Tag: GSS Monthly

Earlier this week, First American Spatial Solutions (FASS) released a report detailing the risk of 13 coastal cities in the United States to storm surge. It’s a fantastic example of how GIS analysis can be used in a very practical way and on a very broad scale. Did you know that there is a difference (in the insurance company’s eyes) whether an insured residential structure is destroyed by hurricane-force winds or by a storm surge (flooding) caused by the hurricane? The first is covered, while the second might not be.

I had the opportunity to speak with author Dr. Howard Botts about his report this morning; a link to the 10-minute conversation comes at the end of this article. Dr. Botts is executive vice president and director of database development at First American.

First of all, from a GIS perspective, FASS has a database of approximately 124 million U.S. parcels. That equates to about 87 percent of the parcels in the United States. FASS estimates there are somewhere around 144.3 million total parcels. Dr. Botts said the biggest challenge for FASS, from a GIS perspective, is automating the management of this massive dataset.

“There is no national mandate for cadastral or parcel data. So you have about 4,000 different collection units, primarily cities and counties, each of which has their own projection, data standards, different attributes,” said Dr. Botts. “So the first couple of challenges are normalizing the data in terms of projection and coverage and then georectifying it. Some stuff is survey-quality, some stuff is so bad we just put it on the shelf because we can’t use it. Then we also normalize the attributes.”

“We are using ArcInfo to do the processing and rectification along with some various air photos and other kinds of information and then we manage the entire dataset in Oracle Spatial,” he said. “Literally on a daily basis, we are getting cities and counties feeding us new parcels that have been created. We are constantly refreshing that data and so we do all of that data management within Oracle.”

The source of the land-elevation and bathymetric data, the heart of the data needed to run analyses such as this, was developed using techniques proprietary to FASS. Dr. Botts wouldn’t go into further detail about the source of the data, but he did say that developing and maintaining that data is more complex than people would think. For example, the bathymetric properties of the sea floor and coast line can change substantially after a storm event, to the point that FASS’s models need to be updated, which they do on an annual basis at the end of April.

Storm Surge Graphic Courtesy of First American Spatial Solutions

On to the FASS report

“Retired insurance agent Norman Broussard and his wife Genevieve lived at 154 Brady Drive in Biloxi, Mississippi. Their home, which they built in the 1960s, was just a short stroll from the picturesque Mississippi Sound. When Hurricane Katrina hit, they sought refuge with their daughter. But when they returned, there was nothing left but the concrete slab — the slab the home used to sit upon. The Broussards filed a claim with State Farm. They argued that their home and its contents were destroyed by the hurricane-force winds. State Farm, Mississippi’s largest insurer, denied the claim. The company asserted that the house had been destroyed by the storm surge, or flood, for which coverage was excluded. The Broussards sued. Theirs was the first of the so-called “slab suits” to go to trial. The court’s decision, rendered on January 17, 2007, was a warning to all carriers handling coastal property. In a directed verdict, Judge L.T. Senter found in favor of the Broussards, reasoning that the insurer could not prove what portion of the loss was due to flooding and what portion to wind. The judge then sent the question of punitive damages to the jury, which promptly awarded the plaintiffs $2.5M (later reduced to $1M).”

After reading the above, you can understand that this is a serious issue involving billions of dollars in residential real estate value — more precisely $234 billion in 13 high-risk U.S. cities, according to FASS. Furthermore, the $234 billion value only includes “current structure value” and does not consider replacement costs, contents, vehicle loss, loss of life or business interruption.

The 13 cities were determined, using GIS, to be the highest-risk cities to storm surge. The only properties included in the report were those that would be “wet” in a storm-surge event. FASS storm-surge polygons assume the worst-case scenario for each category of hurricane based on the following factors, according to FASS:

1. Maximum wind speed for each category at time of landfall.

2. Right-front quadrant of the storm at landfall.

3. Peak high tide at time of landfall.

As mentioned previously, FASS has a database of ~124 millions parcels. FASS then identified every property contained within each category of the storm-surge polygon and matched the structure valuation for each residential structure identified.

The FASS report states that storm surge can damage in several ways:

1. Water depth. The higher the water level, the greater the damage.

2. Storm surge velocity. A cubic yard of sea water weighs nearly a ton (1,728 lbs)! Wind-driven water moving at 10-15 mph can cause a tremendous amount of damage.

3. Transportation of debris. Storm surge can move large objects such as trees, vehicles, boats, and other large objects, and sweep them up against other structures.

4. Standing period. After the storm surge event, standing water can turn into a toxic lake of debris. Generally, the longer it stands, the more damage is caused.

Several factors were considered when determining which geographic areas to study:

1. Hurricane probability.

2. Vulnerability. Storm surge is most pervasive in coastal areas where there is shallow offshore bathymetry, low-lying coastlines or river estuaries.

3. Residential density. Most of the nation’s population density is located along the coast.

Based on the above criteria, FASS selected the following 13 geographic areas:

*Brownsville, TX
*Corpus Christi, TX
*Myrtle Beach, SC
*Wilmington, NC
*Long Island, NY
*Jacksonville, FL
*New Orleans, LA
*Charleston, SC
*Houston-Galveston, TX
*Tampa, FL
*Virginia Beach, VA
*Miami-Dade, FL

The report provides substantial detail on each geographic area such as storm history, number of properties affected, and value of properties affected. For each geographic area, three different maps    illustrate the affected area. Following is an example that shows some of the summary data. Further details of the Gulf-Shores area and the rest of the geographic areas are provided in the full report.

Gulf-Shores, AL

Category 5 Exposure: $1,154,467,296.00
Hurricane Probability: High
Storm-surge Vulnerability: High
Residential Density: Medium

Overhead View of Categories 1-5 Storm Surge Impacting Gulf-Shores and Mobile, AL

The full 18-page FASS report can be downloaded from the FASS website by clicking here. Note that the report is free of charge, but you’ll have to re
gister before downloading.

Listen to my 10-minute conversation with Dr. Botts by clicking here. It’s about a 2.5mb audio file.

See you next week.

