GPS World

Tag: GIS

  • Visual Intelligence, Cardinal Systems Agree to Combine Image Collection, Data Processing

    Visual Intelligence and Cardinal Systems have entered a strategic agreement that the companies say will combine high-quality and affordable aerial image collection with the processing and delivery of intelligent data for large-scale and UAV imaging applications. The combination will enable unprecedented positional accuracy for oblique and 3D products, the companies said.

    The Visual Intelligence iOne Sensor System is reconfigurable, and supports various image types including nadir and oblique. The Cardinal Systems triangulation solution efficiently handles the aero-triangulation of oblique and nadir images together, correlating the orientation points in both sets of imagery simultaneously, achieving better than 2 pixel absolute accuracy.

    The two companies plan to release a large-scale production solution in early 2015.

    “Visual Intelligence is pleased to team with Cardinal Systems to integrate the Vr Mapping software suite with our iOne Sensor System solutions. Using Cardinal Systems’ powerful mapping tools with an iOne Sensor System will give image providers a highly-effective end-to-end workflow that will significantly enhance the collection, production, and use of oblique aerial images to generate 3D models in industries such as insurance, real estate, construction, urban planning, utilities, and public safety,” said Visual Intelligence President and CEO Armando Guevara.

    A provider of high-quality multipurpose digital sensor systems for airborne geo-imaging applications, Visual Intelligence’s technology innovations include sensor systems that are field-configurable to support a variety of applications, including large-area collection to oblique for 3D applications.

    “We are impressed with the quality imagery that is produced using the iOne Sensor System. Aerial image providers can benefit from the system’s versatility and performance and, together with Cardinal Systems’ Vr Mapping software, we provide an ideal turnkey solution for stereo and oblique airborne acquisition customers,” said Mike Kitaif, manager of Software Development for Cardinal Systems.

    The vertical and oblique imagery collected with the iOne Sensor System is extremely precise, which contributes to the high-quality image data produced by the Vr Mapping software suite, the companies said. In addition, integrating the software and hardware solutions bring new and efficient aerial imaging technologies that use the same base architecture and software processing suite.

    “Aerial image providers will now have a coordinated hardware and software bundle that will give them a cost-effective and modernized workflow that will produce highly-accurate images that are rich in data,” said Jane Smith, managing member of Cardinal Systems.

    Visual Intelligence and Cardinal Systems will be available to discuss benefits of their combined products at the MAPPS Winter Conference January 25-29, 2015 and the International LiDAR Mapping Forum February 23-25, 2015.

  • NGA Director Says Agency Seeks Further Industry Engagement

    NGA Director Robert Cardillo.
    NGA Director Robert Cardillo.

    Robert Cardillo, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, highlighted potential areas for collaboration between the agency and industry during a speech Jan. 21 at the Intelligence and National Security Alliance leadership dinner.

    GEOINT organizations should cooperate to democratize geospatial information, deliver more anticipatory intelligence, and boost data security through identity and access management, Cardillo said. He cited NGA’s new online portal GEOINT Solutions Marketplace, which allows professionals to share their ideas with the NGA.

    According to Cardillo, two factors are driving the democratization: the rapidly spreading geography of the Internet and the “darkening of the skies” by small sats and new airborne collectors.

    “First, the rapidly spreading geography of the Internet — as more people carry more handheld devices to more places – and the emerging Internet of Things demonstrate what you and I have long known: Everything, everyplace, everyone exists in a time and a place. Their dependence on their georeference makes what we do — spatio-temporal analysis — the bridge to the future of commerce, cooperation, transparency and security. We look at questions from a broad geographic point of view. We use geospatial data to analyze questions with scientific methods that give unique perspectives grounded in reality.

