantity of high-quality annotated data (hundreds of millions of labeled pixels) required to train algorithms to automate production of the map time series.
National Geographic is aiming to create an initial training dataset of densely annotated tiles of Sentinel-2 imagery before September, following an expert-defined land cover taxonomy. This expert-labeled tile set will be used to train a large non-expert crowd to produce tens of thousands of additional labeled scenes, which will then be used to train the machine learning algorithms that produce maps.
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is inviting members and non-members to participate in its 3D IoT Platform for Smart Cities Pilot.
The goal of the pilot, which is sponsored by the Korea Land and Housing Corporation, is to advance the use of open standards for integrating environmental, building and internet of things (IoT) data in smart cities. It will focus on two scenarios: real-time monitoring of indoor occupancy and real-time monitoring of micro-dust air pollutants.
According to OGC, participants in this pilot will connect their technology and expertise with real city needs while collaborating with other participants to advance open standards for smart cities. OGC hopes the outcomes of the pilot will help facilitate and standardize the access to environmental, building and IoT data in smart cities.
This Initiative is being conducted under OGC’s Innovation Program, the research and development laboratory of OGC. Under OGC’s Innovation Program, sponsors and OGC members come together to address geospatial IT challenges.
Trimble’s Rachel Blair Winkler offers an overview of Trimble’s Catalyst On Demand, a usage-based service plan for Android phones and tablets for the company’s Catalyst GNSS receiver, at the 2019 Esri User Conference in San Diego.
Viametris has launched the second-generation version of the vMS3D, its urban and road lidar scanner.
The second-generation version of the 3D mobile vehicle scanner has been redesigned to be more compact. The system has been simplified considerably in both electronic and ergonomic terms to make it more robust and stable in adverse conditions and challenging environments.
Despite being lighter, the second generation offers the same technological capacities as its predecessor, but is simpler to use and can be mounted on a vehicle in minutes.
The system component (including the sensors) and the element to affix the device to the vehicle (the frame) previously formed one unit, but are now separated.
The redesigned system is much lighter (9 kg) and more compact.
The mechanism to fix the scanner to the vehicle, which formed part of the system in the first-generation version, has been transformed. A rigid metal frame, fixed onto two roof bars, now holds the system, which fits into a dedicated compartment in seconds. As the frame is rigid, it limits vibrations between the system and the vehicle and prevents any strain on the mechanics during acquisition.
The second auxiliary antenna, which measures the heading by satellite, is discreet and non-removable, and fixed directly to the vehicle chassis.
The new design makes it easier to mount and use the system, a task that can be accomplished by a single person in under three minutes. Alignment takes place the first time the system is mounted and does not need to be repeated, saving valuable time each start.
Technological features
The vMS3D comprises a new set of components that are more robust and stable in difficult conditions.
The integrated connectors are next-generation and embedded-grade.
The control box for power supply and communication with the tablet has been moved inside the vehicle to offer increased comfort to the user.
A major use of remote sensing data is to compare images of an area taken at different times and identify the changes it underwent. With a wealth of long-term satellite imagery in open use, detecting such changes manually would be time-consuming and most likely inaccurate.
To address this, EOS Data Analytics has introduced an automated Change Detection tool to its flagship product LandViewer, a cloud tool for satellite imagery search and analysis in today’s market.
Unlike the methods involving neural networks that identify changes in the previously extracted features, the change detection algorithm implemented by EOS is using a pixel-based strategy, meaning that changes between two raster multi-band images are mathematically calculated by subtracting the pixel values for one date from the pixel values of the same coordinates for another date.
This new signature feature is designed to automate a change detection task and deliver accurate results in fewer steps and in a fraction of the time needed for change detection in most image-processing software.
Change detection interface: Images of Beirut city coastline selected for tracing the developments of the past years. (Image: LandViewer)Change detection interface: Images of Beirut city coastline selected for tracing the developments of the past years. (Image: LandViewer)
Applications from farming to environmental monitoring
One of the main goals set by EOS team was to make the complex process of change detection in remote sensing data equally accessible and easy for non-expert users coming from non-GIS industries.
With Land Viewer’s change detection tool, farmers can quickly identify the areas on their fields that were damaged by hail, storm or flooding. In forest management, satellite image detection of changes will come in handy for estimation of the burned areas following the wildfire and spotting the illegal logging or encroachment on forest lands.
Observing the rate and extent of climate changes occurring to the planet (such as polar ice melt, air and water pollution, natural habitat loss due to urban expansion) is an ongoing task of environmental scientists, who may now have it done online in a matter of minutes. By studying the differences between the past and present using the change detection tool and years of satellite data in Land Viewer, all these industries can also forecast future changes.
Top change detection use cases: Flood damage and deforestation
A picture is worth a thousand words, and the capabilities of satellite image change detection in Land Viewer can be best demonstrated on real-life examples.
Forests that still cover around a third of the world’s area are disappearing at an alarming rate, mostly due to human activities such as farming, mining, grazing of livestock, logging, and also the natural factors like wildfires. Instead of massive ground surveying of thousands of forest acres, a forestry technician can regularly monitor the forest safety with a pair of satellite images and the automated change detection based on NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index).
