Trimble has announced the latest version of its eCognition software for geospatial data analysis. Trimble eCognition software is a powerful solution for the analysis and extraction of information from geospatial data collected via aerial, satellite and mobile mapping platforms, the company said.
The new version 9.0 release simplifies and reduces the time taken to classify objects in imagery data sets using the new template matching function. With eCognition 9, users can define objects graphically to streamline the template creation process. These templates are used to automatically identify objects of interest in imagery.
In addition, Remote Sensing and GIS professionals can now integrate data layers more efficiently through improved GIS tools within eCognition 9. These capabilities provide a framework for advanced analysis that allows professionals to use eCognition to resolve a larger range of geospatial queries and obtain more accurate results.
“With the fast growth of imaging and remote sensing data collection, geospatial professionals need faster and simpler methods to analyze and extract meaningful information from the data,” said Alain Samaha, business area director of Trimble’s Geospatial Software Solutions Division. “eCognition 9 takes simplification and integration to a new level while augmenting the precision and accuracy of results. This opens the door to a wider range of applications across multiple industries.”
In addition to the Suites enhancements, the Autodesk InfraWorks 360 family of offerings now includes enhanced roads and highways capabilities and new features to help civil engineers to model and visualize more realistic bridge design concepts.
“The architects, engineers, and contractors who use our products told us that they needed solutions to meet their real-world challenges, and we are responding. The 2015 Suites meet requests for greater productivity, improved collaboration, and more complete, better integrated BIM workflows,” said Amar Hanspal, senior vice president, IPG Product Group, Autodesk. “We also continue to offer more flexible ways to license our software, as well as more cloud services to improve customer collaboration and efficiency. Together with our customers, we are transforming the way buildings and infrastructure will be designed and built going forward.”
Here are the new features available in all of the 2015 Design Suites.
Productivity and design improvements including:
An updated, modern interface for Autodesk AutoCAD 2015 and AutoCAD 2015-based products: Helps building designers and civil engineers quickly open new and existing drawings with New Tab, visually access drawing content with Ribbon Galleries, and easily find tool locations with new Help Window functionality
Better integration with the cloud: New one-button access to Autodesk BIM 360 from Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2015, Autodesk Navisworks Simulate 2015, Autodesk Revit 2015, and Autodesk AutoCAD 2015 helps customers collaborate and manage their BIM project workflow and data
Enhanced point cloud capabilities include improved control over point cloud datasets and enhanced display settings in AutoCAD 2015-based products, as well as Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2015, Autodesk Navisworks Simulate 2015, Autodesk Revit 2015, Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2015, and Autodesk InfraWorks 2015, provide more realistic visualizations and walk-throughs
Building Design
Autodesk Revit 2015 software offers customer requested improvements to help make it easier for architects, and engineers to:
Apply a hand-sketched, graphic style to models, using the sketchy lines feature.
Include imagery in schedules to better convey graphical information.
Create and manage changes with improved tools to sketch and control revision cloud shapes.
Create more accurate documentation in 3D views using enhanced hidden lines capability.
New sketchy lines feature for Autodesk Revit 2015 software enables designers to apply a hand-sketched graphic style to views of a model to encourage client feedback and input when reviewing a design. Image courtesy of Autodesk.
A full rundown of additional 2015 enhancements for the Autodesk Building Design Suite can be found here.
“As we’ve grown, we’ve committed more and more to Autodesk Building Design Suite because it gives us the complete digital toolbox we need not just to complete projects, but to innovate as well. While Revit is our design workhorse, and we use Navisworks to coordinate building systems, we also use many other tools in the Suite as well as Autodesk 360 cloud services,” said Andrew Watkins, Associate Principal, Ayers Saint Gross, a top 300 global design firm according to ENR Magazine.
Civil Engineering
Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2015 software (included in various editions of the Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite 2015) includes these improvements:
Greater flexibility for designing and displaying corridor models.
More efficient creation of profile layouts.
Better production drafting to create deliverables more efficiently.
More consistency between the AutoCAD Civil 3D and AutoCAD ribbon/command set.
Simpler ways to create custom subassemblies.
Streamlined geographic location functionality includes ability to capture and embed Online Map Data (such as aerial map information) for offline viewing and plotting.
Better interoperability and data exchange functionality for DWG and DGN files.
AutoCAD Civil 3D 2015 corridor modeling enhancements provide greater flexibility when designing and displaying corridor models.
Autodesk InfraWorks 2015 (which is included in various editions of the Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite 2015 and Ultimate edition of the Autodesk Building Design Suite 2015) and Autodesk InfraWorks 360 (which offers additional cloud services that add collaboration and analysis for large-scale preliminary designs) offer new features and capabilities including:
An updated user interface for quicker access to the tool you need.
