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UAS SPECIAL
Archeology meets UAS Technology
Cloud-control for Drones
Surveying a Mountain Highway with UAS
October/November 2015 – volume 18
7
www.geoinformatics.com
Magazine for Surveying, Mapping & GIS Professionals
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Editorial
The Perfect UAS
As you can see from the cover of this issue, this edition is dedicated to UAS. It was tempting to use the word
“drone” instead of UAS, as everyone knows what a drone is, but as UAS (or UAV for that matter) is the term which
is still the most frequently used by professionals, we´ll stick to that. This issue features a number of UAS project
stories, from vendors such as Trimble and Aeryon. UAS data processing in the cloud is the core business of
Dronedeploy from San Francisco, who were present at both the Esri UC and Intergeo in Stuttgart, held last
September.
It came as no surprise that UAS would form a major part of the Intergeo event. What started with a special flight zone for UAS at last year´s event, has now grown into a major part of Intergeo, namely
the “interaerial solutions platform”. This is a cross-industry platform for all topics related to
unmanned aircraft systems, combining a joint exhibition area, accompanying forum and dedicated outdoor flight zone. Of course, UAS are perfect exhibition materials (more so than software at
least) and a special area where they can be seen in action is of great interest. Once they become
more commonplace and lose their novelty value, I guess people will move on to the next new development – a product can only be hip for a certain amount of time. Timing is everything and Intergeo
rightly decided that this was the best moment to focus heavily on UAS, as well as next year’s event
when the market will most probably have become more professional.
As was to be expected, there were also critical observations from event visitors. Competition may be
good for consumers, but maybe there’s a UAS oversupply right now? With so many different
systems to choose from, comparing them isn´t always easy. A short success story may
clarify a few things. Chinese drone maker DJI is said to be dominating the market now
(the company was valued at 8 billion dollars last May). What makes their products so
popular? From a buyer´s perspective, they’re an attractive option: they´re low-cost,
easy to use and offer capabilities that competitors may not have. They were also the
first to manufacture a truly integrated multi-rotor copter and camera, which gave them
an advantage over competitors. They´re also known for high-quality products, making
them the “Apple of the drone world”. Unfortunately the reality of “easy-to-use” often
became synonymous with ‘irresponsible use’ from drone buyers, leading to accidents.
While these systems are popular with consumers, DJI’s latest product releases (displayed at
InterDrone in Las Vegas recently) are aimed at more professional users and come with professional-grade cameras, resulting in a higher price-tag. They’re not for everyone - not everyone is interested in producing 3D maps or thermal imaging-, but professionalization might just be what the market needs.
Enjoy your reading,
Eric van Rees
GeoInformatics is the leading publication for Geospatial Professionals worldwide. Published in both hardcopy and digital, GeoInformatics provides coverage, analysis and commentary with respect to the international surveying,
mapping and GIS industry. GeoInformatics is published 8 times a year.
Publishing Company:
CMedia BV
Editor-in-chief:
Eric van Rees
[email protected]
Copy Editor:
Elaine Eisma
Editor:
Remco Takken
[email protected]
Photography: www.bestpictures.nl
Contributing Writers:
Matteo Luccio, Matthew Wren, Andrea Sangster, Linda Duffy, Huibert-Jan
Lekkerkerk, Faith Clark, Aidan Mercer.
Graphic Design:
Sander van der Kolk
[email protected]
Columnist:
Matt Sheehan
ISSN 13870858
Advertising:
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[email protected]
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Subscriptions:
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reproduced without written permission.
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E-mail: [email protected]
GeoInformatics has a collaboration with the
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Content
On the cover:
Digital Terrain Map from Western Heritage.
See article on page
18
Articles
4
6
3D Laser Data for Life
14
Revealing a Buried Historic Fort
18
Maximum Flexibility
20
Addicted to Accuracy
22
Creating Aerial Drone Maps Fast
24
Technology Trends
26
Virtual Reality
28
Creating an Authoritative NSDI
32
Book review
Essential Earth Imaging for GIS
30
Column
Is new GIS walking before it runs?
41
Events
Intergeo 2015
34
SkyTech 2016
37
Interview
Imagery as the Foundation of GIS
10
Newsletters
CLGE
38
Calendar / Advertisers Index
42
October/November 2015
6
Article
On a mountain highway project in the Republic of
Macedonia, a Greek company is saving time and
money by using an unmanned aerial system (UAS)
to collect aerial imagery and produce high-value
deliverables.
14
Article
The latest intelligence reports on the laser
scanning industry suggest continued levels of
growth over the coming years supported by
ever-advancing technology alongside increased
adoption and application. LFM Software have
been providing open and powerful laser scanning software solutions to the industry for the
past seventeen years and have a unique vision
for the future to support this growth.
26
Article
Don Murray, Co-CEO of Safe Software, discusses
trending technology areas that are important for
the company and gives a sneak-preview of the
upcoming release of FME 2016.
34
37
SkyTech is back for 2016, returning to London on
the 27th & 28th January. Now in its second edition
SkyTech is more than doubling in size, featuring
70 exhibitors, 50 speakers and over 3000
attendees.