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric

I recently viewed a TED presentation on augmented reality that was quite impressive. Honestly, I hadn’t heard much about augmented reality by name, I really have been thinking about it for some time. An example is when I’ve been in the field mapping existing features such as irrigation piping or drainage that is eventually filled in and covered by material (e.g., soil, concrete). I’ve often thought how cool it would be if I could wear some sort of high-tech goggles, while GPS mapping, that would allow me to “see” the underground infrastructure as I looked around a city park. In other words, have the existing as-built map in a head-up display in the goggles that is spatially correct.

I think you’ll see what I mean if you watch the following TED video on Augmented Reality. I guarantee if you watch it, you’ll be glad you spent the eight minutes or so.

After you view the TED talk, can you imagine how this could be applied to mobile mapping?

Also, within the last few days, GM made an announcement about its experimentations with head-up displays in automobiles. Essentially, these display (and augment) information on the windshield of the vehicle. I suggest viewing the short two-minute video on Youtube below.

These are both fascinating looks at how 3D geospatial data is going to be utilized in our everyday lives.

Podcast Interview with Accela

I spent a few minutes with Brian Weinke, product manager at Accela, about that company’slatest Accela Automation 7.0 and Accela Mobile Office release. Version 7.0 is a “web-based, enterprise application that boosts the ability of governments to automate critical tasks such as permitting; licensing; code enforcement; community planning and development; asset management; and emergency response.”

You can listen to the ~10 minute podcast here.

Thanks, and see you next week.

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric

I had an interesting experience last month that opened my eyes and had me thinking about how consumer electronics has transformed GIS over the last several years. Google Earth was cool when it first came out, but nothing earth-shattering. We’ve been doing the same thing (albeit on a smaller scale) for many years. Although you can debate how much technology it brought to the table, it would be hard to argue that it didn’t bring a new level of digital mapping to the consumer.

The advancement in GIS technology sort of sneaks up on you in a Moore’s Law sort of way. Every year, the performance of desktop computer and workstation technology improves and sometimes is actually less expensive than the year before. I’ve recently written about this phenomenon when discussing the Apple iPad and the potential impact it (and similar technology) might have on the GIS industry.

My experience last month has to do with the golf industry. I’ve been involved in the golf industry for about 10 years. There are several uses for GIS and GPS in golf course construction management and operations so I keep my finger on the pulse of that industry.

You’ve probably seen (and maybe have used) some of the GPS/GIS-based products in golf. Probably the most visible are the handheld GPS receivers targeted for golf and the GPS golf carts that provide a moving map as the golfer drives around the golf course.

A quick look at what’s needed with a GPS golf cart system:

• A detailed map of the golf course is required, typically by GPS mapping all of the features (tees, fairways, bunkers, cart paths, etc.). From the GPS data, a graphical 3D (or 2D) map of the golf course is created.
• On the golf cart is a touch-screen computer with GPS built in, as well as some sort of communication link (either spread spectrum, Wi-Fi, or GPRS) to facilitate communications from each cart back to the clubhouse. GPS is used to position the location of the golf cart on the map as well as its distance to the green and other features such as ponds and sand bunkers.
• In the office, a computer with management software is used to view the status/location of each cart and manage the flow of carts on the golf course.
• A host of other features such as food/beverage ordering, 911, text messaging, etc. are available.

I was moderately involved with GPS golf cart systems five or six years ago as I had several active golf course projects ongoing.

Part of my deliverable was to provide the GIS vector data that would serve as the base map for the GPS golf cart system. In working with the golf cart systems, there were two weak areas that I could see: hardware reliability and cost.

Hardware reliability: Yesteryear

The computer hardware used several years ago in GPS golf cart systems to display the map and provide the user interface were essentially early-generation tablet computers. Reliability was an issue largely because these systems were highly customized (e.g., not mass-produced). During that time, notebook computers and LCD displays were still relatively high-end items.

GPS golf cart systems are subjected to a lot of vibration and shock, and therefore it wasn’t uncommon for three or four carts (out of ~80) to be out of order at any one time.

Hardware reliability: Today

The sales of notebook computers over the past five years has exploded. More and more, notebook computers are being used in place of desktop computers. This huge boost in production has resulted in widespread mass-production of all types of components used in notebook computers. Consumers are a hard bunch to please, and that is why the major market leaders like Dell, HP, ASUS, Toshiba, etc. have to make their products super reliable. The GPS golf cart systems have benefited tremendously from this growth. Not only are off-the-shelf systems more available and reliable today, but also less expensive than before due to economies of scale.

Yesteryear‘s return on investment

Years ago, the cost to outfit a fleet of golf carts at the typical golf club was between US$225,000 and $275,000. That is a healthy chunk of change, considering that the entire annual maintenance budget of a typical golf course is only $350,000-$450,000. Mind you, the GPS golf cart generates revenue from rental fees, increased speed of play, etc., but the return on investment (ROI) for a typical golf club was hard to justify since the golf club was left to figure out its financing.

After factoring in that the useful life of a golf cart is only about five years, you can see that convincing a golf club to invest such a large sum of money would be a difficult task…and it was. Worldwide, only several hundred (maybe a thousand at most) invested in GPS golf cart systems.

Today’s ROI

In years past, there were only a handful of startup companies designing, manufacturing, and selling GPS golf cart systems. Several of them raised venture capital money (one investor was popular Pro Golfer Greg Norman) and most of them burned through the cash without ever turning a profit.

As with most emerging markets, industry consolidation is bound to happen. With each GPS golf cart company struggling to survive on its own, the GPS golf cart business was no different. The top three industry leaders (ParView, ProLink, GPS Industries) eventually merged to form GPS Industries LLC.

GPS Industries then teamed up with Club Car, a leading golf cart manufacturer, and established the Visage GPS Golf Cart System. Last month, they introduced Visage, and I had a chance to go through the system (albeit on a tradeshow floor) with a Club Car product manager.

With Visage, the cost to the club is a nominal $40/month per cart. For an 80-cart fleet, that’s under $40,000 per year. Visage asks the golf club for a
five-year commitment, but the golf club has the choice of opting out of the agreement after a year and each year after that with no penalty.