Support for additional data formats including AutoCAD 3D DWG, AutoCAD Civil 3D DWG, 3D DGN, IFC, and Sketchup (SKP).
CityGML import now supports schema location, building asset mapping, and self-intersecting geometry.
Autodesk InfraWorks 2015 and Autodesk InfraWorks 360 now offer a new, more intuitive user interface to help speed workflows.
Key updates for Roadway Design for InfraWorks 360 include style zones within road sections and fixed width parametric grading for roads with discrete control over grading, cut slope, and fill slope.
The new Bridge Design for InfraWorks 360 helps civil engineers explore preliminary bridge design options more effectively by modeling and visualizing realistic civil structures in the context of the surrounding proposed site. This new application helps simplify, accelerate, and focus the layout of girder bridge design concepts, and maintain consistent data and context.
Autodesk also released previews today for upcoming industry-specific applications for InfraWorks 360 including Drainage Design for InfraWorks 360 and cloud services including Model Builder for InfraWorks 360 and Corridor Optimization for InfraWorks 360.
Oil & GAS: Plant Design
Key customer requested enhancements to the Autodesk Plant Design Suite 2015 include:
Center of Gravity (COG) functionality to identify and edit COG for piping models, spools or components and produce COG reports.
Fixed-length pipe modeling capability helps route fixed-length piping more easily.
Bill of Materials capability to create tables and linked annotation when composing orthographic drawings.
New Center of Gravity functionality for AutoCAD Plant 3D 2015 software provides the ability to identify and edit center of gravity for piping models, spools or components.
Autodesk Building Design Suite 2015, Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite 2015, Autodesk Plant Design Suite 2015 and Autodesk InfraWorks 360 availability and related cloud services vary by country. Details and purchasing options are available at www.autodesk.com/purchaseoptions, with subscription options outlined at www.autodesk.com/subscription/overview.
Data distributors and services providers have established themselves as a key component of the Earth Observation (EO) value-chain and an important partner of the EO satellite operators in order to disseminate data to the largest number of end-users possible, according to a new report. This is particularly apparent in accessing key fast growing regional markets and being able to do business with government and private end-users locally.
According to Euroconsult’s new research report, “Earth Observation: Data Distribution,” an estimated 12-17 percent of the $1.5 billion commercial data market flows through the distributors. It is considered that all major vertical market sectors are procuring from the data distributors to varying degrees.
“While this percentage may seem low, it should be recalled that the majority of the total market is to defense end-users [65%] who prefer a more direct approach to receive imagery, such as through direct receiving stations. Business for the data distributor reflects this, with a far greater emphasis on enterprise markets,” said Philippe Campenon, deputy director, Space and Earth Observation at Euroconsult.
Revenue through data services from the distributors is first from civil governments, totaling 47 percent of distributor data business. This highlights the need to be local in accessing civil contracts, an important consideration given the growing demand globally for EO solutions. Data provision to the private sector through distribution is also disproportionality higher than the total data market, representing 37 percent of the distributors business.
The relatively small figure of 16 percent data revenues associated to defense users demonstrates the more direct approach preferred by this user community. Most operating companies with very high resolution satellites offer direct receiving stations solutions to defense end-users in order to meet their requirements of secure, continuous data supply with degrees of autonomy in satellite tasking and data acquisition, and short delivery time.
To reach out to all user sectors it is therefore considered a necessity to have a diverse approach in mechanisms for data distribution, the report said. This is reflecting in the type of distribution offering. In total, there are more than 550 active data distribution agreements signed globally with local companies. These contracts are classified in five categories within the report, addressing the rationale, contract conditions and key metrics for the following:
Data Resellers
Value-Added Resellers (VARs)
Exclusive Distributors (or Channel Partners)
Business Partners
Direct Receiving Station Partners
Interviews were conducted with 15 data distributors with a mean presence in the sector of 19 years. Companies ranged from data distribution being their primary business to organizations active in other parts of the EO value-chain. The following topics are reviewed in detail:
Motivation for setting up a data distribution business line
The distributors’ offer to the satellite operators
The relationship between satellites operators and the distributors
Data distributor customer mix
Importance of key client requirements
Technology as a market driver/inhibitor
Ranking the vertical markets driving data sales and services
March 2014 US Topo map of the Moab, Utah area, 1:24,000 scale. Orthoimage layer is turned on, contour and woodland layers turned off. Map: USGS
Newly released US Topo maps for Utah now feature a new commercial road data provider. The latest highway, road and street data from HERE has been added to the 1,476 revised US Topo quadrangles for the state.
