GPS World

Tag: technology

  • Trimble to acquire Building Data company for BIM, construction

    Trimble has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Building Data based in Rocklin, California. Building Data’s managed content and software solutions enable mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) contractors and engineers to produce intelligent, constructible models by including manufacturing-specific content from a proprietary database of more than 6 million 3D data components.

    The combination of Building Data’s experience in Building Information Modeling (BIM) content paired with Trimble’s leadership in providing software and hardware solutions for building construction will empower contractors and engineers to gain efficiencies throughout the building lifecycle. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2016.

    The announcement was made at Trimble Dimensions.

    MEP contractors face an enormous challenge to develop and maintain the data needed to design, estimate, build and manage projects. Trimble’s pricing and content services, combined with Building Data’s 3D solutions, will fill the need for timely, accurate and structured information to drive the key processes of design and construction. Building Data’s managed content and its SysQue software extend the capabilities of existing 3D CAD platforms to enable MEP contractors and engineers to increase productivity by developing constructible models that enable accurate pre-fabrication and field layout.

    “With the addition of Building Data, Trimble continues to reinforce its commitment to providing data and analytics solutions to the construction industry. Building Data’s strength lies in its ability to provide structured and highly accurate 3D content that will be connected to Trimble’s existing product and pricing services,” said Pat Bohle, general manager of Trimble’s MEP Division. “This wealth of content will enable MEP contractors and engineers to use their models to improve estimating, detailing, fabrication, purchasing, manufacturing and installation processes.”

    “Building Data’s solutions are dedicated to improving the productivity of the building contractor and engineer,” said Jim Reis, chief operating officer of Building Data. “We are already integrated with several of Trimble’s industry-leading software solutions including their fabrication software, field layout solutions and pricing services. We are excited to provide an even greater integrated office workflow for the building contractor and engineer by joining with Trimble.”

    The Building Data business will be reported as part of the Engineering and Construction Segment. Financial terms were not disclosed.

  • NGA contracts with Planet for small satellite imagery

    The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has signed a $20 million introductory contract with Planet that will provide small satellite collection and coverage of most of the Earth’s landmass.

    The agreement is a step toward harnessing the potential, capabilities and services of the small sat and commercial imagery environment.

    The NGA will have access to a global imagery refresh every 15 days of most of Earth’s landmass through the new contract. Planet is a commercial imagery provider operating the largest constellation of Earth-imaging satellites.Its feed, known as the Planet Feed, will be used across the National System for Geospatial Intelligence (NSG) and select members of the civil federal community. The NSG is the operating framework supported by producers, consumers or influencers of geospatial intelligence, or GEOINT.

    “Improving our profession means further committing to the use of innovative capabilities being developed and deployed by commercial data providers and analytic companies for mission accomplishment,” said NGA Director Robert Cardillo at the May 2016 GEOINT Symposium in Washington, D.C. “Our commercial space partners will provide meaningful, higher revisit capabilities this year and we look forward to turning their exciting potential into our mission reality.”

    The introductory contract includes a seven-month period of performance, beginning Sept. 15 and valued at $20 million.

    The Planet Feed includes multispectral imagery from constellations at 3-5 meter and 6.7 meter resolutions. The imagery products will include unrectified and orthorectified images and orthomosaic single-pass tiles. The global scope of coverage and high temporal frequency of collection from Planet provides NGA with new data sources to support the agency’s many missions including foundation GEOINT, humanitarian assistance, disaster response and intelligence.

    “Planet’s mission to provide timely, global imagery to empower informed, deliberate and meaningful stewardship of the planet is directly in line with our mission,” said John Charles, NGA commercial imagery lead. “We’re no longer simply admiring the potential of small satellites and their persistent capabilities, we’re harnessing that potential.”

    Autumn in New Hampshire on Oct. 17. (Photo: Planet)
    Autumn in New Hampshire on Oct. 17. (Photo: Planet)

    Planet designs, builds, and operates a constellation of Earth imaging nano-satellites. The global scope of coverage and high temporal frequency of collection from Planet will provide NGA with new data sources to use for geospatial intelligence analysis.

