GPS World

Tag: Hexagon

  • Georeferenced Full Motion Video: Mitigating a Difficult ‘Big Data’ Problem

    Global-Hawk-W
    The unmanned drone RQ-4 Global Hawk in flight in 2007 (Image credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Bobbi Zapka)

    By Art Kalinski, GISP

    For more than a decade, the military has been struggling with cataloging and retrieving its huge libraries of full motion video (FMV). The video, captured by both manned and unmanned aircraft, rapidly reached unmanageable levels. If you have ever tried to organize vacation photos after returning home from a long trip, you know that it’s easy to lose track of where each photo was taken. Date/time stamps help, but the effort is still difficult if your vacation took you to numerous locations.

    The U.S. Air Force Beech King Air 350-ISR and 350ER-ISR MC-12W PLA (Project Liberty Aircraft). Courtesy PLA.
    The manned U.S. Air Force Beech King Air 350 and 350ER MC-12W Project Liberty Aircraft are designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).

    Now imagine trying to retrieve several critical minutes out of thousands of hours of video of barren land or repetitive-looking villages, and you get a sense of the magnitude of the problem. Without some way to catalog the video, critical details can be lost, because finding the right video clip becomes impossible in a reasonable period of time. Everyone agreed that the solution to the problem is to index the video clips by date/time and location, preferably with an exact georeferenced footprint. This is now possible with tools from Esri, Hexagon Geospatial and others.

    Several years ago, at the USGIF GEOINT Tech Days, Sarnoff (SRI) demonstrated a system that pinned aerial video to its geographic footprint and maintained that registration despite the movement of the aircraft. It was an achievement that impressed everyone in the audience. I changed jobs soon after that conference and lost track of developments in the FMV field.  At the February Esri Federal Users Conference, I was thrilled to see Jack Dangermond briefly demonstrate the same kind of FMV georeferencing capability in ArcGIS 10.2 during his opening plenary session. I learned that Esri developed the capability in 2013, and later learned that Intergraph (Hexagon Geospatial) also developed a similar capability in 2010.

    MISB: The Critical Improvement

    The key technical development that made this possible was NGA’s creation of “Motion Imagery Standards” and the Motion Imagery Standards Board (MISB). The MISB developed standards for a consistent way to capture and record telemetry data during the video capture as metadata that becomes part of the video stream. This “Open Standard” metadata includes information such as the accurate xyz location of the aircraft, attitude, tilt, camera angle, and camera characteristics. This information travels with the individual video frames and permits the GIS/viewing software to perform the georeferencing.

    This process is very similar to the oblique imagery capture system used for years by Pictometry, which at 20 FPS was technically FMV. MISB like Pictometry requires accurate GPS and IMU data to continuously capture and record the metadata. The MISB also gets involved with video compression standards such as the newer H.264 used on Blu-Ray discs and streaming video. H.264 has, for the most part, replaced MPEG2 and older MPEG4 as the video compression standard of choice. Much of the video captured by low-end small UAVs is just a simple video stream with no MISB telemetry data. However, I’m sure that lower prices, increased capability and smaller size of sensors will fix that with time. Sorry, no one has yet figured a way to “hack in” the metadata for legacy video captured without the MISB telemetry data. The one exception is those videos that contain usable telemetry data that was burned into the video and can be read with OCR. It might be possible to insert that information as MISB-compliant data.

    The ArcGIS Full Motion Video Add-In

    The ArcGIS Full Motion Video 1.2 Add-In (for ArcGIS 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3) is a free tool for ArcGIS users. It permits users to play georeferenced live or previously recorded video files in the map view.  The screen capture below shows several features of this tool and is from an online video.

    The re-sizeable smaller window displays the video as it runs. The map view shows a changing footprint (green trapezoid) of the video as the aircraft flies over the site.  The short green line shows the flight path of the aircraft.  Demonstrating the interconnectivity of the two data sets, the user in the demo video drew a light blue polygon on the map view.  Note that the Esri Intersect function re-projects and displays the same polygon correctly in the video view.

    Frames from the video can be extracted as single georeferenced images or groups of images and stored as a mosaic dataset. Playback of time-stamped video data can be synchronized with other time-enabled data and played together on the map. Features can be digitized directly on the video player and will appear on the map and vice versa.