“HERE, a Nokia business, is proud to provide fresh, robust and comprehensive map content to the State of Utah and the US Topo Maps program,” said Roy Kolstad, VP Sales Enterprise Americas, HERE. “We are excited for users to experience the benefits HERE brings with our more than 25 years of experience in cartography, drawing on more than 80,000 sources of data.”
The new maps also include Public Land Survey System (PLSS). These data are added to the growing list of states west of the Mississippi River. PLSS is a way of subdividing and describing land in the United States. All lands in the public domain are subject to subdivision by this rectangular system of surveys, which is regulated by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Other selected states will begin getting PLSS map data during the next respective revision cycle.
The new design for US Topo maps improves readability of maps for online and printed use, while retaining the look and feel of the traditional USGS topographic map. Map symbols are easy to read when the digital aerial photograph layer imagery is turned on.
Other re-design enhancements and new features:
New shaded relief layer for enhanced view of the terrain
Military installation boundaries, post offices and cemeteries
New road classification
A slight screening (transparency) has been applied to some features to enhance visibility of multiple competing layers
New PDF legend attachment
Metadata formatted to support multiple browsers
1885 historical USGS map of the Moab, Utah area, 1:250,000 scale. Map: USGS
US Topo maps are created from geographic datasets in The National Map, and deliver visible content such as high-resolution aerial photography, which was not available on older paper-based topographic maps. The new US Topo maps provide modern technical advantages that support wider and faster public distribution and on-screen geographic analysis tools for users.
The new digital topographic maps are PDF documents with geospatial extensions (GeoPDF) image software format and may be viewed using Adobe Reader, available as a no-cost download.
US Topo maps are updated every three years. The initial round of the 48 conterminous state coverage was completed in September of 2012. Hawaii and Puerto Rico maps have recently been added. More than 400 new US Topo maps for Alaska have been added to the USGS Map Locator & Downloader, but will take several years to complete the vast state.
Facebook has purchased Occulus, a virtual reality gaming startup, for $2 billion. “Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve joined forces with Facebook to create the best virtual reality platform in the world,” Occulus announced via a blog post.
“Facebook understands the potential for VR,” the blog said. “Mark [Zuckerberg] and his team share our vision for virtual reality’s potential to transform the way we learn, share, play, and communicate. Facebook is a company that believes that anything is possible with the right group of people, and we couldn’t agree more.”
Occulus demonstrated its most recent version of the Oculus Rift development kit at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, March 17-21. Occulus Rift is a virtual reality headset for 3D gaming.
The Oculus Rift DK2 prototype took home the award for Best in Show at January’s Consumer Electronics Show.
Pitney Bowes, Inc., and IBM have announced a collaboration on IBM’s codename “BlueMix” platform-as-a-service to develop new hybrid cloud location services that help businesses unearth deeper connections between their customers, their geography, and their networks to deliver more personalized services and contextually relevant experiences.
IBM’s BlueMix is a new development environment that helps clients and developers speed the adoption of hybrid clouds. The initiative combines the strength of IBM software, third-party and open technologies. BlueMix provides DevOps in the cloud — an open, integrated development experience that scales to any level. Pitney Bowes is among the first third-party solutions now available to developers and companies on the new IBM BlueMix Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).
More than 1.2 billion people around the world today use Pitney Bowes location intelligence solutions when they check in or use location-sharing features on major social media platforms. Pitney Bowes’ location intelligence suite of products offers comprehensive capabilities to provide businesses with the ability to visualize spatial data and understand relationships between specific locations. Using advanced, hyper-accurate location data, insurers can improve underwriting decisions, telecommunications providers can better analyze network coverage, and retailers can deliver more targeted promotions to consumers based on when and where they are most likely to buy.
For Pitney Bowes, the partnership provides the opportunity to expose key solutions, such as location-based services, e-commerce fulfillment, Internet postage, and parcel management, through IBM’s API Management to an extended ecosystem of innovators and developers. It also speeds the availability of new services from Pitney Bowes to vast new markets globally.
“Together, IBM and Pitney Bowes are developing a powerful lineup of cloud services around mobile application development and location intelligence,” said Steve Robinson, General Manager, IBM Cloud Platform Services. “This open-platform collaboration will inspire development that accelerates innovation and fosters growth.”
“Companies need tools and expertise to manage and integrate APIs, leverage location intelligence and customer data, and then seamlessly extend their services to reach their customers via the cloud and mobile devices,” said Roger Pilc, chief innovation officer for Pitney Bowes. “We look forward to delivering Pitney Bowes digital commerce solutions on IBM’s BlueMix.”