    Commercial GEOINT Activity. Earlier this year, NGA, together with the National Reconnaissance Office, also launched a new office to synchronize activities for collection and analytic capabilities that can benefit both agencies.

    Commercial GEOINT Activity (CGA) allows both agencies to assess current capabilities and develop strategies to ensure the timely and successful integration of commercial innovations that will benefit NGA and NRO.

    This activity serves as a voice for NGA and NRO to the commercial GEOINT enterprise. The CGA conducts joint assessments, recommends investment decisions, and engages user communities. It advises NGA and NRO on synchronizing joint acquisition activities for vendors who can provide both collection and analytic capabilities to benefit the agencies. The CGA also develops strategies to access, acquire and integrate commercial GEOINT capabilities.

    The CGA began operations on Sept. 30.

  • Near-infrared insights: Phase One Industrial

    CIR imagery can determine the health of vegetation — useful for identifying plant species, estimating biomass and assessing soil moisture and water clarity. This image near Frankfurt, Germany, shows both agricultural and urban areas.(Image: GGS and Phase One)
    CIR imagery can determine the health of vegetation — useful for identifying plant species, estimating biomass and assessing soil moisture and water clarity. This image near Frankfurt, Germany, shows both agricultural and urban areas.(Image: GGS and Phase One)

    Adding a fourth band of near infrared (NIR) image data to three-band color (RGB) image data yields multispectral information useful in vegetation studies, such as crop metrics for agriculture, vegetation health and environmental contamination, and  even city observations for monitoring green space.

    A camera unit by Phase One Industrial, dubbed the 4-Band Solution, incorporates a batch-processing tool designed to automate and simplify the four-band aerial-image generation process. It is composed of two synchronized Phase One metric aerial cameras mounted side by side.

    Images are captured in NIR and RGB bands simultaneously, and processed automatically to generate distortion-free images and perform fine co-registration of the pixels from NIR to the RGB images — including processing different image sizes — with seven different output options, including multispectral color-infrared (CIR) images.

    Synchronized Phase One metric aerial cameras.
    Synchronized Phase One metric aerial cameras.

    Moving up into space, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) onboard NASA’s Terra satellite also captures infrared images.

    In the false-color image below, vegetation appears red, snow and dry salt lakes are white, and exposed rocks are brown, gray, yellow and blue. Rock colors mainly reflect the presence of iron minerals and variations in albedo (solar energy reflected off the surface).

    Soil Composition: Near-infrared data can help identify types of rock and soil. This image of the Saline Valley area in California was acquired by the ASTER. (Image: NASA, GSFC, MITI, ERSDAC, JAROS, and the U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.)
    Soil Composition: Near-infrared data can help identify types of rock and soil. This image of the Saline Valley area in California was acquired by the ASTER. (Image: NASA, GSFC, MITI, ERSDAC, JAROS, and the U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.)

  • Airbus selects Google Cloud for One Atlas basemap

    Airbus Defence and Space has launched One Atlas, a new basemap streaming service delivering access to its satellite imagery over the world, fully refreshed within a 12-month period. It is powered by Google Cloud Platform.

    This service is a major leap forward for enabling access to satellite imagery for customers by leveraging the power of Google Cloud Platform and Airbus Defence and Space technologies, Airbus Defence said.

    A new approach in data storage, hosting and dissemination has been implemented using Google Cloud Platform to ingest the several hundred Terabytes of data annually required by One Atlas. This will bring value to clients for a wide range of applications such as infrastructure preparatory studies, land management, agricultural lands and crop-species mapping or even tree cover change detection in regions prone to deforestation.

    “Our team at Google Cloud is dedicated to helping businesses find success with public cloud and innovative technologies, such as cloud machine learning. We’re excited to collaborate with Airbus Defence and Space to create new products and transform existing business models through the power of Google Cloud Platform,” said Carl Schachter, vice president of Google Cloud Platform.

    Image from TerraSAR-X, a radar Earth observation satellite. (IMAGE: Airbus Defense and Space)
    Image from TerraSAR-X, a radar Earth observation satellite, of Barra da Tujica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (IMAGE: Airbus Defense and Space)

    Google Cloud Platform was selected from seven public cloud providers because of its high-end technology, security resilience and strategic fit with Airbus Defence and Space’s business and development roadmap.