Event
Event
The 21st Intergeo was held this year in September.
This three-day geospatial event drew 16,500
visitors and featured 545 international exhibitors
from 30 nations. A number of product releases from
major exhibitors are covered in this article.
Getting Accurate Results in a Rough Area
Article
By Matteo Luccio
On a mountain highway project in the Republic of Macedonia, a Greek company is saving
time and money by using an unmanned aerial system (UAS) to collect aerial imagery and
produce high-value deliverables.
6
Mrs. Mato Basa, using a Trimble Tablet
Rugged PC as controller for the UAS.
Trimble UX5
I
n the steep canyons of the Republic of Macedonia—a landlocked Balkan nation of mountains, lakes and ancient towns—
AKTOR ADT, a large international construction company based
in Athens, Greece, is building a highway for the national government. It will run 28.2 km (17.5 mi) from the village of Demir
Kapija to Smokvica, traversing a natural gorge and crossing the
Vardar River. The highway will help complete Corridor X, the most
important north-south route through the country, which provides a
connection to the region’s modern, multi-national transport network.
Due to the area’s very challenging geomorphology—including steep
slopes, ravines, rivers, forests and protected areas—the survey project was designed and is being undertaken with great regard for the
environmental conditions and protection of the local flora and fauna.
The effort, which began in March 2013 and is projected to continue
through the end of 2016, requires construction of millions of cubic
meters of earthworks as well as heavy structures. The project includes
two twin tunnels, six bridges (four of which are balanced cantilever
bridges), more than 100 culverts, five overpasses, seven underpasses, two interchanges, high embankments and deep cuts. As a result,
the work requires regular monitoring of the amount of material removed, landslides after heavy rain falls and other such variables, as well
as progress reporting to government ministries.
To conduct the survey, AKTOR ADT has contracted with AVIATOP pc,
a company it has collaborated with for many years. AVIATOP
deploys various unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to provide aerial
mapping and surveying services for corridor mapping and monitoring the progress of construction projects. For this project, the firm is
using a Trimble UX5 UAS to fly over the project corridor and collect
data every two months for the entire project timeline. Equipped with
a high-resolution camera, the UX5 captures images needed to measure the slope edges of cuts and fills and the surface of the roadway.
George Papastamos, a surveying engineer and AVIATOP’s founder
and CEO, is the lead on the project.
The Challenges
The highway’s path snakes through deep gorges, reaching an elevation of about 500 m (1,600 ft) above sea level with a six percent
grade and crossing bridges up to 90 m (300 ft) in height. Following
a river, the gorges’ corridors produce winds with speeds greater than
90 km/hr (60 mph). These conditions make aerial surveying very
challenging. “It is a quite large and demanding project,” said
AKTOR ADT Civil Engineer Konstantinos Simou. “Our quantity surveys and 3D geometry need to be accurate within a few centimeters.
The project’s shape is constantly changing and we are always
looking for the most updated information. Anyone who tried to achie-
7
The project includes two twin tunnels, six bridges (four of which are balanced cantilever bridges), more than 100 culverts, five overpasses, seven underpasses, two interchanges, high embankments and deep cuts.
ve this with conventional methods [e.g. land surveying] would realize
that monitoring a project of this scale is expensive. However, using
UAS we manage to have a full view of the activities and the progress
in near real-time.”
According to Papastamos, the most challenging part of the project is
the very rough surface and mountainous area through which the corridor passes. “This is very dangerous even for the aircraft itself,” he
said. “The big differences in ground elevation can cause turbulence
anytime, and the narrow passages make the landing procedure
extremely difficult. Additionally, the limited line-of-sight minimizes the
range of the radio link (loss of radio communications can initiate the
fail-safe procedure, which automatically directs the aircraft to return
immediately to its designated landing site). Finally, there’s the challenge of keeping the image resolution relatively homogeneous while
being productive.”
In spite of the challenges, AVIATOP has been able to conduct the
UAS aerial survey by closely monitoring wind conditions and carefully choosing takeoff and landing zones—thanks to the UX5’s remarkable performance.
The First Five Flights
The corridor’s edges are up to 400 m (1,300 ft) higher than its center
and some of the cut slopes are more than 100 m (330 ft) high. In
order to clear the tops of the hills along the project’s path,
Papastamos flies the UAS just above the edges, which yields a
ground sample distance (GSD) of around 12.8 cm (5 in).
Due to the flight’s elevation and the corridor’s length, each survey
requires at least six flights, and Papastamos needs to find a suitable
landing area for each one. Therefore, each aerial survey takes two to
three days, with each flight lasting 30 to 40 minutes. So far, AVIATOP has conducted five flights and captured roughly 2,050 images.
The very rough terrain also requires densely-spaced ground control
points (GCPs). Papastamos sets them every 250 m (820 ft) on each
side of the flight area, for a total of about 150 points. He sets up his
GCPs using Trimble R6 and R8 GNSS receivers and re-uses them,
except in those very few cases when the benchmarks are destroyed
by the progress of the project. In areas with sharp elevation differences, he installs as many as needed to produce a correct model. He
sets the camera’s shutter speed to somewhere between 1,600 and
3,200, depending on the lighting conditions, with an 80-percent forward and side overlap.