Topcon Positioning Group has released the MAGNET Field GIS software kit designed for efficient data collection, navigation and maintenance tasks.
“MAGNET Field GIS is field data collection software with extremely useful data sharing capabilities,” said Jason Hooten, national sales manager, GIS products. “Utilizing the cloud, MAGNET Field GIS can send and receive data via a company’s MAGNET Enterprise account, allowing professionals in the field greater productivity and less time wasted driving to and from an office to deliver collected data.
“MAGNET Field GIS is powerful and intuitive — built to easily recognize and adapt to a user’s surroundings,” said Hooten. “Whether in an urban area within a GNSS network or in a rural setting with a DGPS connection, MAGNET Field GIS provides a modern data collection solution.”
The software package also includes features such as Microsoft Bing Maps for real-time background imaging, popular GIS file-format compatibility and a customizable interface.
A judge for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) dismissed the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) attempt to punish Ralph Pirker for laundry list of infractions claimed by the FAA when he flew a Ritewing Zephyr drone around the University of Virginia Charlottesville campus to generate promotional aerial photography and video of parts of the campus. You can read the list of infractions in an article I wrote in November 2013.
NTSB Administrative Law Judge Patrick Geraghty ruled that “there was no enforceable FAA rule or FAR Regulation applicable to model aircraft or for classifying model aircraft as an UAS.”
Futhermore, Judge Geraghty ruled the following:
Neither Part 1, Section 1.1, or the 49 U.S.C. Section 40102(a)(6) definitions of “aircraft” are applicable to, or include a model aircraft within their respective definition
Model aircraft operation by the Respondent was subject only to the FAA’s requested voluntary compliance with the Safety Guidelines stated in AC 91-57”.
As Policy Notices 05-01 and 08-01 were issued and intended for internal guidance for FAA personnel, they are not a jurisdictional basis for asserting Part 91 FAR enforcement authority on model aircraft operations.
Policy Notice 07-01 does not establish a jurisdictional basis for asserting Part 91, Section 91.13(a) enforcement on Respondent’s model aircraft operation, as the Notice is either (a) as it states, a Policy Notice/Statement and hence non-binding, or (b) an invalid attempt of legislative rulemaking, which fails for non-compliance with the requirement of 5 U.S.C. Section 553, Rulemaking.
Specifically, that at the time of Respondent’s model aircraft operation, as alleged herein, there was no enforceable FAA rule or FAR Regulation applicable to model aircraft or classifying model aircraft as an UAS.
Where does the FAA go from here?
First of all, the order specifically states that the “NTSB Administrative Law Judge’s dispositional order is not a final Board decision in this matter. This order is appealable to the full five-member Board and is not of precedential value (see 49 C.F.R. § 821.43).”
As expected, within a day of the ruling, the FAA filed an appeal:
“The FAA is appealing the decision of the NTSB Administrative Law Judge to the full National Transportation Safety Board, which has the effect of staying the decision until the Board rules. The agency is concerned that this decision could impact the safe operation of the national airspace system and the safety of people and property on the ground.”
Notice the language above states that the decision is on hold until the full board rules. The problem for the FAA is that wannabe commercial UAS operators were already chomping at the bit like a pack of race horses waiting for the starting gate to open. Now that the gate has been cracked open a bit, horses are busting through it at full speed. If the FAA had an enforcement problem before, it’s just been compounded tenfold.
Stayed tuned as this tremendous geospatial technology drama continues to unfold before our eyes…
The Search for Flight MH370
If you’re one of the few people in the world who haven’t heard about missing Malaysian Flight MH370, it disappeared on March 8 with 239 souls on board, thirty minutes into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, and has not been found. It’s resulted in a massive international search.
Because the search area is so massive, satellite imagery is being used to assist in the search effort. Satellite operator DigitalGlobe, Inc., launched a crowdsourcing campaign that will allow anyone to help look for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 by combing through satellite images for clues of its whereabouts.
Anyone can begin searching the satellite images for the Boeing 777 aircraft, tagging anything that looks suspicious. Each pixel on a computer screen represents half a meter on the ocean’s surface.
The Longmont, Colorado, company said two of its commercial satellites have already collected images comprising roughly 1,988 square miles at the confluence of the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, where the Beijing-bound aircraft mysteriously went missing on Saturday. The company is continuing to update the images to reflect new information about the search area provided by the Malaysian government. Click here to visit the website and learn more about joining the effort to find MH370.