    “Second, the skies — really space — will darken with hundreds of small sats to be launched by Skybox, Planet Labs, BlackSky and others. The questions that arise from the persistence of geospatial data streaming from hundreds of satellites covering the earth multiple times a day are staggering. The challenges of taking advantage of that data are daunting. We cannot afford — nor need — to store it all, so will we have to go to an “imagery as a service” model and buy only what we need when we need it? This will be less about the images and more about the derived information or analytics.”And these are only the beginning of the questions we must answer — or even know to ask — about the impact of the small sat revolution. What questions can we answer with daily coverage of the planet? What choices will our adversaries make with daily coverage of the planet? How will we maintain decision advantage in such a playing field?”

    Despite the security challenges, he said the NGA aims to take an active role to maintain public confidence in the intelligence community’s efforts to safeguard privacy and security. He also credited the agency for its work to provide digital access to Ebola-related unclassified information, encourage development of geospatial applications through open sourcing and crowdsourcing programs.

    For Cardillo’s full remarks, see this page.

  • Esri Story Map Asks Which Super Bowl Team Has Better Fans

    With the big game right around the corner, Esri is taking a closer look at the fan-bases supporting the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX.

    Using demographic data, an interactive story map compares the Seattle and Boston metropolitan areas across five different sports variables, from buying apparel to tracking sports information on their phones. See which city comes out ahead in this Super Bowl of geography and demographics.

    Here’s the map.

  • Esri ArcGIS 10.3 Now Certified OGC Compliant

    As part of Esri’s ongoing support of GIS interoperability, the latest ArcGIS 10.3 release is now certified as Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC), compliant.

    Through its support for OGC specifications, ArcGIS users can access data and services from many different sources, regardless of the technology used by those sources, Esri said. In addition, users can share their content with others, including non-Esri users, contributing to the larger goals of the open data movement.

    “Our goal is to help our users be successful, and Esri sees technical interoperability as a key driver to successful implementations,” said Dr. Satish Sankaran, Esri product manager for interoperability and member of the OGC Architecture Board.

    The OGC leads the development of geospatial interoperability standards. Esri is a long-standing, active OGC participant, helping GIS users to seamlessly work together, Esri said.

    Esri’s first OGC compliancy certificates were granted in 1999, and many more Esri ArcGIS platform products have met OGC compliancy since then.

    See the full list of OGC-compliant products from Esri.

  • Esri Maps Track Massive Snow Storms Poised to Hit Northeastern U.S.

    Esri’s interactive Severe Weather Public Information Map and U.S. Snowfall Forecast Map enable users to see winter storms, including the massive storm that’s about to hit the Northeastern United States. Here are the two maps.

    Severe Weather Public Information Map

    With the Severe Weather Public Information Map, users can view continuously updated weather reports and warnings from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service, along with live weather data from AccuWeather.

    Users can also explore geotagged social media from Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube related to the storms.

    U.S. Snowfall Forecast Map

    This map shows the projected accumulation of snowfall across the U.S. for the next 36 hours, using data from National Weather Service Digital Forecast Database. Users can step through projections in six-hour increments for a more accurate view of when and where snowfall is expected to be most severe.

  • Harvard’s U.S. Cluster Mapping Project Offers Online Course

    USCluster-Mapping-W

    A free online course, “Using the U.S. Cluster Mapping Tool,” will be held Feb. 11 from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET.

    The U.S. Cluster Mapping website provides research in clusters combined with 52+ economic indicators, forming an online, open-data, open-source platform that allows users to make more informed decisions about economic development, both in the United States and abroad.

    The website is evolving to serve as the national portal to track cluster-led economic development efforts, identify best practices, and spread new data and insights. The interactive webinar will walk participants through use the tool and show how best to use it.

    The U.S. Cluster Mapping Project is a national economic initiative that is led by Harvard Business School’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness (ISC) in partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Economic Development Administration. Directed by Michael Porter, the ISC studies competition and its implications for company strategy; the competitiveness of nations, states, and regions; and solutions to social needs such as health care, innovation, and corporate responsibility.