A Perfect Storm

It was interesting for me when I looked at the Visage after not having much hands-on with GPS golf cart systems in the past several years. It was orders of magnitude better than the previous systems I had encountered. The hardware was cleaner and the software was better from a graphics/functionality perspective.

The product manager talked about the hardware being customized very little. You’ve seen the improvement in notebook computer screens over the past few years, so you can imagine the display quality of the Visage system. Of course, the computer onboard the golf cart is orders of magnitude more powerful than in previous years.

I thought to myself, this is the perfect storm of the maturation of computer technology, GPS technology, GIS technology, GPRS/Wi-Fi technology, and 3D graphics technology coming together at the right time to create a fine experience for the golfer with an affordable price tag.

Each of these technologies has matured considerably over the past few years:

• Computer technology largely follows Moore’s Law.
• GPS technology (the systems use a u-blox GPS receiver) using SBAS for GPS corrections instead of setting up/maintaining a GPS reference station and communications infrastructure for broadcasting GPS corrections.
• GIS technology using publicly available data (e.g., orthophotos and vector data) and leveraging off of the development of 3D GIS tools.
• GPRS technology (mobile phone networks) has experience tremendous growth in the past few years with very affordable data plans. I neglected to mention that the $40/month per cart cost includes the GPRS data plan. Previous generations of GPS golf cart systems used spread-spectrum or early Wi-Fi technology and required repeaters throughout the golf course to propagate the communications signal.

Visage’s GPS golf cart system is only one example of how GIS applications are leveraging of off the rapid developments occuring in consumer electronics. As I’ve written in recent columns, the Apple iPad might be a significant consumer electronic milestone that the GIS industry will leverage off of this year.

Thanks, and see you next week.

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric

As usual with an emerging personal, digital communications technology on the brink of mass appeal (think e-mail, mobile phones), privacy is a major concern and a serious topic of discussion with regard to location-based services (LBS). With the GPS component, LBS worries users and regulators even more. So much so that there was a House Congressional hearing this week on Capitol Hill regarding this very subject. It’s not the first hearing on location privacy and certainly won’t be the last. Following are the people who testified:

Lorrie Cranor, Associate Professor, Computer Science and Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

Mike Altschul, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, CTIA – The Wireless Association

John B. Morris, Jr., General Counsel, Center for Democracy and Technology

Anne Collier, Co-Director, ConnectSafely.org

Jerry King, Chief Operating Officer, uLocate Communications, Inc.

Tony Bernard, Vice President and General Manager, Useful Networks

If you’d like to read the testimony from each of these folks, you can do so here.

I guess as geospatial-knowledgeable people, most are either on one side of the spectrum or the other. One side being the folks who understand the power of location and are willing to gamble that our privacy will remain within our control while enjoying the benefits of LBS applications. The other side being the folks who understand the power of location and are scared to death that Big Brother will have some amazing new tools to trace our every step and record our every decision.

As you may surmise, I’m on the gambling side of the spectrum. While I don’t typically live on the bleeding edge of technology (I don’t own an iPhone or Blackberry), I do own a lot of technology and have a fairly powerful smartphone with GPS capability. I don’t currently subscribe to any LBS apps on my phone besides the navigation feature. However, I’m seriously excited about the future of LBS applications. Personally, I’m excited about LBS technology because it will help make my life run more efficiently. That’s what I’m in it for. GPS navigation has done that for me and I think some other LBS apps will do that for me too.

I realize (and appreciate) that not everyone is like me. I’ve got four kids (ages 12-18), an active spouse, and a fair number of extended family members in the Portland, Oregon, metro area. I’m a family-oriented person so I’m active in my kids’ lives and also try to keep in regular touch with family members who are local. I also am involved in some community activities that require meetings, etc. All of this is on top of my work schedule, which can be hectic. To manage my schedule, I enter my commitments (business as well as personal) in my smartphone calendar. In turn, it tells me where I need to be and when I need to be there. Without it, I’d be in trouble. There’s no way I could commit to memory where I need to be and when.

My smartphone takes care of helping me manage my schedule and how to get where I need to be (via GPS). I’m happy with it. It’s very good when I set up all my appointments and addresses in advance.

However, I know I’m missing a lot of opportunities to meet up with my family and friends…if I only knew where they were (or they know where I am) at a particular point in time. For example, maybe I’m on the other side of town watching my kid’s basketball game. My sister could be in the same high school watching her kid, but on a different court. If I knew that at the time, I would certainly make the effort to go sit with her, even if it was just for a few minutes. Yes, I could call her and ask her where she is at, but she’s not the only one. There’s probably 25-30 people like her I stay in touch with and it is not practical to call each one. That number would grow substantially if I include business contacts who I’d be interested in meeting up with if the opportunity arose (think airports and conferences).

This sort of dynamic people-connecting is what LBS can bring to the table. Of course, LBS can offer many other services (coupons at nearby restaurants, etc.) but the people-connecting opportunity, for me, is the big one.

What does people-connecting entail?

Essentially, you’ll need three items:

• your current location.
• some way to communicate with people.
• software to make it all work.

A mobile phone w/GPS fits that bill. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a smartphone, but a more powerful phone will offer more powerful features. Also, you’ll need some kind of data plan and possibly text messaging. Lastly, you’ll need some sort of software on the phone to make it all work together.

Following is a sample phone screen of a people-connecting software application.

Back to the original topic of this column: Privacy

Of course, a major concern by regulators and potential users is how personal location information will be used by the LBS application software. Will this be just another way that your personal information will be collected and sold to spammers? In addition to spammers, do you really want your family/friends knowing where you are 24/7? These are not unreasonable concerns.

I don’t worry about privacy with LBS applications and I’ll tell you why.

There is a lot of hyper-sensitivity about privacy with LBS applications (House Congressional Hearing this week on the subject) so I think LBS software vendors are well aware that a line has been drawn in the sand and a sort of zero-tolerance policy has been established. Secondly, leading LBS companies were involved with CTIA (The Wireless Association) in developing a document titled “Best Practices and Guidelines for Location-Based Services” so they are intimately aware of the privacy issue.