How does it work? NDVI is a known means of determining vegetation health. By comparing the satellite image of the intact forest with the recent one acquired after the trees were cut down, Land Viewer will detect the changes and generate a difference image highlighting the deforestation spots, which can further be downloaded by users in JPG, PNG or TIFF format. The surviving forest cover will have positive values, while the cleared areas will have negative ones and be shown in red hues indicating there’s no vegetation present.
A difference image showing the extent of deforestation in Madagascar between 2016 and 2018; generated from two Sentinel-2 satellite images. (Image: LandViewer)
Another widespread use case for change detection would be agricultural flood damage assessment, which is of most interest to crop growers and insurance companies. Whenever flooding has taken a heavy toll on your harvest, the damage can be quickly mapped and measured with the help of NDWI-based change detection algorithms.
Results of Sentinel-2 scene change detection: The red and orange areas represent the flooded part of the field,; the surrounding fields are green, meaning they avoided the damage. California flooding, February 2017. (Image: LandViewer)
How to run change detection in Land Viewer
There are two ways you can launch the tool and start finding differences on multi-temporal satellite images: by clicking the right menu icon “Analysis tools” or from the Comparison slider ‒ whichever is more convenient. Currently, change detection is performed on optical (passive) satellite data only; addition of the algorithms for active remote sensing data is scheduled for future updates.
Maptitude for Redistricting is designed specifically for anyone involved in or preparing for the 2020 redistricting cycle, from novice to professional users.
Maptitude for Redistricting 2019 has new partisan competitiveness reports, adds access to imagery layers, and allows users to save and share their plans in a variety of formats.
New features include:
Speed improvements provide faster access to maps and geographic analysis.
Expanded file support for Excel worksheets, Google Earth Documents (KML/KMZ) attribute data fields, and MapPoint files.
New partisan competitiveness reports and measures of compactness for analyzing redistricting plans,
Integrated satellite imagery from a variety of sources for giving a better view of district composition.
The latest Census geography and data, including current ACS data.
Maptitude for Redistricting is a professional tool for political redistricting. It provides measures and reports that support the creation of fair and balanced districts.
Maptitude is constantly enhanced and provides tools such as the Efficiency Gap Measure for exploring redistricting problems.
Maptitude was used to democratize redistricting in California and is used by the majority of redistricters, from independent commissions, non-profits, and civil rights groups, to the courts and political parties.
Phase One Industrial has expanded its RS and RSM lens offering with three new high performance lenses for high-altitude aerial photography and long-range aerial and ground inspection applications.
The 300mm AF, 180mm, and 150mm MK II lenses are designed to enhance the performance and flexibility of Phase One Industrial’s iXM-RS and iXM aerial camera series. Each offers precision imagery, taking advantage of the cameras’ ultra-high resolution backside-illuminated (BSI) CMOS sensors, to maintain a smaller ground sample distance (GSD) while flying at higher altitudes, the company said.
Phase One RSM 300mmAF. With the longest focal length in the line-up, this lens offers a 5 cm GSD from 13,000 feet. It fits both iXM and iXM-RS camera models and produces superb image quality by enhancing the cameras’ ultra-high resolution BSI CMOS sensors (3.76 µm pixels).
The lens is designed for both high-altitude 2D and 3D mapping and long-range ground inspection. The motorized lens offers a focus range of 10 m to infinity within which a predefined distance can be set remotely. A self-locking mechanism is built in to secure the focus position against vibrations.
5 cm GSD from 13,000 feet
10 m to infinity focusing range
f/8 – f/32 aperture range
1/2000 sec exposure time
RS Shutter reliability – 500,000 actuations
Rodenstock RS 180mm. Specified by Phase One and built by Rodenstock Photo Optics, Germany, this lens reaches a 5 cm GSD from 8,000 feet when used with the iXM-RS150F camera. The lens supports the camera’s ultra-high resolution BSI sensor for greater image quality and is integrated with a Phase One RS reliance shutter for speed and reliability. The RS 180mm enhances high-altitude aerial 2D and 3D mapping and improves efficiency in oblique configurations.
5 cm GSD from 8,000 feet
f/6.3 – f/22 aperture range
1/2000 sec exposure time
RS Shutter reliability – 500,000 actuations
Phase One RS 150mm MK II. A 5 cm GSD from 6,500 feet is achievable with the RS 150mm MK II lens. It complements the iXM-RS150F camera’s ultra-high 150-megapixel resolution BSI CMOS sensor for acquiring quality images for high-altitude aerial 2D and 3D mapping.
5 cm GSD from 6,500 feet
f/5.6 – f/22 aperture range
1/2500 sec exposure time
RS Shutter reliability – 500,000 actuations
Every Phase One Industrial lens is rigidly built for robustness against vibrations and shocks to meet RTCA DO160G standards, and is individually tested for performance and high-modulation across the whole image area.