The Deliverables
Project deliverables include georeferenced orthophotos of the project, aerial videos, a 3D surface model, profile sections, quantity surveys, horizontal plans and virtual reality videos. To produce the
required information, AVIATOP uses the collected point cloud data
and break lines, as well as situation maps of areas where material
can be deposited, and locations of planned access roads and stream
or utility diversions. The firm also produces situation maps to document landslides after heavy rains and show break lines, boundaries,
top and bottom banks, crests, houses, structures, volumes and other
features.
It typically takes Papastamos about ten days to post process the data
using Agisoft PhotoScan and create the required deliverables. From
the 3D models, he makes volumetric calculations. The survey so far
shows that AKTOR ADT has been removing about 500,000 cubic
meters (650,000 cubic yards) of dirt every month.
Article
8
Aerial image of the project area.
Advantages of Using UAS
Lessons Learned
The new highway is not visible from the existing roadway, Simou explained, so people driving by do not realize the progress being made on
this big investment of their tax money. “Using the UAS, we are able to
document the progress of our project month-by-month with photographs,” he said. “The virtual reality videos we produce and publish via
the local media have greatly helped to inform the public that the project
is progressing and their money is not wasted.”
“This project taught us how to optimize the installation of benchmarks
to get accurate results in such a rough area,” says Papastamos. “It
also taught us how to land the aircraft in very narrow and difficult
areas and to pay close attention to weather and lighting conditions.
The project area is very rugged and varied terrain is a good school.
We are doing several other projects like this one. However, because
we have been working on this one from day one, it is our guide.”
In addition, the UX5 has significantly expedited the surveying of areas
indirectly involved with the project—such as streams, rivers, ditches for
large irrigation areas, dumping and depositing areas and access roads.
This would typically be very expensive and time consuming to document
by conventional methods. “It is also very helpful that whenever we need
to measure, evaluate or investigate the project further, we can do it from
our laptops, without spending time and effort to conduct a site visit,”
Simou added.
Simou explained that by providing clarity and transparency, the UAS
survey enabled AKTOR ADT to reinforce the trust and the confidence
of all the stakeholders and the public. It also saved time for the company’s top managers, because the videos minimized their need to
visit the project in person. “From my experience, I estimate that a
UAS survey is at least three times cheaper than a conventional survey
and eight to ten times faster for large-scale projects,” he said. “In
addition, we are getting all the other products—orthophotos, a dense
3D model, videos, and virtual reality—as well
as the ability to zoom in on any area and get
details up to a 1-2 cm resolution.”
Given that the project requires repeating the
UAS survey every two months until completion,
that’s a lot of savings.
For more information, have a look at: www.trimble.com.
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The Changing Image of Mapping
Imagery as the Foundation of GIS
Interview
By Eric van Rees
10
Imagery has become a fundamental part of the ArcGIS platform, offering foundation layers of GIS and changing the appearance of maps. Lawrie Jordan, Director of Imagery and
Remote Sensing at Esri, discusses the past and future of imagery and GIS.
maps in the world, and
imagery is a key part of
that offering as well:
“Imagery is a fundamental
element of GIS. It's where
the foundation layers of
GIS originate from: terrain,
elevation, roads, buildings,
rivers, cultural features,
even subsurface features
like geology and soil are all
either directly or indirectly
derived from imagery and
image processing technology. You can think of imagery as the foundation of
GIS.”
From software vendor to
platform technology
provider
Lawrie Jordan is the
Director of Imagery and
Remote Sensing at Esri. As
a member of the corporate
team, he plays a key role in
establishing the company's
future strategy and vision
for how Esri users can utilize imagery successfully.
Over the years, he has witnessed a transformation
within Esri, whereby they
evolved from being a major
software vendor to becoming a platform technology
provider, with imagery content playing an important
part in what they offer.
Jordan explains how this
transformation has taken
place: “In the early versions
of the technology, Esri
offered a very diverse set of
software products that, collectively, were part of a
'System of Record'. We've
evolved that forward into a
new vision and a new
architecture, where the ArcGIS system is now a WebGIS platform, with a geoinformation model at its
center, accessing dynamic,
distributed services through
WebApps. This platform is really an ecosystem of relationships that connect to a number
of things, one of which is content. Part of the
ArcGIS platform is ArcGIS Online, which
includes massive imagery and map content.
Content is very important to our users, as it
enables them to start their projects immedia-
Lawrie Jordan
tely. The bigger picture here is that WebGIS
has become a 'System of Engagement', bringing together many different constituents.”