    Speakers include Sarah Jane Maxted, the U.S. Cluster Mapping Project manager at ISC focusing on clusters and regional economic growth, and Christian Ketels, ISC principal associate and research team leader.

  • Planet Labs Raises $95M for Tiny Earth-Observation Satellites

    A Planet Labs Dove.
    A Planet Labs Dove.

    San Francisco-based startup Planet Labs has raised $95 million from investors in its latest round of financing. The company’s goal is to provide frequent, inexpensive, high-quality Earth imagery to a variety of customers.

    “I’m pleased to announce a first closing of a planned $70 million Series C round led by Data Collective. This financing includes a debt facility of $25 million from Western Technology Investment, bringing the total financing to $95 million,” said co-founder and CEO Will Marshall.

    Planet Labs builds Earth-observation satellites that are a mere 12 x 4 x 4 inches. Each of the miniature satellites, which the company calls “Doves,” can capture imagery with a resolution of 10 to 16.5 feet (3 to 5 meters).

    Planet Labs, founded in 2010 by three former NASA scientists, has launched 73 Doves into orbit. The first prototypes blasted off in April 2013. In January 2014, Planet Labs delivered Flock 1, a constellation of Earth-imaging satellites made up of 28 Doves. Subsequent launches have increased the current constellation to 71 Doves. The goal is to be able to image the entire Earth every day.

    Doves being deployed from the International Space Station. Photo: NASA
    Doves being deployed from the International Space Station. Photo: NASA

    Once the satellites are operational in orbit, they each complete a full circuit of the planet in about 90 minutes, capturing images as they travel. When a satellite makes contact with a ground station in the company’s network, Planet Labs receives images and migrates them to the cloud, as well as transmitting additional instructions to the satellites.

    According to the company website, Planet Labs provides commercial and humanitarian value with its global imaging network. Industries supported include geospatial, agriculture, civil government, and natural resources. “Fresh data from any place on Earth is foundational to solving commercial, environmental, and humanitarian challenges,” the website said. “Our global sensing and analytics platform unlocks the ability to understand and respond to change at a local and global scale.”

    Planet Labs says it provides the industry’s most frequently updated imagery of any place in the world at 3-5 meter resolution. The data supports customers who need easily accessed, fresh imagery to inform their day-to-day operations, data analysis, and products. Each image is processed through the company’s automated data pipeline and delivered to customers via API and web tools.

    “This financing comes in the wake of our successful launch of 73 satellites, customers actively using our data, and the recent hiring of Tom Barton as our chief operating officer. Tom was formerly CEO of Rackable Systems (now SGI) and boasts over 25 years of experience managing and advising hardware and software companies,” Marshall posted on the Planet Labs website. “With strong support from new and returning investors, Tom on board the management team, and a brand new headquarters in the heart of San Francisco, we’re primed to deliver more insights about our changing planet in 2015.”

    The Dawesville Channel in Western Australia as seen by a Planet Labs satellite. Photo: Planet Labs
    The Dawesville Channel in Western Australia as seen by a Planet Labs satellite. Photo: Planet Labs
    The Kashima Industrial Zone is one of the Japan’s largest industrial parks, home to an estimated 1,500 factories. The plant at the image’s center manufactures steel sheets found in home appliances and auto parts. A low-density residential area (upper left) lies just west of the industrial zone. Photo: Planet Labs
    The Kashima Industrial Zone is one of the Japan’s largest industrial parks, home to an estimated 1,500 factories. The plant at the image’s center manufactures steel sheets found in home appliances and auto parts. A low-density residential area (upper left) lies just west of the industrial zone. Photo: Planet Labs

  • Ardent Awarded USGS Contract for GeoPlatform Support

    Ardent Management Consulting (ArdentMC) has been awarded a five-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) from U.S. Geological Survey in support of the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC).

    The task orders on the IDIQ are to provide a full range of application and service design, development, and maintenance support for the FGDC as the coordinating interagency body for the Geospatial Platform (GeoPlatform). Among awards to other companies, ArdentMC was awarded a one-year, $1 million task order on the IDIQ to provide FGDC with GeoPlatform programmatic support.