    “All satellite data collected each day are automatically processed and made readily-accessible in a global imagery library that is stored in Google Cloud Platform,” said Bernhard Brenner, head of the Intelligence Business Cluster at Airbus Defense and Space. “Google Cloud Platform’s global scale, low latency and infrastructure capacities in Europe give us the required performance, flexibility and scalability for current and future data volumes, ensuring a high level of service for our customers.”

    Additional investigations into the use of Google Cloud Platform and other Google tools are ongoing at Airbus Defence and Space, such as the integration of other datasets like TerraSAR-X radar data and WorldDEM into One Atlas, or the development of analytics services such as change detection and automatic object extraction. Very promising results have already been obtained from using Tensor Flow, an open source library for machine learning, and Cloud Machine Learning for automatic cloud detection.

  • LandWorks upgrades Web AutoMapper service with USLandGrid

    LandWorks Inc., a developer of innovative land management solutions, has improved its Web AutoMapper online service that translates land legal descriptions into GIS-ready map polygons.

    The updated Web AutoMapper features a new interface that is easier to use, including a job detail webpage that lets users review and edit polygons before purchase. Clients can now have their property polygons mapped against USLandGrid’s national land base, with the option of buying land grid townships containing the mapped property.

    “These changes make the Web AutoMapper even easier and more cost effective to use,” said LandWorks President Jerry Bramwell. “Anyone with a need to create land maps can do so in just a few minutes at minimal cost.”

    For about 20 percent of the cost of manual mapping, Web AutoMapper has simplified land records mapping in the oil and gas, renewable energy, mining, banking, utility, pipeline, state/local government, telecommunications, transportation, water and real estate sectors. The cost to map a legal parcel description with Web AutoMapper is $2 per polygon with the USLandGrid offered at $7 per PLSS Township.

    “The USLandGrid data provides the tie between a legal description and the geography of that parcel of land,” said USLandGrid Vice President of Sales Anthony Ford. “Producing polygons this way allows you to get your land positions on a map for critical analysis using the GIS.”

    “LandWorks selected USLandGrid for inclusion in Web AutoMapper because it is the best basemap available for any industry or profession to use in mapping property legal descriptions,” said Bramwell. “An important benefit of the USLandGrid is that its data layers are continuously updated as more accurate survey data becomes available.”

    landworks_webautomapper-o

    LandWorks first introduced Web AutoMapper in 2013 as an inexpensive, fast and easy method of processing many types of standard property descriptions and converting them into digital map polygons. Legal descriptions that would take days or weeks to map manually can be processed in minutes with this online software-as-a-service application.

    A customer simply logs onto Web AutoMapper and creates an account. The user then submits an Excel spreadsheet containing one or hundreds of legal descriptions in Jeffersonian Township/Range or Texas Survey/Abstract formats. Within seconds, Web AutoMapper provides an onscreen report detailing which polygons can be generated, which cannot, and shows an overview of the mapped polygons aligned to the USLandGrid.

    If the customer decides to proceed, a credit card is provided. For customers who don’t already own the Grid, they have the option of buying it by the township along with their mapped polygons.

    Web AutoMapper generates a zip file of the purchased polygons and USLandGrid townships either in Esri shapefile or file geodatabase format in NAD 83 or 27 for direct download into Esri ArcGIS software as well as other popular mapping systems, such as IHS Petra, IHS Kingdom and LMKR GeoGraphix.

    As a cloud-based application, Web AutoMapper brings the full power of the standalone LandWorks AutoMapper software to every level of digital map user via the Internet. Introduced in 2002, the onsite AutoMapper package is purchased by an organization and sits behind their firewall as a production-grade GIS mapping tool. The software is used extensively by organizations that own or lease many land rights and must keep their property records up to date, such as local governments, energy companies and natural resource management entities.

  • LizardTech’s latest GeoExpress includes Geiger-Mode support

    lizardtech_gx953_sthelens_rgb-o

    LizardTech, the creator of MrSID and provider of software solutions for managing and distributing geospatial content, has released GeoExpress 9.5.3. The company’s flagship image asset handling product to compress, manage, distribute, integrate and deploy geospatial images and lidar point clouds as high-quality MrSID files now has expanded format support and improved capabilities.