    The extension supports playback and management of multiple simultaneous video feeds. The Add-In also allows you to record the sensor, frame center, and footprint data in a geodatabase so the Bookmark Manager can perform searches for bookmarked video scenes. For more information regarding the Esri FMV tool, visit this ArcGiS site.

    esri-FMV-W

    Hexagon Geospatial GeoMedia Motion Video Analyst Professional

    Another robust FMV system that takes advantage of MISB telemetry is GeoMedia Motion Video Analyst Professional (MVA) from Hexagon Geospatial. The Hexagon Geospatial system includes tools to catalog videos as geospatial features with attributes extracted from the metadata, and has some elegant graphic selection tools that help an operator search and retrieve needed video clips.

    In the screen capture below, you can see the map view with the geo-registered color video overlaid on the black-and-white ortho base image. As the video plays, the georeferenced video footprint continuously moves to the correct location as the tracking graphics in red show the position of the aircraft. The transparency of the video can be adjusted so an operator can compare features between the base image and the video and digitize directly in the map window.

    MVA also includes a full set of tools for placing clipmarks as geospatial features with attributes and linked to the cataloged video, extracting snapshots and videos clips, on-the-fly enhancements, stabilization, registration and more. The system also facilitates rapid report generation so as an operator searches and plays appropriate video clips, the same operator or a partner can rapidly generate reports as documents or PowerPoint presentations in minutes. Another feature of the system is a “de-hazing” tool that removes a surprising amount of haze or smoke.

    See a very good video overview of GeoMedia Motion Video Analyst Professional on this Hexagon Geospatial page. Like the Esri video, both are far better at explaining the capabilities than I can in this short column.

    hexagon fmv

    Other defense contractors are taking advantage of the MISB metadata, so check with your provider. Although these systems found their first home with military analysts, the Esri and Hexagon Geospatial reps indicated that many other users are finding the capability valuable in their work. Emergency operations centers come to mind first, but more mundane uses include rail and utility property management, the news media and video used in court proceedings. So, if you shoot lots of aerial video and need to catalog and retrieve video clips quickly, consider using MISB in your capture process.

  • Hexagon Geospatial Tech Measures Tallest Mountain in New Zealand

    Topography of Mount Cook, New Zealand's tallest peak, changed following a rock avalanche. (Photo Wikipedia Commons, C.M. Lynch)
    Topography of Mount Cook, New Zealand’s tallest peak, changed following a rock avalanche. (Photo Wikipedia Commons, C.M. Lynch)

    The National School of Surveying, University of Otago, implemented Hexagon Geospatial technologies provided by Intergraph in its quest to measure the summit of Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The University of Otago is New Zealand’s oldest university.

    The university turned to Hexagon Geospatial’s ERDAS IMAGINE and IMAGINE Photogrammetry (formerly LPS) to help measure the height of Mount Cook, also called Aoraki, following a large rock avalanche that changed the peak’s topography and height in 1991. For many years, the university has benefited from Hexagon Geospatial’s education licenses through Intergraph, and chose these technologies for the project because of  their image processing and photogrammetric capabilities, as well as integrated workflows.

    “ERDAS IMAGINE is the cornerstone of the project. It started from there,” said Pascal Sirguey, senior lecturer at National School of Surveying and project leader. “Using the photogrammetric capability, we were led to look more closely at what the model was telling us. The software gave us the right answer in the end.”

    Following the avalanche, a resurvey found the mountain to be 3,754 meters high — down from the surveying estimate of 3,764 meters in 1881. The university undertook the unique challenge of validating the new elevation. Photogrammetry and remote sensing were the only viable methods for measuring the summit as it is considered sacred by the Maori tribe of Ngāi Tahu and standing on it is prohibited.

    Using Hexagon Geospatial’s software, along with Global Navigation Satellite System receivers, the university determined the actual height of Mount Cook is 3,724 meters. For the university’s remarkable efforts, Sirguey received the top award from the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors in 2014 for teaching and education and the New Zealand Spatial Excellence Award 2014 in the Education and Professional Development category.

    The University of Otago was founded in 1869 by an ordinance of the Otago Provincial Council. Its School of Surveying offers the only academic qualification leading to professional recognition as a professional land surveyor in New Zealand, following a period of post-graduation training and examination by the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors. The courses offer a broad range of disciplines — surveying, land planning and development, survey measurement and Geographic Information Systems — that equip graduates for a professional career.

    Provided through Intergraph, Hexagon Geospatial’s education program provides the university with a complete geospatial software portfolio that offers support and tools for academic research projects and teaching.

  • Hexagon Acquires iLab for Smart Agriculture

    Hexagon AB, a global provider of design, measurement and visualization technologies, has acquired iLab Sistemas, a provider of planning and optimization solutions for the agro business sector, with special focus in the sugar and ethanol industries. iLab will, together with Arvus and Leica Agriculture, form the backbone of Hexagon’s Smart Agriculture Solution.