    The GeoPlatform is an Internet-based capability providing shared and trusted geospatial data, services, and applications for use by the public, government agencies and partners to meet their mission-critical needs. According to Ardent, it embodies the principles and spirit of Open Government, emphasizing government-to-citizen communication, accountability and transparency.

    “ArdentMC is very excited about partnering with FGDC, its member agencies and the geospatial community to support the management and collaboration of geospatial data sharing and provide a mission tool that is accessible and easy to use by stakeholders at the federal, state, local and private sector levels,” said Brandon LaBonte, ArdentMC president and CEO.

  • DHI Uses Airbus Satellite Images to Map Denmark Flooding

    Water management company DHI used satellites to map Jan. 11-13 floods in Denmark.

    On the weekend of Jan. 9-11, two storms passed over Denmark. During and after the storm flood warnings were issued in different areas of the country. To monitor and map the spatial extent of the flooding DHI GRAS asked Airbus Defence and Space to acquire TerraSAR-X satellite images over the areas. DHI then analyzed and mapped the flooded area.

    The main advantage of using radar satellites like TerraSAR-X is the ability to acquire images independent of weather and light conditions, DHI said. It is possible to get an image of the actual conditions on the ground even during harsh winds (up to 35 to 40 meters per second in this case), massive clouds and rain, and during the night.

    The illustration below shows parts of the flooded area around Limfjorden in Northern Jutland, Denmark. On the background radar satellite image the water is black while land area appears in white and grey tones. The light blue overlay indicates flooded areas.

    The images were acquired over various parts of Denmark. By preparing and reacting to future and similar early warnings of flooding and storm events, it is possible to plan for new images to be acquired during the maximum extent of the water level.

    Egon-Oversvommelse-Limfjorden-Resized

  • W3C, OGC to Integrate Spatial Data on the Web

    The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) are collaborating to improve interoperability and integration of spatial data on the Web. Spatial data — describing geographic locations on the Earth and natural and constructed features — enriches location-based consumer services, online maps, journalism, scientific research, government administration, the Internet of Things, and many other applications. In the United States alone, geospatial data and services are estimated to generate $1.6 trillion annually.

    “Location, as well as providing context to much of today’s online information, is vital to the emerging field of connected devices,” said Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist at Google. “Through this collaboration we hope to make the understanding of geospatial knowledge a fundamental component of the Web.”

    Spatial data is integral to many of our human endeavors and so there is a high value in making it easier to integrate that data into Web based datasets and services. For example, one can use a GIS system to find the nearest restaurant, but today it is difficult to associate that restaurant with reviewer comments available on the Web in a scalable way. Likewise, concepts used widely on the Web such as “the United Kingdom” do not match the geographic concepts defined in a GIS system, meaning Web developers are missing out on valuable information available in GIS systems. Bridging GIS systems and the Web will create a network effect that enriches both worlds.

    “Location plays a vital role for BBC Online, not least in our remit to provide timely information for Weather, Travel and Local News,” said Chris Henden, service owner for location services at BBC Future Media. “It matters across the service, from maps showing places of note in World War One, to detailed context for breaking news. We source data from various third parties, then transform, curate, and make it available to our front-end services. There is a perceptible gap between the specialised world of geographic data, and that of the Web. Bridging that gap can take significant, repeated effort, and is not always successful or possible. Therefore this collaboration between the OGC and W3C is more than welcome.”

    More than 100 participants discussed these challenges at the March 2014 Workshop on Linking Geospatial Data, co-organized by OGC and W3C in partnership with the UK Government Linked Data Working Group, Google, and Ordnance Survey (the UK mapping agency). Stories ranging from management of data in response to the Fukushima nuclear plant accident to the use of spatial data to create new services from spatial and historical data in the Netherlands illustrated a diverse set of integration benefits and challenges.