    What’s new:

    • BPF Support – GeoExpress now supports Binary Point Files often used in Geiger-Mode lidar data.
    • NAD83(2011) Support – Reprojection tools now support EPSG CRS and Coordinate Transformations in support of NOAA’s NA2011 Project.
    • Better Color Balancing – Now apply correction to each band in the image.
    • Custom Watermarks – No longer be restricted by a size limitation for custom watermark files.
    • Simpler Licensing – Import a license file for single workstation licensing or add License Server Utility to add floating licenses with ease.

    A fully functional free 30-day trial of GeoExpress 9.5.3 is available.

     

  • SimActive offers subscription UAV software

    SimActive Inc., a developer of photogrammetry software, has announced a new subscription-based offering for Correlator3D UAV. The rental option allows users with a dynamic workload to access a high-end product at minimal cost.

    “Correlator3D UAV was developed for leading mapping firms, military and government organizations, with a constant emphasis on ease of use,” said Philippe Simard, president of SimActive. “The subscription model now makes the only professional UAV processing tool available for all.”

    To download a free trial and view different pricing options, visit www.simactive.com.

    To see the latest version of Correlator3D, sign up for SimActive’s next webinar on Tuesday, Oct. 18, at 2 p.m. Eastern Time.

  • US DOT releases National Transit Map database

    natl-transit-map-o

    The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) has released National Transit Map data, a geospatial database containing the information from 270 transit agencies that provides open, machine-readable data about their stops, routes and schedules.

    The national, openly available map of fixed-guideway and fixed-route transit service in America will allow the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to demonstrate the importance and role of transit in American society and to identify and address gaps in access to public transportation.

    It will also support research, planning and analysis on the benefits of transit, such as the economic impacts of transit on a community’s economic development, or on reducing poverty in low-income neighborhoods.

    Figure 1. National Transit Map — 198 Participating Agencies.
    Figure 1. National Transit Map — 198 Participating Agencies.

    The national Transit Map can be used to support DOT’s Ladders of Opportunity initiative to promote the use of existing transportation networks to connect residents to jobs, education, health, government and other essential services.

    The initial National Transit Map consists of General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data feeds registered with BTS in response to a March 2016 request for the data from U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. Data from 270 transit agencies provided information on more than 398,000 stops and stations and almost 10,000 routes.

    This first version of the National Transit Map contains data for 84 percent of the top 25 urban transit agencies with fixed route service, 74 percent of the top 50 agencies, and approximately one-third of all urban transit agencies with fixed route service.

    DOT is working to bring additional transit agencies on board for the second version of the map, scheduled to be released in late 2016. See Figure 1 for the locations of the transit agencies that are participating.

    Figure 2. New York City Stops, Routes and Schedules on National Transit Map.
    Figure 2. New York City Stops, Routes and Schedules on National Transit Map.

    BTS has worked jointly with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the DOT Office of the Chief Information Officer to develop and release the inaugural map.

    The National Transit Map includes the National Transit Layer — national data feeds that provide open, machine readable spatial and tabular data about the nation’s transit systems stops, routes and schedules. It also has a National Participation Map that shows which agencies have volunteered to take part in the National Transit Map. In addition, Interactive Mapping Apps that provide tools such as calculators for distances from transit stops, trip frequency and time of day coverage will be released shortly.

    Figure 2 shows a sample of the New York City routes and stops data contained in the National Transit Layer. It highlights schedule and stop information for a specific bus trip that is available from the data.

    The National Transit Map will be a National Geospatial Data Asset (NGDA) within the National Transportation Atlas Database (link is external) (NTAD), a set of nationwide geographic databases of transportation facilities, networks and associated infrastructure. It will be a substantial update to the previous transit-focused map, which was released in 2004 and only included the location of fixed-guideway transit such as rail systems. The new map includes fixed route systems such as bus.

  • gvSIG 2.3 called ‘qualitative leap’ for functionality

    gvSIG 2.3, the new gvSIG version, is now available to download.

    According to the gvSIG association, this version has been a qualitative leap — on a functional level as well as an architecture one — because of all the improvements and features.

    Downloads are available from the project website, and there are two distribitions: installable and portable.