    Headquartered in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, iLab takes advantage of extensive know-how and various techniques to deploy highly parameterized solutions that address complex problems related to agricultural processes and production. They include linear programming, operations research, genetic algorithms, constraint-based programming, neural networks, statistics and advanced mathematics. ILab’s offerings include software optimization tools for every stage of crop growth — from planting, harvesting and logistics planning to area and asset management, scenario comparisons, and cost and budget forecasting — permitting value-added decision analysis and process automation.

    “Together with its established software suite of end-to-end planning optimization solutions for sugarcane mills, iLab’s strong market footprint in the sugarcane industry will support the further development of the Smart Agriculture solution from Hexagon Solutions,” said Hexagon President and CEO Ola Rollén. “Additionally, iLab’s offerings complement the product portfolios of Hexagon brands Leica Geosystems, Sisgraph and Devex in areas such as fleet management, precision agriculture, automation platforms and control room technologies.”

    ILab will be fully consolidated as of today. The acquisition has no significant impact on Hexagon’s earnings, Hexagon AB said.

  • Hexagon Acquires Drone-Maker Aibotix

    Hexagon Acquires Drone-Maker Aibotix

    The Aibotix X6 unmanned aerial vehicle is designed to deliver up-to-date geospatial information from hard-to-reach areas.
    The Aibotix X6 unmanned aerial vehicle is designed to deliver up-to-date geospatial information from hard-to-reach areas.

    Hexagon, a global provider of design, measurement and visualization solutions, has acquired Aibotix, a manufacturer of intelligent multicopter systems for high-efficiency aerial applications.

    Headquartered in Kassel, Germany, Aibotix is the maker of Aibot X6, a new generation of vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Intelligent, autonomous and safe, the multi-rotor platform is designed to suit the needs of customers in the industrial inspection, aerial mapping, surveying, utility and security markets, Hexagon said.

    UAV-based solutions are ideal for delivering up-to-date geospatial information and aiding in hard to reach areas – such as difficult infrastructure inspections of power lines, bridges and dams to locally focused mapping tasks of buildings or any vertical structure. They are quickly becoming a viable tool for key market segments that require application-specific solutions; where the UAV becomes an integral part of the workflow process, delivering essential pieces of information that drive actionable intelligence.

    “The Aibotix acquisition is an important addition to Hexagon’s photogrammetric and mapping technologies portfolio,” said Hexagon President and CEO Ola Rollén. “The growing number of applications for UAV-based solutions offers huge growth potential, especially in areas that require frequent and local updates such as smart city applications, dynamic GIS, and emergency response.”

  • Hexagon Enters into Agreement with Topcon for TerraStar Network

    Hexagon AB and Topcon have announced an agreement for Hexagon to purchase Veripos, which operates a network of more than 80 GNSS reference stations through its subsidiary TerraStar.

    The regulatory announcement explains that Hexagon, Topcon Europe B.V. and Topcon Corporation have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) related to Veripos, Inc. Hexagon Acquisition Ltd., an indirectly wholly owned subsidiary of Hexagon, has made an unconditional cash offer for all outstanding shares in Veripos not already owned by Hexagon Acquisition Ltd. Hexagon Acquisition Ltd. owns and has received acceptances and pre-acceptances for a total of 9,980,630 shares, representing 30.1 per cent of the outstanding shares in Veripos.

    Under the MoU, Hexagon would establish a customer agreement between Topcon and Veripos, under which Topcon will act as a reseller of the satellite broadcast correction signal offered by Veripos. This “TerraStar Agreement” between Veripos and Topcon is intended to be an agreement with TerraStar GNSS Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Veripos and the contractual partner for all resellers and customers of the on-shore services. Under the TerraStar Agreement, Topcon will be entitled to offer the signal to its customers and to make its products compatible with the signal.

    Also under the MoU, Hexagon and Topcon will establish a separate joint venture company on an equal partner basis for the purposes of pursuing joint efforts and cooperation in relation to the future development and direction of the services provided under the TerraStar Agreement.

    GNSS receiver manufacturers who are partners with TerraStar include NovAtel, Altus Positioning Systems, and Septentrio Satellite Navigation.

    The acceptance period for the unconditional cash offer expires on January 29, subject to further extensions but not beyond February 7.