There are two guiding principles in the Best Practices guidelines mentioned above:

1. LBS providers must inform users about how their location information will be used, disclosed, and protected so that a user can make an informed decision whether or not to use the LBS or authorize disclosure.
2. Once a user has chosen to use an LBS, or authorized the disclosure of location information, he or she should have choices as to when or whether location information will be disclosed to third parties and should have the ability to revoke any such authorization.

Read the entire CTIA Best Practices guideline here.

The Final Analysis

One consideration I will give when subscribing to a LBS app in the future is to make sure I subscribe either through my wireless service provider (Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, etc.) or by an established, reputable LBS app provider. This kind of due diligence is no different from when you consider purchasing an application for your personal computer. Common sense tells you not to download an app from Nigeria. You’ll need to practice the same diligence when selecting an LBS application.

I also wouldn’t consider an LBS application where I don’t have the opportunity to control my personal network of people who are granted access to my current whereabouts. In fact, I’d want the ability to shut off broadcasting my location altogether. Again, I don’t think that any mainstream LBS application is not going to have these features due to the h
igh-profile sensitivity to privacy.

I know the LBS applications are already available to accomplish the people-connecting that I want. But, like I wrote earlier, I don’t live on the bleeding edge of technology. I live a step back from the edge. I wasn’t the first to join Facebook (although I’m glad I eventually did) and I won’t be the first to run a people-connecting LBS application, but there’s no doubt in my find that it will eventually be an important tool for me and, most likely, you too. The upside is just too big to ignore.

Thanks, and see you next week.

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric

If you’d like to learn more about LBS, GPS World is hosting a free webinar entitled “What’s Next for LBS” on March 18, 2010.

I ran across an opinion piece entitle “The creative Destruction of GIS” by Ed Parsons, a Geospatial Technologist at Google, published online by GIS Development. I have to admit that when I first scanned the piece, my face crinkled up with the “whhhhaaaaat?” sort of look.

For a common frame of reference, you might want to click here and browse/read the article first before reading the rest of my column. I suppose its taboo to reference narrative in a competitive publication, but I was never one to follow the rules especially if I think the reader will benefit from the interaction.

First off, I don’t know Ed and have never met him. He seems like a knowledgeable gent and from his bio, one can see he’s spent a fair amount of time in the geospatial industry. A friend of mine asked for my thoughts on his piece and I’ve seen it referenced in one or two other places so I thought I’d give it a whirl.

After reading the article more thoroughly, it’s truly a sheep in wolf’s clothing (as opposed to the popular “wolf in sheep’s clothing”). Yes, its bark is worse than its bite. My guess is that an editor got a hold of the piece and inserted the eye-catching title “The creative destruction of GIS” and subtitles “The end of GIS?” and “The post-GIS future”.

No Chicken Little, the GIS sky is not falling.

To his credit, Ed paints a pretty good picture of the infancy of web publishing and Location-Based Services (LBS). But before we go there, let’s set the record straight about GIS. I think Ed wrote it just right:

“…GIS, as described previously, is and will remain the domain of specialists,…”

and

“GIS as we recognise it today will not disappear.”

I agree. The GIS industry, as we know it, is not going anywhere soon. It’s going to continue its moderate and healthy annual double-digit growth rate (save a few economic speed bumps along the way). The same software makers, in general, will dominate the GIS market and serve as a platform on which GIS’s are built for: fed/state/local government, natural resources, utilities, armed forces, transportation, engineering/surveying, yada, yada, yada.

“What do these broad trends mean for the future of GIS? The focus of the industry is moving away for the creation/ maintenance of geospatial information to its exploitation.”

Reading the above quote in his piece is one part where my face got a little crinkly. I beg to differ with that statement and here’s why…

If my kids asked me which career has significant upside in the next ten years, I’d say GIS makes the list. What’s my claim based on? [Big sigh]….there is so much ground that GIS hasn’t covered yet; the industry is just beginning to mess around with 3D, the much-needed surveying+GIS collaboration has really just begun, and soooooo many paper records are still waiting to be entered into a GIS. The list is very extensive. On top of that, data collection technologies like remote sensing and GPS are improving substantially so better quality data will continue to be introduced. Of course, GIS is the engine and data is the fuel. We’ve got some pretty good engines available to us, but we are still lacking for fuel. Data is the name of the game so the idea that the industry is moving away from data creation and maintenance is a little absurd to me.

In my opinion, data is the future of GIS. I’ll use the GPS analogy to illustrate this. When GPS was invented in the early 1970’s, the military creators never envisioned how it is being used today. Never in their wildest dreams did they think that civilian engineers would figure out a way to tap into the signal intended only for military users and be able to design a small GPS receiver that can deliver cm-level positioning in real-time. Similarly, ten years from now GIS will be used in ways we can’t envision today. The difference and what makes GIS more dynamic than GPS is that fundamentally, the GPS infrastructure hasn’t changed much in the last 15 years. Yes, there are new satellites and the L2C signal, but the change has been relatively small. Mind you, the user side of GPS has changed a lot.

That’s not so for GIS. The GIS infrastructure (GIS software tools) has changed significantly as well as tools for the user side of GIS…and they will continue to change. In the coming years, new GIS tools will be developed, new data will be harness and new GIS applications will be developed. Just think about it…the United States, one of the most developed nations in the world, doesn’t even have a complete land record (parcel) database in a GIS yet and many local governments are still years away from it. Hi-resolution elevation contours? Not a chance. Just yesterday, I was searching for 2 foot contours of a 150 acre parcel (a park) in a major metropolitan area. Nothing. The best they made available to the public were 100’ contours in a pdf map. Mind you, I’m sure they had much better data in-house so part of the problem is data sharing policy but I really doubt they have 2 foot contour lines of the parcel. Just think of the analysis (eg. drainage) that could be done if 6” contours were available for every park, open space and developed area within a country. The good news is that it’s just a matter of time before that kind of detailed data is generated and available.