    Informed by the conclusions from that workshop, the collaboration announced today will enable publishers of spatial data, providers of services that consume the data, and application developers to establish common practices and reduce the cost of integrating spatial data on the Web. Through the collaboration, the geospatial and Web communities will document use cases and requirements, develop best practices for publishing spatial data on the Web, and advance some existing technologies to W3C Recommendations and OGC standards.

    “Through this collaboration we will ensure that governments and research labs will have a way to open up their spatial data to be used transparently by scientists, industry, and citizens alike,” said Kerry Taylor, principal research scientist at Australia’s CSIRO.

    “With growing demand for weather data services delivered via the Web, this joint effort will ensure the progress of practical and usable standards for the integration and communication of location related data,” added Richard Carne, chief digital officer at the MetOffice.

    Participants will evaluate the use of Linked Data for managing the complex evolution and integration of spatial data. The Linked Data approach enables people to produce data independently, and to then easily integrate heterogeneous data from diverse sources.

    “We have used Linked Data — including early work on W3C’s Semantic Sensor Network ontology and OGC’s GeoSPARQL — to monitor and manage ground water levels affecting vulnerable underground archaeological sites,” said Linda van den Brink of Geonovum, the Dutch government geospatial standards body. “We demonstrated that when you have a way to easily express location in Linked Data, you can combine geo-information with other data and discover new information without much effort.”

    For this collaboration, W3C and OGC have each launched a Spatial Data on the Web Working Group (W3C home, OGC home). The groups, both chaired by Ed Parsons and Kerry Taylor, will coordinate closely and publish deliverables jointly.

    For W3C, this work is supported in part by the SmartOpenData project.

  • Esri Releases Demographic Data for 137 Countries

    Esri has added geodemographic informationfor 57 additional countries to its ready-to-use ArcGIS apps, including Esri Business Analyst Online (BAO) and Esri Community Analyst. Up-to-date population, income, employment, and consumer spending information helps businesses — including retailers, real estate brokers, merchandisers, supply chain managers, and marketers — better understand local markets all around the world, the company said.
    “In today’s global economy, organizations are interested in providing the best services and goods to customers in more than one area,” said Simon Thompson, director of commercial business at Esri. “Esri’s comprehensive data provides the insight organizations need to do business at a hyperlocal level and really meet the needs and demands of local consumers.”

    The newly added countries include those in Latin America and Africa, bringing the total number of countries to 137. In addition, Canadian data has been updated to include 2014 updates, and Australia, France, Germany, and India now have advanced datasets and new reports including household, population, and summary data.

    See a comprehensive list of global Esri Demographic data, and visit Esri booth 3171 at the National Retail Federation show in New York’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, January 11–13.

  • Golden Software Releases MapViewer 8

    Users can create and customize maps with a new ribbon bar interface and redesigned managers.
    Users can create and customize maps with a new ribbon bar interface and redesigned managers.

    Golden Software has released MapViewer 8, which is says has numerous enhancements over its predecessor program. Enhancements inlcude new map types, increased file compatibility, the ability to download base maps from online servers, enhanced querying functionality, and a new user interface.

    MapViewer is a mapping and spatial analysis tool that allows users to produce publication-quality thematic maps. Users can precisely display their data distribution with intuitive functions and features.

    Golden Software is offering a free demo download so customers can try out the new features with their own data.

    The new bivariate option for the symbol map can create visually dynamic maps that display variables in an easy-to-understand way. This map, from beta tester Thierry Hatt, displays house surface area as symbol size and percentage of house surface area divided by property surface area as symbol color for Strasbourg, Alsace, France (1765 land survey information).
    The new bivariate option for the symbol map can create visually dynamic maps that display variables in an easy-to-understand way. This map, from beta tester Thierry Hatt, displays house surface area as symbol size and percentage of house surface area divided by property surface area as symbol color for Strasbourg, Alsace, France (1765 land survey information).