    Features of this version include distributions for Mac and Windows 64-bit; PRJ file support for projections; access to Google Maps, Bing Maps or Street View; and lidar data support.

    If users have questions or experience any errors, they can be sent to the user mailing list. Feedback is important to continue improving gvSIG, the association said.

  • Esri launches Story Map Journal app contest for students

    esri-global-content-challengeEsri launched its new Global Content Challenge, where qualified students use the Esri Story Map Journal app to explore a variety of scientific themes. The contest is open from now until 5:00 p.m. PST on Nov. 11.

    With access to Esri content, students will tell their own compelling scientific stories using the Esri Story Map Journal app. Entrants will use personal geographic analyses, visualizations, predictive models and more, according to Esei.

    “Esri views science as helping us to understand not only how the earth works but also how the earth should look,” says Dawn Wright, Esri chief scientist, in a news release. “Science is the study of how we should look at the earth. GIS places scientific data in a visual context.”

    Esri says judges will select the best map journals to be awarded prizes, and the company will share the winning map journals on its Collaborative Resource portal, as well as feature them at Esri’s Federal GIS and Education GIS Conferences and Esri Young Professionals Network events.

    Esri’s Global Content Challenge is open to undergraduate or graduate students at colleges or universities and to high school students enrolled in an advanced-placement human geography or environmental science course. Esri’s land, ocean and population categories of premium content libraries will be made available to entrants.

    Three winners will be awarded their choice of a cash prize or Esri software in each category. The first-place winner will receive $10,000 or software of equivalent value. Second- and third-place prizes are $5,000 and $2,000, respectively, or software of equal value. The competition is open from Aug. 29 until 5:00 p.m. PST on Nov. 11.

  • Phase One’s new aerial camera features innovative shutter design

    phaseone-ixu-rs1000-cameraphaseone-ixu-rs1000-camera-2Phase One Industrial has introduced the iXU-RS aerial camera series, featuring a breakthrough central lens shutter design, according to the company. The new shutter technology is based on an innovative direct-drive concept with electronic charging that enhances exposure speed to as fast as 1/2500s, while guaranteeing half a million exposures, an unprecedented shutter life span.

    The series’ flagship 100MP iXU-RS1000 camera system, with the advanced lens shutter, an exceptional capture rate of 0.6 seconds per frame and its CMOS sensor with superior light sensitivity of 50-6400 ISO, is uniquely designed to expand the efficiency of aerial imaging operations, including under deteriorating weather conditions or on days that were previously not conducive to image capture. This allows for faster flights and larger surface coverage.

    For a small-bodied medium format camera, the iXU-RS1000 offers a large-format-quality experience thanks to its sensor technology and high-performance optics, which can deliver 11,608 pixels cross-track coverage. Users can gain more image coverage during a flight, while maintaining the same ground sample distance (GSD), or a lower GSD, while flying at the same height. Its small form factor supports multiple uses — as a standalone camera for photogrammetric work or as part of an array (to cover a larger swath) or as part of an oblique camera system.

    Other iXU-RS series cameras include the 80MP iXU-RS180, and 60MP iXU-RS160 and 160 Achromatic systems. All iXU-RS series cameras feature accurate metric calibration, scalability to form multi-camera arrays, and easy integration with popular flight management systems and GPS/IMU receivers. There are seven available lens options, including: 32mm, 40mm, 50mm, 70mm, 90mm, 110mm and 150mm. Lenses have been designed and built for aerial photography by Rodenstock and Schneider Kreuznach, and factory calibrated for infinity focus.

    Easily integrated into existing or new set-ups, the cameras offer maximum connectivity with diverse systems and help operators execute and manage missions, such as: surveying, mapping, critical infrastructure inspection and many other applications with greater reliability, cost effectiveness and operational efficiency. The iXU-RS1000 is also suited to four band-imaging applications.

  • New DT Research tablets aimed at field professionals

    DT Research has released the DT395CR and DT395GS rugged tablets. While designed for field professionals, the tablets cost less than consumer-grade tablets over the lifetime of the product, DT Research said.

    The DT395GS rugged tablet by DT Research.
    The DT395GS rugged tablet by DT Research.