Regarding web publishing and Location-Base Services (LBS), these are two areas that will go crazy. I’ve written quite a bit about LBS in the past. It’s a blank slate at this point and there’s a ton of entreprenurial energy being expended to find the sweet spots. Rest assured there will be many. But that’s not much to do with the future of GIS as we know it. Yes, serving GIS data to the public in a usable format is valuable and growing, but that’s not what Ed is writing about. What Ed’s piece really needs is to be separated from the GIS discussion. Web publishing and LBS for Joe Consumer is a huge topic and worthy of Google chasing after those segments, not GIS.

I received some mail about last week’s column on the Apple iPad announcement and I have also seen other comments on the web regarding the Apple iPad that I think are worth commenting on. Then, it’s just a matter of waiting to see how the market accepts the iPad once it starts shipping in Q2 of this year.

Ruggedness (or lack thereof)

Something that I intended to mention in my last column, but somehow escaped me at the time, was the subject of ruggedness. The iPad is not a rugged design. It’s a typical consumer electronic design that can only take a certain amount of punishment until it tanks. That’s quite different than a rugged notebook computer (tablet or otherwise) on the market today made by companies such as the Xplore Technologies, Panasonic, etc. I agree it’s an issue, but I’m not sure it is a major issue. I’m positive that a company or three will design a ruggedized case for the iPad. It may not make it waterproof, but it will keep it alive in the elements. We’ve seen this with HP calculators and PDAs over the years. Some companies like Otterbox have an entire business based on producing outdoor cases for indoor consumer electronics. Due to the iPad’s relatively low cost (compared to a rugged tablet/notebook computer), there’s $$ room for a ruggedized case for the iPad and you’d still have a reasonably rugged solution for under $1,000.

No compelling reason to choose an iPad over a rugged tablet computer?

One comment I read (relative to using the iPad in the geospatial industry) is that there is no compelling reason for someone to use an iPad rather than a rugged tablet computer that are available today.

Yes there is….price. Actually, if it weren’t for the low price, I wouldn’t be spending much time thinking about the iPad.

Price: US$4,500+                                                 Price: US$500-600

Have you priced a ruggedized tablet computer lately? They are at least 4x the price of an iPad and some are 10x the price of an iPad. That’s a huge difference. Granted, with a rugged tablet computer, you get a true desktop-capable computer (Windows OS, etc.), but does the user really need that much capability in the field? I’ve got a semi-rugged tablet in my office that I use occasionally for field data collection, but it never fit into my day-to-day workflow as a desktop replacement because it just doesn’t have the horsepower I like in a desktop to run resource-hungry software like AutoCAD, ArcGIS, etc. Also, I’m really not comfortable carrying all the data I use on my desktop (e-mail, project files, etc.) into the field on a tablet computer. So, to pay a premium for that capability is not worth it for me. I’m interested in a dedicated field device.

However, please don’t be confused. I’m not defending the iPad. It has its share of short-comings, the major one being the proprietary software development environment. It won’t run Microsoft Windows-based software so any GIS software for it will have to be created from scratch.

With respect to the geospatial market, the big question still remains: Will the iPad succeed in the consumer electronics market? If it enjoys even 50 percent of the success of its little brother, the iTouch, then the proprietary software development issue will go away because GIS software companies will gamble on it and there will be plenty of GIS software available for it.

The Steve Jobs Factor

In my PDA vs. Tablet column last month, I stated that 2010 will be the year of tablet computers. Certainly, the iPad will be only one of many. However, the importance of the iPad announcement should not be underestimated. It has set the price/performance standard for others to follow. There will be tons of Google Android-based products and Microsoft Windows-based products introduced this year. Most will be smartphones because there is an instant market for those types of products. There will also be a handful (or three) of iPad-like products using Android or Windows Mobile that are not targeted at the smartphone market (even though they may have a smartphone radio built-in) looking for the next hot market niche that Steve Jobs has a reputation of uncovering.

I contend that the iPad has the best chance of any consumer tablet due to its leverage with the iPod, iTouch and iPhone. I see (and others do too) Jobs doing the same thing with books (think ebooks) as he has done with iTunes. Some of his competitors aren’t even going to try to compete with Jobs.

Acer, who reportedly shipped 31 million notebook computers in 2009, won’t develop a competitive product to the iPad.

Taiwan-based DigiTimes published an online article with a statement from Acer President Scott Lin saying that Acer will not develop an iPad-like product because they don’t have the ability to carve a niche like Apple does.

An eBook Reader

Any new product introduced needs to have a killer application for it to serve. That’s not so clear with the iPad. It’s a multi-function device. Some say that its value as an eBook reader will help boost its acceptance in addition to leveraging off of the iPod/iTouch/iPhone.

Here is an interesting article on eBook reader predictions for 2010. But others says the iPad version 1 isn’t a serious eBook contender due to its bright LED backlit screen…too bright to stare at for long periods of time.

So, I’ll leave it right here. There’s not much more to write about the iPad until the product is introduced and we see what kind of momentum builds.

GPS/GIS Webinar

On another note, I’ll be conducting a 60-minute webinar next week (Thursday, February 18) titled “GPS for GIS — 101.” It’s an introduction to the basic concepts of using GPS for GIS mapping. I’ve in
vited Craig Greenwald to be a guest commentator, so the banter between he and I should be entertaining and informative. I’ve known Craig (and even worked with him at one point) for many years. Craig worked on the ESRI ArcPad team for several years and has a practical background in GPS mapping. He’s spent time on a four-wheeler so he’s done his time in the dirt. The webinar is free. You can sign up by clicking here.

Thanks and have a great week.

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric

Last month, I wrote about the PDA vs. Tablet war. The tablet computer has been around for a long time and struggled to gain widespread acceptance. I also wrote about how 2010 will be a decisive year for the tablet computer.

I guess my timing was right: with the introduction of the Apple iPad last week, 2010 sure has started out with a bang! Admittedly, we’ve known about the iPad for awhile and I even mentioned it in the PDA vs. Tablet column, but didn’t expect the hype to appear for another month or so.