Imagery and GIS
ArcGIS Online is now one of the largest, if
not the largest online collection of digital
He continues by stating that
all of the new sources of
imagery in the form of oblique imagery, mini and
micro imaging satellites,
panoramic street-view imagery, 3D technology and
drones etc. are all moving
imagery forward to become the new face of GIS:
“Imagery is now changing
the nature of what a map
looks like. The map of the
future is really not at all like
the map of the past. The
map of the future is rapidly
revealing itself as a photorealistic, 3D intelligent
image that we can fly
through, interrogate, analyze, and at some point soon have with us all
the time as part of a wearable app. “
The necessity of fresh imagery content
The availability of more imagery has led to a
larger demand for updated information,
which in itself is a driver for acquiring more
imagery. Jordan explains: “Refresh rates
are really important. Dynamic imagery and
imagery-derived information products are
accelerating the value of GIS significantly.
This provides GIS users with not only situational awareness, but also current insight
into how the world works, how the natural
systems behave, and how we can work
towards protecting them. Further, it allows
us to model these natural systems and predict what they are likely to look like in the
future. The on-the-fly image processing capabilities within the ArcGIS platform are a key
part of enabling this understanding.”
Imagery types and tools
For people interested in historical imagery,
Esri offers Landsat data going back over
forty years, and will soon release historical
USGS maps & imagery going back several
decades. Esri, in cooperation with the
USGS’ EROS Data Center and Amazon
Web Services, is also introducing all of the
new Landsat 8 data as dynamic image services on a daily basis: “As Landsat 8 circles
the globe, it collects a few hundred scenes a
day. These are captured and managed by
ArcGIS and then posted online the next day,
so it's very fresh imagery.” Recently, Esri
and Leica/Hexagon have teamed up to
make high resolution (30cm) imagery available for the U.S. and other selected areas
through the Hexagon Imagery Program in
ArcGIS Online.
Another type of imagery that Esri has
recently introduced support for is scientific
data in several different formats. These formats include NetCDF, HDF and GRIB,
which are multi-temporal formats used for
scientific data including climate and ocean
temperatures. Jordan explains that there is
a very active collaboration between Esri
and the science community and this is an
example of Esri bringing GIS to the remote
sensing world: “Scientific data sources give
us frequent time slices throughout the day of
broad area coverage, including continental
scale data. We’re providing a new set of
dynamic image services based on NASA’s
GLDAS data sets that give the GIS community unique time-lapse views of precipitation, evapotranspiration, soil moisture,
runoff, and snowpack. These services consist mostly of lower resolution, broad area
coverage imagery, but this information is
every bit as important as other hi-resolution
data and it's all a fundamental element of
GIS.”
Not only has content become a central part
of the ArcGIS platform, but also over 100
new tools and WebApps for working with
imagery are now a key part of Esri’s evolving WebGIS. This is something that GIS
users have been asking for, and we are delivering, says Jordan: “Now, the imagery
tools are thoroughly populated throughout
the entire GIS platform at every level, even
on phones and mobile devices, up and
down the entire stack. It's a seamless integration and the information products that
come out of the image processing tools are
automatically GIS layers. This is really the
power of having an architecture like the
ArcGIS platform and WebGIS which allows
us to do that. “
Partners
Esri has over two thousand business partners, and a large number of these partners
are in the imagery space. These imagery
partners are both content and software providers who add capabilities and services
that may be beyond the scope of in-house
resources at Esri. Jordan explains why partners are key: “Partners are fundamental to
our success, extending our platform and
adding value. One of our key strategic partners is a company that was formerly known
as Exelis VIS, now part of Harris Corporation. They are very strong in hyperspectral and LiDAR analysis tools. We also
have good partners at BAE Systems who
built the SOCET SET package. That's a very
rigorous photogrammetric package. PCI is
another good partner who has their GXL
product for massively scalable cloud processing of imagery. The PCI software also supports a large number of imaging sensors.”
One imagery provider that Esri is recently
working with is EarthCast, who offers a
motion video stream from space. Then
there´s Skybox Imaging, as well as
PlanetLabs, who have recently acquired
RapidEye. “We're collaborating with all
these companies to provide fresh imagery of
different spatial, spectral, and temporal
resolutions and coverages. This is really
bringing the surface of the earth to life and
is setting the stage for our 'Living Atlas' of
maps in ArcGIS Online to further evolve and
become 'The Living Planet'. We will soon be
able to map, measure, and monitor everything on the surface of the earth that moves
or changes. It's a very compelling concept,
all managed in the cloud and readily available online. This integration of dynamic multi-
source imagery and maps will revolutionize
geography.”
Drones and GIS
The next logical step for Esri is to create a
new app specifically for drones. The company recently announced and demoed a
drone app during the Esri UC in July,
showing how drone data can be loaded into
ArcGIS in order to create high-resolution 3D
imagery. The idea behind this is to create
simple solutions that allow GIS users to get
all the benefits from UAS without having to
become photogrammetrists, says Jordan:
“Simplicity and speed will be key to the success of drone apps. That´s why we have
some new one-button photogrammetry tools
that will seamlessly take a UAS collection
and very quickly put it into a mosaic dataset,
generate a Digital Surface Model (DSM), do
ortho-rectified maps, and also do essentially
a 3D point cloud.”