    Both DT395 tablets are highly durable to withstand extreme environments, designed with fully integrated options to eliminate easily broken attachments in mission-critical scenarios, and include security, privacy and productivity settings.

    The DT395GS tablet is designed for field applications with a high-accuracy GNSS module that is compatible with existing GIS software for mapping applications and brings together the advanced workflow for GIS data capture, accurate positioning and data transmission. The u-blox M8 GNSS module is capable of concurrent reception of GPS and GLONASS for up to 2-meter accuracy.

    “Many businesses have adopted mobile tablets with the goal of increasing productivity by leveraging the versatile tablet form-factor,” said Daw Tsai, president of DT Research. “But companies within construction, field service, logistics, manufacturing and warehousing have found that consumer-grade tablets are too fragile for their environment — requiring costly repairs and replacements that introduce expensive downtime. Our new DT395 rugged tablets give vertical industries exactly what they need with high reliability and lower TCO (total cost of ownership) over the lifetime of the product.”

    According to a VDC Research study, the average annual TCO of a ruggedized tablet is 22 percent lower than the average annual TCO of a non-rugged tablet. The study found average failure rates for non-rugged tablets is 15.2 percent compared to 6.9 percent for rugged tablets. Lost productivity, as a result of mobile device failure, was a leading contributor to higher TCO for non-rugged tablets. Mobile workers lost an average of 52-80 minutes of productivity when their mobile device failed. (Source: VDC Research, “Total Cost of Ownership Models for Mobile Computing and Wireless Platforms,” Third Edition.)

    Unlike consumer-grade tablets, the DT395CR and DT395GS ruggedized tablets are designed to be used in a variety of indoor and outdoor environments with full HD anti-reflection outdoor viewable displays. The tablets are IP65 and MIL-STD-810G rated to withstand 4-foot drops and extreme temperatures (-4° F to 140° F), and resist water, dust and humidity.

    “We tried iPads, but they were not suited for our environment,” said Marty Phillips, director of engineering at Murray Equipment, Inc. “Our customers do millions of dollars of fertilizer loading within an eight-week window in a broad range of weather conditions. If a remote control tablet is down for even an hour, it’s a significant revenue loss. We have used DT Research rugged tablets in our automated liquid-handling facilities across the U.S. for more than three years with no downtime or repair/replacement costs. The reliability of DT Research’s rugged tablets is unmatched.”

    Both the DT395CR and DT395GS have an 8.9-inch display with 1920 x 1200 resolution and capacitive touch, and weigh 2.87 pounds. The tablets run on an Intel Atom Quad Core CPU with 4GB RAM running Microsoft Windows 10 IoT Enterprise OS.

    Security, privacy and productivity settings

    “Security, privacy and productivity are a growing concern in many organizations,” Helen Fanucci, GM of Americas Device IoT Experience, Microsoft. “We are pleased to see DT Research utilize the Windows 10 IoT Enterprise-grade security to support mission-critical rugged tablets for customers and deliver a safer device experience, which enhances productivity for a variety of mobile scenarios in manufacturing, field service, logistics and other industries.”

    The DT395 tablets leverage advanced Windows 10 IoT Enterprise OS security including Device Guard, combining hardware and software security to lock down a device so that it can only run trusted applications. The DT395 also includes lock-down features to protect against malicious users while providing a custom-defined user experience.

    Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and RFID can pose a security issue when using consumer-grade tablets within a business environment. DT Research DT395 rugged tablets can be purpose-built with a camera privacy mode and

    preconfigured with Bluetooth, RFID and Wi-Fi disable functions. The DT395 rugged tablets can also eliminate access to internet or social media applications to address productivity challenges.

    Customizable options

    DT Research offers customizable options for the DT395CR and DT395GS including an optimized OS and BIOS. Customers can choose to have the options below fully-integrated.

    • 3G WWAN or 4G LTE
    • 2D Barcode Scanner
    • Class 1 Bluetooth (1000 feet)
    • Camera (5 Megapixel back camera)
    • GNSS Module (u-blox M8)
    • HF/RFID 13.56MHz reader
    • HDMI-in and Ethernet port
    • Six-pin push/pull connector for EIA/RS-232/485/422, USB port and Ethernet port