The iPad might turn out to be a technology that transforms the geospatial industry. The iPhone has made inroads into geospatial, but the iPad is another story altogether primarily because it’s not a mutually exclusive proposition. For example, I’m not an iPhone user and won’t be in the foreseeable future. This is not because I dislike the iPhone. On the contrary, I might like to have one. But all my family phones (parents, kids, spouse) are all under my Sprint account. The pain to change is too great.

The iPad is a different story. Its primary function is not a phone. I could see myself purchasing an iPad, especially at $500-600. I’d use it not only as a digital notebook, but also as a mobile GIS device.

Apple iPad announced last week

There will be a lot of debate in the consumer market about which features were included and which features were left out. But, from a geospatial industry technical perspective, I don’t think that matters. It’s got a large color screen (big assumption that it’s outdoor readable), runs 10 hours on a charge, runs third-party applications (albeit not a Microsoft platform) and can interface to a GPS receiver (or use its own). That covers 90 percent of the battle.

The most important indicator to watch is the iPad’s acceptance in the consumer market. Honestly, I can’t figure out if it’s going to be a Newton or an iTouch. Obviously, it’s too early to say. For the iPad to be a success in the geospatial industry, it’s got to reach the success of the iTouch, of which Apple has sold ~31 million units. The geospatial industry will never support the development of a product like the iPad at the $500 price point. There’s just not enough market size to justify it. The geospatial industry needs to ride the wave of consumer market acceptance to benefit from a product like the iPad.

Acceptance of the iPad by the consumer market could produce marked changes in the geospatial industry. The devices would be readily available and might become a default unit for mobile GIS given the low price point and attractive features. It might even be considered a disruptive technology because it would bring an entirely new host of applications and application development tools to the geospatial industry for mobile GIS.

Changing Gears to Geospatial ETL

I want to touch quickly on the subject of geospatial ETL. I have to admit I was a little ignorant about the geospatial ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) industry…and I still am, albeit a little more aware than I was before. The funny thing is that for many years I’ve been dealing with one of the problems that ETL software is designed to solve.

ETL is an acronym for Extract, Transform, Load. These are software tools that facilitate the extraction, transformation, and loading between software systems. Spatial ETL is the same but focused on ETL between geospatial systems.

Wisdom Technologies Fast Reader

I’ve personally run into this problem many times with mapping projects I’ve worked on. I’ve spent countless hours updating maps of the same project that I maintain in both AutoCAD and ArcView/ArcGIS. Yes, I’ve been down the road of importing DWG files into ArcView/ArcGIS and trying to make that work, and I did to some extent, but never to the point that I could abandon one in favor of the other. Granted, if my projects were large enough, I would investigate this further, but generally they aren’t.

Snowflake Software GML Viewer

The players in the Spatial ETL space are ESRI (ArcGIS Data Interoperability Extension), Dotted Eyes, Geokettle, PCI Geomatics, Safe Software, Snowflake Software, SpatialDataIntegrator, and WisdomForce Technologies, among others.

Just last month, one of the industry leaders, Safe Software, introduced its FME 2010 product. I spoke briefly with co-founders Don Murray and Dale Lutz  about their new product. I’ll be doing more of these sorts of 5- to 10-minute podcast interviews and posting them on the Geospatial Solutions website when the new version goes live in the coming weeks.

Safe Software FME implementation at Washington DOT

In the meantime, click below to listen to my podcast interview with Don and Dale. The interview is about 11 minutes in length. Pay particular attention at the 7:50 minute mark to the discussion about 3D geospatial data.

Click here to listen to my podcast interview with Safe co-founders Don and Dale.

Thanks, and see you next week.

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric

First off, let me offer my prayers for those who were affected by the powerful earthquake that occurred in Haiti yesterday (Tuesday). You can view USGS maps of the area here. ESRI is offering Disaster Response and Assistance. God Speed.

I received some feedback from last week’s column “PDA vs. Tablet: Is the War Over or Just Starting?” and also some additional comments.

While I focused on the tablet side of the equation last week, it’s prudent to make mention of the PDA side of the equation.

But first, one reader pointed out that they use “convertible” tablet computers for GIS data collection. The reader comments…

“I think it would have been at least worth a mention to bring up the convertible notebooks that operate as tablets in your article.  Now that we do all of our inspections electronically, our field inspectors use Panasonic Toughbooks w/the screen rolled around, in the field.  Everything they do is w/the pen since the keyboard ends up underneath, so technically, they are using it as a pen based tablet.  Also, we are using the handwriting part and it works pretty good, not great – the one place we do use it every time is to capture the signature of the person we inspected (as an image, not to recognize the characters).  Finally, they all have and use a Pentax bluetooth printer to leave a paper inspection record at the site when they are done.  A pdf copy of the document that prints out is kept in the system as the official record.”

There is a pretty significant manufacturing base of convertible tablet computers. For example, Fujitsu used to have a multi-model line-up of slate tablet computers; now they just have one. But, they have a multi-model line-up of convertible tablets. It didn’t used to be that way. I think the reason is somewhat obvious. The convertible can easily be used as the user’s default notebook computer. Although you can use a slate tablet in the same manner (as your default notebook computer), it just doesn’t work out that way. For me, it was due to the smaller screen size and slower processor that I didn’t use my slate tablet as my default notebook computer.

PDA Side of the Equation

As much as tablet computers have hit a number of speed bumps, the PDA (personal digital assistant) has taken a similar path. They weren’t always popular. Remember the Apple Newton?

Not until the Palm V was introduced in 1999 did the PDA really gain mass popularity. At nearly the same time, Microsoft introduced a Windows Operating System for handhelds called Pocket PC 2000.

Since that time, PDAs have skyrocketed to the point of smartphones such as the BlackBerry, iPhone, Nokia N-Series, HTCs, Palm Treo Pre/Pro, and now the Google Nexus One.

From a handheld GIS data collector point of view, mass acceptance of handheld computers has helped pave the way for improved “industrial-strength” handhelds. Whereas there used to be a myriad of industrial handhelds based on proprietary operating systems in the 1990s used for applications such as meter reading, barcode scanning, surveying, and GIS data collection, they have become somewhat standardized on the Windows Mobile operating system and borrowed many developments from their consumer brethren.