Evolving new technologies
Discussing the Esri imagery available at different scale levels for end users, Jordan states that the strength of a having a robust
platform is that it is scale-independent, with
ArcGIS Online, for example, offering millions of maps available at every possible
scale. Now that Esri is moving into 3D, it
comes with a new language of scale called
LOD (which stands for Level of Detail). There
are currently four popular and recognized
LOD’s: Level of Detail One consists of just
block buildings; Level Two consists of block
buildings with accurate roofs: Level Three is
made of photo-realistic texture rendered buildings with windows and doors; LOD Four
uses terrestrial LiDAR and goes inside the
building like a BIM model with the same
level of detail.
Esri is evolving these new technologies now,
with 3D and remotely-sensed imagery emerging as natural partners: “Now we have a
true 3D architecture and because it's timeenabled, it’s actually in 4D and beyond that.
You’ll see these new remote sensors collect
information which will empower this level of
detail and bring this 3D vision to life.” This
vision extends beyond making a pretty picture that looks like a nice 3D model. There is
a growing realization that some problems
can only be understood, analyzed, and solved in 3D; and therefore 3D analytics become very important to GIS: “That to me is the
interesting part of some of the analytics that
we do; it is about deriving meaningful infor-
11
“Imagery is a fundamental element of GIS. It's where the foundation layers of GIS originate from: terrain, elevation, roads,
buildings, rivers, cultural features, even subsurface features like geology and soil are all either directly or indirectly derived
Interview
from imagery and image processing technology. You can think of imagery as the foundation of GIS.”
mation to solve a problem, such as finding
the best place to put a solar roof in a dense
city, or where to construct a power plant so
it doesn’t obstruct the view from an historic
site.” This is one of the more powerful
aspects of Web Scenes and WebGIS.
Discussing these evolving technologies, it´s
easy to forget there´s more to it than just
technology and content: “It’s about integrating not only data and content, information
and analytics, but also integrating organiza-
tions and people by breaking down the barriers between the work groups and stovepipe systems, so that people are allowed to
collaborate using a common shared geographic understanding. WebGIS really
brings people together. It is available now
on all these devices, phones and tablets, within connected and disconnected environments. WebGIS is a very interoperable system and it’s advancing the science of
geography. What was once a complicated
environment has been made simple and
easy to understand. It’s changing society as
we speak, awakening the world to the benefits of applying geography everywhere.”
For more information, have a look at: www.esri.com.
12
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LFM introduces the Trusted Living Point Cloud
3D Laser Data for Life
Article
By Matthew Wren
The latest intelligence reports on the laser scanning industry suggest continued levels of
growth over the coming years supported by ever-advancing technology alongside increased adoption and application. LFM Software have been providing open and powerful
laser scanning software solutions to the industry for the past seventeen years and
have a unique vision for the future to support this growth.
14
Data Fusion. A recent scan of the Eaton training facility in Houston which was scanned using Dot Product, FARO, Leica, Trimble and Z+F scanners. Each colour represents data captured from
a different scanner demonstrating data fusion in a single dataset.
T
he history of photography has taken
us from a costly, cumbersome ‘oneoff’ process for special occasions in
our lives, through the digital revolution to where images are pervasive;
they are not only part of our daily lives, they
capture almost every aspect of our lives. The
laser scanning revolution has followed a similar, if much more rapid, progression. But, even
today, scanning is still regarded as a special
event for a particular purpose, like ‘taking a
photograph’. So where do we go from here?
With continuing advances in technology
and increased accessibility, scanning will
inevitably become more universal, but before we consider the next step it is important to
understand the challenge ahead. Laser scanning initially solved a problem in automating
the surveying process and greatly facilitating
the processes of change. But this presents a
new set of problems in how to manage engineering change and the ‘big data’ that
accompanies it, and how to maintain trust in
the information that scanning provides. LFM
is leading the way to solve these challenges
with what is perhaps a surprising approach
- to scan more, not less. LFM’s vision is to
continually capture an asset and deliver a
Trusted Living Pointcloud that always reflects
the current true state of the physical asset.
But what is the driver for this? After all, assets
such as buildings, chemical refineries, air-
ports or power stations do not change like
people do, so surely one scan should be sufficient? The answer, of course, is that these
assets do change; continually and often quite
extensively. Equipment degrades, facilities
expand or are repurposed, items are
replaced and upgraded; ultimately almost
every asset comes to the end of its life and is
demolished. The biggest challenge in the life
cycle management of today’s assets is managing their sheer complexity in the face of such
continual change. For over fifteen years in the
laser scanning industry, LFM have witnessed
this ongoing challenge, working with surveying professionals, engineers, construction
companies and asset owners the world over
as they utilise hundreds of thousands of scans
advance in software capabilities has been
sustained progress by the hardware vendors
in making scanners smaller, cheaper, easier
to use and more versatile. In fact, a primary
driver for the HyperBubble is the need for
the same high-quality visualisation of mobile
and handheld laser scan data as offered via
the BubbleView on static scan data.
A recent project to scan Eaton’s training facility in Houston.
and the trusted information that stems from
each project. And this involves far more than
just the visual information obtained from laser
scanning; every asset has an incredible volume of construction and operational information.