Google has been collaborating with universities, research labs, and industrial partners in nine countries, to concentrate the past 10 years of research in robotics and computer vision into a mobile phone.
Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group (ATAP) heads the project, which aims to make it possible to create a 3D model of the space around a smartphone. For instance, a user can map an area, such as a home, by walking around with the phone.
The Collector for ArcGIS app can be used offline to collect and edit maps and data regardless of network availability.
Esri has released new versions of Collector for ArcGIS and Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS. The Collector app now includes the ability to download maps to your smartphone or tablet device to collect and edit data when working offline. Operations Dashboard has added support for browsers so users can view operations on their iPad, Android tablet, or from their desktop. Both apps are available at no cost to ArcGIS Online subscribers and Portal for ArcGIS customers.
Collector for ArcGIS is a configurable field data collection app for iOS and Android devices. With the latest release, maps can be used anywhere regardless of network availability. Users can take map areas offline and work with them in remote locations where network availability is either nonexistent or unreliable. Users can download Esri basemaps as well as their own basemaps managed within their ArcGIS organization.
Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS provides a common operational picture for monitoring, tracking, and reporting events within your organization. The new version of Operations Dashboard now supports web browsers. That means you can have the same real-time view of operations on your tablet that you see on your Windows desktop.
Data sources inside Operations Dashboard have also been improved in the 10.2.2 version of the app. Users can now power operation views using dynamic map services as well as feature services, and other types of layers including real-time weather, traffic, and social media feeds.
Collector for ArcGIS can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play. Operations Dashboard is available through ArcGIS Online. Portal for ArcGIS users can access the Operations Dashboard app from the Customer Care portal.
DigitalGlobe, Inc., has launched a crowdsourcing campaign that will allow anyone to help look for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 by combing through satellite images for clues of its whereabouts.
The search drew so many participants on its first day March 17, that it crashed the company’s website, with 500,000 visitors wanting to help find the missing Boeing 777. Anyone can begin searching the satellite images, tagging anything that looks suspicious. Each pixel on a computer screen represents half a meter on the ocean’s surface.
The Longmont, Colorado, company said two of its commercial satellites have already collected images comprising roughly 1,988 square miles at the confluence of the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, where the Beijing-bound aircraft mysteriously went missing on Saturday. The company is continuing to update the images to reflect new information about the search area provided by the Malaysian government.
To help, go to DigitalGlobe’s crowdsourcing website, Tomnod.com.
Chartered Land Surveyors from the Upper Savoy region in France set up a Leica Nova MS50 MultiStation to take a 3D scan of the Mont Blanc ice cap and also a Leica Viva GS14 GNSS antenna to measure the mountain’s elevation.
Reaching the top of Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest peak, is a formidable challenge even to the most experienced alpinists — not only because of its elevation, but also because of its weather conditions. Strong winds and snowfall at the summit constantly cause altitude changes to the summit’s ice and snow cap. Such changes motivate expert surveyors to try out the latest in measurement technology, like the Chartered Land Surveyors located in the Upper Savoy region in France as well as two surveyors from Leica Geosystems France. For their seventh expedition, they decided to make the first ever 3D laser scan of the shape and volume of this legendary glacier using the Leica Nova MS50 MultiStation.
Toward the end of 2013, surveyors braved temperatures of -10⁰ C and winds of over 50 km/h,and set up a Leica Viva GS14 GNSS antenna to measure the height and also take roughly 100 point measurements of the ice cap. The Leica MS50 MultiStation scanned the ice cap at an altitude of over 4,800 meters under extreme conditions and recorded thousands of points in a matter of minutes.
The 2013 expedition proved that the current elevation of Mont Blanc is 4,810.02 meters, which is 42 centimeters less than in 2011. The actual rock summit has an altitude of 4792 meters; however, the snow covering the peak may vary the actual summit’s altitude anywhere from 15 to 20 meters. Expedition partner Géomédia calculated the volume of the ice cap covering the rocky summit at 20,213 m³ and produced a 3D animation from the scan data as well. In the future, these results will help researchers determine possible changes to the ice cap caused by global warming.
“Using the Leica Nova MS50 MultiStation to make a 3D model of the biannual Mont Blanc summit expedition was a challenging exercise that resulted in highly accurate data,” said Philippe Borrel, owner of the surveying company Cabinet Borrel and an experienced member of the expedition team. “Collecting data under such extreme conditions quickly and efficiently is extremely important. This time, we were able to reduce time expenditure needed to complete the task. The MultiStation was surprisingly easy to carry in a backpack, considering the rocky terrain, steep slopes and windy ridges we had to climb.”