However, the handheld GIS data collector business is still fuzzy. Do I use a dedicated industrial handheld (somewhat expensive)? Do I use a consumer PDA (cheaper but more fragile)? Do I use a smartphone (I already have one, so really cheap)?

I’ve used the first two extensively. I’ve never tried using a smartphone to run ArcPad or other GIS data collection program. I’ve known some people who have tried and the problem usually ends up being the lack of system resources to run the phone and a GIS data-collection program at the same time or Bluetooth connectivity problems when using an external GPS receiver.

With a consumer PDA (such as the IPaq), my experiences were so-so. They are small and convenient, but the ruggedness factor always worried me, and I usually had trouble reading the screen in bright sunlight. Battery life was always an issue, and working in the rain was not possible. There are ruggedized cases available for consumer PDAs, but I never purchased one because I have several PDAs and the ruggedized cases are model-specific for the most part.

With industrial PDAs, my experience has been pretty good. The only data I ever lost was when I left the handheld on the roof of my rental car and drove back to the hotel. I found the heldheld, but unfortunately, so had the tires of a half-dozen cars.

Increased competition in the industrial handheld market has brought prices down. TDS/Trimble just reduced the price of its Nomad 800B to $1,449 to compete with Swedish newcomer Handheld. Juniper Systems and Getac/MiTAC are also gaining market share. This is good news for the user community as more competition usually results in better and cheaper products.

A Quick Note on the New 24+3 GPS Constellation

Earlier this week, the US Air Force announced they will be transitioning the GPS constellation to a new configuration. The new constellation will have three new slots for satellites and will improve the quality of GPS coverage worldwide. While there is already 24/7 GPS coverage all over the world, the new configuration will result in more satellites in view at a given time as well as a reduced PDOP. PDOP is a measure of the quality of the GPS constellation being tracking by a GPS receiver at a given time and has a direct affect on GPS accuracy.

For the mapping and surveying community, this is probably the most significant announcement since Selective Availability was turned off nearly 10 years ago.

Stay tuned for a detailed article in my GPS World Survey Scene column in the next week or so.

Thanks, and see you next week.

Not much happened over the Christmas holidays in GIS but this holiday season many of you are experiencing some impact from the down economy or at least know some one who is. Add health care reform, cap and trade, the war, the growing deficit, and climate change, and things look pretty grim. Well, cheer up — things are not as bad as the media paints them.

We are luckier than most since the impact has been less severe on the GIS community. Much of that falls due to the non-cyclical nature of GIS work, and fortunately GIS is no longer a luxury but an integral part of government operations. I was surprised to see that according to the Bureau of Labor and Management, the unemployment level for college-educated workers is only slightly over 4 percent. I can only guess that it is the same or lower for GIS professionals.

We sometimes forget the blessings we have and how much better life is. The news media seem to gravitate toward pictures that are more dramatic and onerous than reality, but many times, reality is actually quite different from our first reaction. Here are some fun geographic examples that have been the subject of heated barroom discussions:

• What major U.S. city would you fly over if you flew due west from Rome, Italy? Answer: Boston.  It seems counter-intuitive because we think of Rome as being in a warm climate. It is, but its location in the Mediterranean results in a warmer climate than Boston.
• What course would you steer from Norfolk, Virginia to reach the Bahamas: south, southeast, or southwest?  Answer: south-southwest.  We think of the Bahamas as being east of Florida and they are, but few realize how far east the Virginia/North Carolina coast is compared to south Florida.
• If you were sailing from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean via the Panama Canal, what approximate course would you steer?  Answer: southeast. One thinks of the Pacific being west of the Gulf and it is, but the Isthmus of Panama forms an “S” at the canal location so the canal actually runs southeast heading to the Pacific; parts of it even run east-northeast.

My point? Things are not always as they seem. We in the GIS community have the tools to view the world scientifically as it is, not as one would guess. We have the ability to display complex data accurately and in visually compelling ways. We owe it to our citizens to be thorough from both sides and not just doom and gloom. As a senior citizen I’ve personally seen many changes for the better, not the apocalyptic vision of dystopian worlds such as 1984 or Soylent Green.

Two real-world environmental examples:

• The first Navy ship I served on had an overhaul at a Brooklyn shipyard right on the East River. In 1975 the East River was very simply an opaque brown open sewer. My sailors had impromptu contests, as they worked over the side, as to who could count the most condoms or the most t..ds floating past the ship. One day we even saw a face down body in a dark suit floating down the river. The police recovered the stiff, and the event didn’t even make the local news. Things have changed. Last year I was shocked to see the East River with enough clarity to actually see several feet into the water. It was not the same river.
• When I was a small boy living in 1950 Chicago, I saw my mother scrubbing the blackened collars of my Dad’s white shirts. “Ring around the collar” was a very significant problem due to the coal dust and soot in the air. Although before my time, I was told that it was even worse in the early 1900s. The air was so dirty that people who wore white dress shirts would have filthy cuffs by the time they arrived at work. To counter the problem they would fold back their cuffs and then unfold the cuff upon arrival at work revealing a clean cuff. I haven’t seen air that dirty in any U.S. city recently. Today the carry-over on many dress shirts is a sewn seam about ¾’ from the base of the cuff that facilitated the folding.

I know that these are only anecdotal observations, but they certainly highlight that things are better in many aspects of the environment. Now let’s consider a transportation-related unintended consequence.

Several years ago there was a bill before Congress to require mothers who travel with infants onboard aircraft to place them in car seats rather than in their lap. On first glance, it sounds like a good idea, but let’s consider the unintended consequence. A study was done to determine the impact of the proposed law. A college research team determined that the number of infants that would be saved with car-seat use would be minimal since most air crashes are catastrophic. However, requiring a mother to buy two tickets would “push a whole bunch of them out the bottom” since many couldn’t afford two seats. Putting those mothers behind the wheel of a car, a much more dangerous travel method, would result in significantly more baby deaths. So the impact of the law would be to kill more babies.