The Digital Asset approach
Continual modifications exacerbate the information management challenge; you have to
keep your information assets in step with the
state of your physical assets as they continually change. This leads us to the concept of
the Digital Asset, an information ‘mirror
image’ of the physical asset. To be useful, the
Digital Asset must be like our own mirror
image, reflecting the true current state of its
physical counterpart. It is created by the use
of data-agnostic information management
technology that aggregates and brings structure and context to all types of information
from many different sources. Changes to the
source data are immediately published to,
and validated by, the technology.
Laser scanning fulfils an important role within the Digital Asset by acting as the ‘3D
glue’ that connects and presents all of this
data in a visual, true-to-life representation.
Particularly so, given the extraordinarily
high quality of scan rendering available.
Many years ago LFM pioneered the
BubbleView, a game-changing advance
which combined the accuracy of the familiar
3D point cloud with photorealistic rendering, made possible by innovative technologies that can process unlimited sizes of
datasets quickly and efficiently. Building on
these advances, LFM more recently introduced the HyperBubble which enables users to
‘step out of the bubble’ into a complete
immersive rendering, enabling them to fly
around an entire ‘virtual asset’, instead of
being restricted to the viewpoints of the individual scans.
There has never been such a range of choice in task-optimised tools for 3D visualisation of an in-service asset. Allied to this
LFM NetView 4.0 allows users to take data offline with remote,
tablet access for on-site inspection and maintenance tasks.
LFM have always promoted an open approach to taking in scan data to enable the
fusion of various scan formats into a single
dataset. By exploiting mobile and handheld
scan data alongside existing scans in a project, users can quickly update any part of an
asset from a local scan without having to rescan the entire facility. And it is these recent
advances in hardware and software which
really set the stage for the Trusted Living
Pointcloud.
The Trusted Living Pointcloud
Aimed squarely at customer demand, LFM’s
vision is that, instead of using laser scans as
one-off ‘3D snapshots’ to carry out specific
modification projects, after which the data is
discarded, scans should become an intrinsic
and important part of the living Digital
Asset. An asset operator should be able to
have a complete, accurate, finely detailed
and navigable 3D view of the complete
asset, easily updated whenever a change is
made and accessed by powerful, intelligent
and intuitive software.
Adoption of this vision will promote further
growth in the data capture industry by meeting a very real and widely expressed desire
among asset owners to operate more efficiently and safely by providing greatly
improved access to critical information.
The potential benefits are obvious. When
planning, say, a major asset modification,
the owner and contractor can have the data
available to perform a virtual walk-through
of the area involved, a particularly valuable
capability when the physical asset may be
on the other side of the world in a hostile
environment. Once the project is approved,
the contractor can be issued with the relevant portion of the laser dataset for use within their design system to create accurate
new design and generate demolition drawings. And once the new piping, structure
and equipment are installed, the fusion of
existing and new data captured from any
devices will enable a re-scan of the area to
be accurately registered into the laser scan
15
Information quality
Article
So far, I have described the ‘living’
aspect of the Trusted Living
Pointcloud; what about the ‘trusted’
bit? Evidently, asset management
must be based on reliable and complete information, whatever its type.
Within the context of laser scanning,
the basis of reliable information is initially in data capture accuracy to ensure that what you see really is what
you’ve got. Enabling skilled surveyors
with powerful tools to complement
existing work processes and deliver
robust quality analysis delivers the
foundation for the Trusted Living
Pointcloud. Almost invariably, a laser
scan of an in-service asset will prove
to have a great many discrepancies
with the 3D design model that it was
created from – if indeed there is one.
Many assets pre-date the 3D CAD
revolution and it is common to find
that 2D drawings bear only passing
resemblance to an asset with decades
of accumulated modifications. Laser
data therefore becomes an essential
tool in establishing a 3D representation of the plant that you can trust, and
continue to trust as it changes over
time.
16
LFM software allows users to ‘demolish’ areas of point cloud data. Removing it
from visual and clash checking without permanently deleting it allowing laser scan
projects to be kept up to date with an asset.
project as part of the documentation process, mirroring the physical asset and thus
breathing life into the laser scans.
Such high-quality laser data has other uses
as well. Intelligence can be added to projects in the form of hotspots which can be
applied to selected objects in the laser data,
either manually or by importing existing 1D,
2D or 3D asset information. This process
identifies the objects by their tag identifier
and links them to all related information in
the Digital Asset. This can avoid the need to
create an intelligent as-operating model by
reverse engineering a laser scan into a 3D
CAD design, something which is prevalent
in the industry today as part of asset life
cycle management strategies but which may
be disproportionately costly in some cases.
The value proposition of the Trusted Living
Pointcloud is that it facilitates ‘on-demand’
modelling as and when needed, and is complementary to intelligent 3D scan data.
This is where we introduce a further
component of the Trusted Living
Pointcloud: time, the fourth dimension.