  • Hexagon to Acquire Russia’s NAVGEOCOM

    Hexagon has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all outstanding shares in Russia-based Navgeocom. The company is the largest distributor for Leica Geosystems, a Hexagon brand, in the Russian Federation.

    Founded in 1997, Navgeocom has grown into one of the top-tier distributors of surveying and mapping products in Russia. The acquisition marks another step in Hexagon’s global distribution strategy, which aims to establish a strong direct presence in all key markets.

    “Strategically, the acquisition of Navgeocom is a great fit for Hexagon and yet another step toward expanding our presence in Russia and Central Asia. Furthermore, Russia is entering into a phase of significant investment in transport infrastructure,” said Hexagon AB President and CEO Ola Rollén. “In addition to Russian highways, it includes significantly increasing the size of Moscow and surrounding its perimeter with a motorway, an expressway and high-speed rail system between Moscow and St. Petersburg, and an international transport passage programme between Europe and West China. Coupled with the acquisition, these projects provide substantial growth opportunities across Hexagon and improve our ability to serve customers in the Russian Federation.”

    The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close as of end of February 2013 and will contribute to Hexagon’s earnings. Excluding intercompany revenue, the company’s turnover for 2012 amounted to approximately 10 MEUR.

  • Hexagon Acquires GTA Geoinformatik for 3D City Modelling

    Hexagon AB has acquired the business of GTA Geoinformatik GmbH, a pioneer in georeferenced virtual 3D city models and building reconstructions.

    Founded in 1995, GTA Geoinformatik is the developer of tridicon software, which enables the automatic generation of high-quality, colored 3D point clouds. The company also specialises in uniting point cloud data with aerial images including oblique and LiDAR images to create intelligent, navigable 3D city models, or smart cities.

    “The idea of creating a smart city has been an important part of Hexagon’s geospatial vision to merge maps with information and real-time updates,” said Hexagon President and CEO Ola Rollén. “Solutions such as those GTA Geoinformatik delivers are becoming increasingly important, as they build the foundation for industry-specific applications in areas of city development such as security, traffic, infrastructure management, energy and emergency response.”

    GTA Geoinformatik, based in Berlin and Neubrandenburg, Germany, is now fully consolidated. The acquisition will not have any visible impact on Hexagon’s earnings in the short-term, according to the company.

  • More than 3,000 Industry Leaders Think Forward at Hexagon 2012

    Hexagon AB commenced its second annual international conference, Hexagon 2012, yesterday, welcoming more than 3 000 attendees. The conference, held 4-7 June at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV, USA, unites user communities from Intergraph, Leica Geosystems, Z/I Imaging, Hexagon Metrology and NovAtel.

    According to the annoucement, professionals from the geospatial, surveying, power and energy, construction, aerospace and defence, public safety and security, automotive and manufacturing industries, among others, were invited to attend the four-day event. Hexagon 2012 features more than 400 educational breakout sessions, hands-on training courses and visionary keynote presentations. In addition, the international conference includes previews of groundbreaking technologies, interactive technical demonstrations, technology certifications, compelling customer best practices and limitless networking opportunities. The Hexagon 2012 TechPark, which showcases products, solutions and sponsor exhibits, also includes a number of integrated technologies highlighting Hexagon’s synergistic portfolio.

    Hexagon announced it will stream President and CEO Ola Rollén’s keynote presentation, “Hexagon: Moving Businesses, Industries and the World Forward,” live today at 08:00 PDT. Rollén will speak about Hexagon’s charge to empower customers with actionable information to proactively address tomorrow’s challenges today. He will be joined on stage by Intergraph Process, Power & Marine (PP&M) President Gerhard Sallinger, Intergraph Security, Government & Infrastructure (SG&I) President John Graham, Hexagon Metrology President Norbert Hanke and Hexagon Geosystems President Juergen Dold, who will highlight stories describing how customers have employed Hexagon technologies to positively impact the global trends and changes facing the world. The presentation can be viewed at http://thinkforwardlive.hexagonconference.com.

    Hexagon also announced that Hexagon 2012 also marks the opening of the Hexagon Online Marketplace, Hexagon’s Internet-based store. The Hexagon Online Marketplace signifies the first ever Hexagon-level, direct-to-customer venture, and provides customers with a simplified method of purchasing select Hexagon products and services. The first phase of the online store includes Leica Geosystems’ GIS Mobile hardware and software; Intergraph PP&M’s Pipe & Pressure Vessel software; and Intergraph SG&I’s ERDAS Imagine products and training and GeoMedia®products, all of which are now available for purchase at www.hexagonmarket.com.