The strong capability of GIS is in data visualization of complex intended and unintended effects. GIS has shown the effects of global warming very clearly, and if we stick to faithfully analyzing and displaying the data, no one can fault our work. I do believe that we need to consider all scientific work in the arena of ideas. Some researchers  question the impact and/our ability to mitigate human effects. We also know that the implementation of draconian measures could be worse, having an extremely severe and devastating impact on the poor. It was very disappointing to hear of climate researchers fudging the data or trying to exclude conflicting research. This is too important an issue, and there is too much at stake to undermine the credibility of research on this issue. Winston Churchill once said “With integrity nothing else counts, and without integrity nothing else counts.”

So my wish for 2010 is for everyone to do good work and live by the GISP code of ethics, and for there to be more optimism.  History has shown that nature sides with the optimist. Life is good and getting better, so I choose the see the glass as half full.

2010 will be a decisive year for the tablet computer.

Let’s face it, tablet computers have had a tough time gaining traction in past years. For manufacturer’s, it’s been a relatively small niche business. I recall back in the late 90’s I was looking at what was available and there wasn’t much. There were a few smaller companies like Xplore Technologies, Walkabout Computers and some others. The big daddy of that day was Fujitsu. While several large high tech companies (eg. HP) have ventured into the tablet business, most, if not all, have exited the tablet business at some point. Fujitsu is about the only one that has hung around and still in it today. However, just earlier this week. Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer presented at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and held up the yet-to-be-introduced HP tablet.

Although tablet computers have been around for many, many years, there is a new breed of manufacturers with some very interesting tablet computers in their pipeline that will cause users to think about tablet computers again.

By tablet computer, I’m referring to the “slate” style tablet computer that uses a pen for data entry because it has no keyboard. Something like these…
            

Think about the limitations of tablet computers in the past:

1.    Size

2.    Poor screen readability in various lighting conditions

3.    Expensive

4.    Poor hand-writing recognition

5.    Poor battery life

SIZE

In my personal experience, size and weight was a major deciding factor as to whether I grabbed my tablet (yes, I own one) or a PDA to take into the field for GIS data collection. In my mind, the driving factor would be if I needed the screen size for the particular project. If I could make do with the smaller screen size of the PDA, I’d use the PDA because it was easier to carry, especially if I was using a four-wheeler or driving some other utility vehicle while mapping.

However, this may change. Tablets with smaller screen sizes (eg. 7″) are being introduced. More sophisticated software and more extensive datasets are being carried in the field. If these factors overcome the ergonomic disadvantage, tablet computer use in the field will increase.

POOR SCREEN READABILITY IN VARIOUS LIGHTING CONDITIONS

The readability of tablet screens outdoors is a major issue. In fact, at one point some manufacturer’s forced you decide, when purchasing, whether to select a screen used for “indoor”, “indoor/outdoor” or “outdoor” use. The “outdoor” screen was absolutely useless indoors or even in the outdoors in poorly lit areas.

Some years ago, I purchased a model with the indoor/outdoor screen. It worked fine indoors and I’ve used it outdoors on a number of occasions, but found that it was tough to read in direct sunlight so I found myself trying to shade it so I could read it better. I gave up trying to use an orthophoto in the background because there just wasn’t enough contrast to be able to see the moving cursor and features I was recording.

But thanks to the explosive growth in the notebook computer industry, a lot of research and development money has been spent on improving screen technology. Nevertheless, some tablet manufacturers don’t even attempt to create products with screens that are readable outdoors. It takes a special effort to create such a product.

If you ever consider purchasing a tablet computer for field work, the first test you should conduct is screen readability in the environment we you’ll be collecting data.

EXPENSIVE

Historically and even today, tablet computers are a niche business. The volume of units sold on an annual basis is less than 1% of notebook computer annual volume. But, the development and production costs are higher than a traditional notebook computer. Therefore, the pricing of units is going to be higher. For ruggedized tablet computers, pricing can reach US$5,000. The going rate for my indoor/outdoor (not ruggedized but doable with a sturdy carrying case) tablet was nearly US$3,000 when I purchased it a few years ago.

Ruggedized tablets are still going to command a high price. For example, Trimble Navigation recently introduced the Yuma tablet. It’s got a 7” screen, has a 32GB solid state hard disk and is ruggedized for outdoor use. It’s priced at US$4,000.

However, in 2010 we are going to see many low-priced tablet computers entering the market. Freescale is reportedly going to introduce a sub-US$200 tablet netbook. Mio is working on their own 7” screen tablet. And, of course, Apple has announced their tablet that is rumored to be introduced in March 2010. Just think what the iPhone has done and you can imagine what will happen if Apple hits a homerun with their tablet product.

Even if they aren’t ruggedized, it won’t matter. If the unit prices are cheap enough, companies will designed ruggedized enclosures or special cases just like they did for the consumer PDAs (eg. Ipaq).

POOR HAND-WRITING RECOGNITION

I’m not sure this will ever be perfected. Even an accuracy rate of 98% means it will misinterpret 1 out of 50 words you write. Is that good enough? Personally, I set mine up to maximize “pick-lists” and sketching while minimizing hand-writing. At the end of the day, it’s not a deal-breaker. Users will adapt to the limitation.

POOR BATTERY LIFE

Like the advancement in screen readability, battery technology has also advanced so this is less of an issue than it used to be. Ideally, the battery would last an entire day on one charge. For GIS users, however, five hours on a charge is the minimum as long as the battery can be easily swapped during lunch-time. I don’t think this is a deal-breaker.

2010 – The Year of the Tablet?

Whereas tablet computers were seen as a higher-end niche business in years past, that will change in 2010. Several high-volume manufacturers like MiTAC, GETAC, ASUS, HP and Toshiba are introducing new tablet computers. In addition to leveraging off of the explosive growth of notebook sales, tablet computer product development is also leveraging off of netbooks, convertible, and UMPC product development efforts. They all have the same basic technology requirements (readable screen in various lighting conditions, battery life, hand-writing recognition, size, low pric
e). This will translate into lower cost of development, which will mean lower prices to the consumer….possibly much lower.

Thanks and see you next week.