At the start of this article I mentioned
that laser scanning solved one problem but
created more challenges with increases in
capabilities and ‘big data’. LFM are essentially proposing the use of more scanning to
update a laser scan project in the same way
that you would update a drawing or datasheet. In doing this however, we are creating
additional information to manage. The demolition of data, whereby points are ‘hidden’
from view and removed from any potential
clashes with CAD data, has been available
for a number of years, but now by adding
‘new’ scans into an existing project we can
provide the ability to actually view the evolution of an asset. Currently, this ‘time machine’
is undertaken as a work process and it is an
area in which LFM are focused on delivering
increased functionality to access not only the
visual changes but date-related operational
information and change history.
The ‘big data’ issue is not a concern using
LFM technology, as it has always supported
the handling of unlimited sizes of datasets
without loss of data quality or any infringement on consumption. Many solutions selectively ‘thin out’ laser data to bring the datasets down to more manageable sizes, with
the result that much valuable information can
be lost. By avoiding the need for this, LFM
solutions retain the full information value of a
scan; why throw away something that you
have paid for?
Usability
Evidently, the tremendous power offered by
laser scanning technologies must be made
readily accessible and easy to use. An
important requirement for creating and
sustaining the Trusted Living Pointcloud is
that it should be both hardware and software independent, enabling the widest possible choice of data capture devices and
broadest consumption applications available. Interoperability has always been a cornerstone of LFM’s technology development.
Equally important, the Digital Asset must be
easy to share and access across an entire
enterprise, even where it is globally distributed. Here, web-enabled technology achieves
this, while the rapidly developing Cloud is
making it even easier to share information
assets.
Creating new capabilities
Capital-intensive industries are thus presented with a step increase in their ability to
exploit laser scanning. LFM’s vision of the
Trusted Living Pointcloud is taking laser scanning into a new era where the industry move
beyond simply ‘taking photographs’. By providing surveyors, asset owners and contractors with revolutionary technology, LFM are
promoting greatly improved collaboration
and more efficient working practices to capture and confidently consume intelligent,
living, information-rich assets that are the
cornerstone of successful construction and
operations.
For more information, have a look at: www.aveva.com.
Archeology meets UAS Technology
Revealing a Buried Historic Fort
Article
By Andrea Sangster
Western Heritage Services was founded in 1990 to serve the growing need for specialized heritage services. Today, Western Heritage is a premier provider of heritage
services in Canada and around the world. They revealed a buried historic fort through
an image resolution from an Aeryon Scout sUAS.
18
Figure 1: Aeryon Scout at Original Humboldt
T
he image of archaeology that persists in the public mind is of students
and professors on their hands and
knees painstakingly brushing dirt
from buried artifacts. But while such
manual activities remain essential, archaeology has been revolutionized by technology.
Today, a single scientist using ground-penetrating radar, magnetometry, or soil analysis can
generate vast quantities of data about what
lies beneath the surface.
Getting a clear picture of the surface itself,
however, remains a challenge. For many
years, the only way to obtain a detailed map
of the surface in a timely manner has been to
hire a qualified pilot to fly over the site and
take photographs. This method for collecting
images tends to be expensive and yields resolutions of only about 4 in. (10 cm), which typically isn’t detailed enough for smaller, more
Figure 2: The Scout sUAS.
Figure 3: With the live feed from the GoPro camera displayed on the Scout's control tablet,
the archaeologists were able to see the aerial view.
recent sites, where archaeologists are faced
with much subtler variations in surface features
and elevations.
To obtain an aerial map of the relatively remote Original Humboldt site (a strategic outpost
of the Canadian military during the Northwest
Rebellion of 1885, shown in Figure 1), Western
Heritage (1) faced the prospect of hiring a
pilot to fly an airplane from Alberta into
Saskatchewan and take photographs of an
area much larger than the site itself. With funding available for only one week of work on
the site each year, Western Heritage had to
forego aerial mapping and rely on existing,
much less detailed ground-based surveys to try
and identify where excavations could yield the
best results.
Then, at an archaeology conference in 2011,
Carmen Finnigan, Western Heritage's remote
sensing scientist, listened with increasing excitement to a presentation about the recent breakthroughs in surface mapping provided by
small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS). She
learned that UAS can provide aerial photographs and a digital terrain map in as little as
a few hours, and at a lower operational cost
than traditional methods.
Requirements
In 2013, Western Heritage approached Les
Klein, President of Civil Works Consulting,
with its requirements. Civil Works Consulting
Inc. provides aerial imagery (using the Aeryon
Scout) and construction services for its clients,
so Klein had the knowledge and expertise to
capture the required images and data.
Western Heritage needed a UAS that could:
• Be transported easily and inexpensively to a
remote site;
• Be safely and efficiently operated without
requiring the experience and training of a
commercial pilot;
• Provide a stable platform for an aerial camera in the high winds of the Saskatchewan
prairie;
• Accurately, repeatedly, and autonomously
follow a survey grid;
Figure 4: A geo-referenced orthomosaic
• Operate at an altitude of 164 ft. (50 m);
• Capture thousands of images in a few
hours;
• Take photographs with a ground resolution
of at least 4 in. (10 cm) and an overlap of
60 percent to ensure the accuracy of the 2D
and 3D outputs;
• Provide the data required to create a digital
terrain map with sub-meter vertical elevation
accuracy and sub-meter horizontal posting
(the distance between each elevation measurement).