    “Hexagon and our family of brands have always strived to work more closely with our customers to help meet their industry challenges and needs,” said Rollén. “By uniting our customers and partners from across the globe and also providing them with easy access to our advanced technologies, we continue to provide them with the tools to move our industries and the world forward.”

  • Hexagon Acquires Minority Stake in Blom ASA

    Hexagon AB announced that it will acquire 25 percent of the shares in Blom ASA for a total amount of approximately 9 MEUR.

    According to the announcement, Blom ASA has headquarters in Oslo, Norway, and is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The company is a European service provider in the geospatial arena, offering a wide selection of geographic services to the government, enterprise and consumer markets. Services include the acquisition, processing and modeling of maps and images. With subsidiaries in 13 countries, Blom’s geographic information database houses one of the largest collections of maps, aerial images, and geospatial models across Europe. Through its online services, Blom provides access to its expansive database enabling customers to update their own datasets and partners the ability to create applications using Blom’s location-based services and navigation solutions.

    “Our alliances with geospatial information providers around the globe strengthens our vision of providing “dynamic”, more accurate and in the end real-time updates of the world around us”, said Ola Rollén, president and CEO of Hexagon AB. “With this investment, Hexagon secures access to high resolution and up-to-date geospatial information which is becoming increasingly important to our entire customer base, especially within Intergraph, where access to such data provides the foundation for industry-specific software solutions”.

    Hexagon reports that it has no current plans for any further offer with respect to shares in Blom. The transaction will close as of Friday, June 1, 2012.

  • Hexagon Acquires Norwegian Software Company myVR

    Hexagon AB announced it has acquired all shares in the Norwegian company My Virtual Reality Software AS (myVR).

    According to the announcement, myVR provides software that offers a solution for 2D, 3D and 360-degree viewing for desktop and mobile. The company has developed a patented technology platform that enables high-resolution real-time viewing of interactive maps over networks with limited bandwidth. The platform makes it possible to view large-scale models on any 3D hardware-supported client platform, including mobile phones and tablets.

    myVR 3D Map

    "The acquisition of myVR will be of great value for Hexagon's current offerings. Everything is going mobile, including our customer offerings," said Ola Rollén, President and CEO, Hexagon AB. "In the past, the problem with displaying 3D data on a mobile device such as a tablet has been size limitations of data transfers, and also the ability to handle the transfer in a real-time environment. myVR has a unique solution to this problem, and Hexagon will make use of its technology in all of our divisions."

    Founded in 2003, myVR provides real-time, 3D virtual technology to the Oil & Gas, Building & Construction, Government and Web Portals industries, as well as other traditional and emerging digital markets.

    Hexagon announced that myVR will be fully consolidated as of today. The acquisition will not have any visible impact on Hexagon's earnings in the short-term.

  • Hexagon Closes on NovAtel Merger Deal

    NovAtel Inc. announced today that Hexagon Canada Acquisition Inc. has successfully taken up all of the shares tendered and not validly withdrawn pursuant to its tender offer for all the outstanding common shares of NovAtel, at an offer price of U.S. $50 in cash per share.

    The tender offer and withdrawal rights expired at 5:00 p.m., New York time, on November 27 2007. According to the depositary for the offer, a total of 8,647,240 common shares of NovAtel were tendered and not validly withdrawn prior to the expiration of the offer (including 306,716 shares delivered pursuant to the guaranteed delivery procedures). Shareholders who validly tendered prior to the expiration of the offer and whose shares were not validly withdrawn will promptly receive the offer price of US $50 in cash per share.

    As a result of the purchase of the common shares of NovAtel in the tender offer, Hexagon, through Hexagon Canada Acquisitions Inc., now owns approximately 93.3% of the outstanding common shares of NovAtel, including shares owned by Hexagon or any of its affiliates prior to the offer.

    Hexagon intends to acquire the remaining outstanding common shares of NovAtel not previously tendered by means of a compulsory acquisition in accordance with Canadian law, on the same terms as the common shares acquired under the tender offer. After the consummation of the compulsory acquisition, Hexagon intends to cause NovAtel’s common shares to cease to be traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

    Following the completion of the compulsory acquisition, NovAtel will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Hexagon but will conduct its business relations with other subsidiaries of Hexagon on an arms length basis.

    “Hexagon is excited for NovAtel to be joining the Hexagon group. We expect great things from NovAtel as it continues to operate independently and grow as a pure play supplier in the market for high precision Global Navigation Satellite System technology solutions to OEMs,” said Ola Rollen, CEO and president of Hexagon AB.