The Solution
In August 2013, Klein drove to Humboldt,
Saskatchewan, the city closest to the Original
Humboldt site, with the Aeryon Scout sUAS
and all of its components packed in its case in
his truck. Upon arrival at the site, he needed
only a few minutes to set up the Scout sUAS
and its base station, and create the flight plan.
After two hours of data capture, the wind
exceeded 25 mph (40 kph) and the gusts
became too strong to operate safely.
During the five hour flight on the second day
(wind speeds were approximately 15 mph
(24 kph), the Scout followed a tight grid pattern across the site, taking photographs with
the Aeryon Photo3S camera payload. The
Scout automatically returned to base for fresh
batteries every 20 minutes, each time resuming its flight plan exactly where it left off.
Using portable generator, Klein was able to
recharge the batteries even though the site
was in such a remote location. Ms. Finnigan
was surprised by how small and quiet the
Scout was when she saw it in operation, “Les
told me he had seen birds fly right up to it in
the sky.”
With the photomapping complete, Klein detached the Photo3S payload, snapped on a
GoPro HD HERO3 payload, and re-launched
the Scout (Figure 2). With the live feed from
19
Figure 5: Digital Terrain Map
the GoPro camera displayed on the Scout's
control tablet, the archaeologists were able to
see the aerial view (Figure 3) of the site in real
time, and could advise Klein where to position
the Scout to capture the best images.
After downloading nearly 1230 images from
the Photo3S payload, Chun Chen, Western
Heritage's geomatics manager, used Pix4Dmapper software to stitch together the overlapping images into a single, geo-referenced
orthomosaic (Figure 4), and then generated a
digital terrain model.
Results
By combining the aerial photographs and the
digital terrain map (Figure 5), Western Heritage has been able to produce a highly accurate base map that it can use to tie in all of the
current work on the site and help confirm their
hypothesis that the low sandy hill was the location of Original Humboldt. Understanding the
shape of the hill helped determine how the hill
was formed, how the site was used and fortified. This information will also help the
Western Heritage team plan their work on the
site each year going forward.
In addition, the high level of detail in the images has enabled Western Heritage to identify
all of the grid stakes and excavation units at
the site. This will assist in correlating all of the
previous work done on the site. “The image
resolution we achieved using the Scout was
incredible,” says Ms. Finnigan, “Five cm,
much better than the ten cm we can get from
an airplane.” The orthomosaic image produced with Pix4D was 1.5cm/pixel resolution.
As seen in Figure 3, the aerial photographs
also revealed an intriguing feature that could
not be detected from the ground: discolouration of the soil at the fort. The origin of this discolouration is not known at the current time but
may represent a new area for exploration.
For Ms. Finnigan and Ms. Chen, using the
Scout to obtain aerial images has literally
added a new dimension to archaeological
science. They look forward to obtaining aerial
thermal images using the near infrared spectrum sensors of the Scout’s Thermal FLIR camera option.
For Jennifer Hoesgen, director/curator of the
Humboldt District Museum and Gallery, the
aerial images will help the public understand
the layout and features of Original Humboldt,
and to make the site more accessible. “Visuals
give museum visitors something to get excited
about and that translates into more public support for learning about the history of Saskatchewan and western Canada”, she says.
www.westernheritage.ca
For more information, have a look at: www.aeryon.com.
One Aerial Camera, Two Lenses
Maximum Flexibility
Article
By Linda Duffy
20
To address the specific data requirements and unique challenges of diverse aerial survey
projects, exchangeable camera lenses offer the flexibility to acquire high-quality imagery
at different altitudes and speeds to expedite project fulfillment.
A
erial surveying companies are increasingly
under pressure to maximize the volume of
data collected in the
shortest time possible to reduce costs,
while delivering data that meets the
exact specifications for the intended
application. As a new participant in
the aerial mapping market, Advance
Aviation Group (AAG), headquartered in Queensland, Australia, needed a photogrammetric digital aerial
camera to help distinguish itself from
the competition. The 25-year-old firm
carefully weighed its options before
investing in just the right camera to
jump-start its new line of business.
mountainous terrain, in addition to
dense rain forests, make surveying on
the ground very difficult.
After researching several analog and
digital options, TWL purchased a
Microsoft UltraCam Eagle digital
aerial camera with two exchangeable lenses—80mm and 210mm—to
be operated by AAG. The camera
offers a pan image footprint of more
than 20,000 pixels across the flight
strip, in addition to an image capture
rate of 1.8 seconds, which exceeds
that of most traditional large-capture
cameras. All system components are
integrated into the sensor head, including UltraNav, a flight management
and georeferencing system that includes GNSS-Inertial technology, pilot displays, and flight-planning software.
Figure 1: High resolution imagery collected by AAG
with an UltraCam Eagle over Port Moresby, the capital
of Papua New Guinea.
New to the Aerial Survey Market
AAG is an airline charter company that provides corporate travel,
freight services, and special-purpose charter flights across Australia.
Previously a large part of its business consisted of flying specialized
chartered flights for Queensland’s coal mining operations; however,
demand for charter services declined as the world price for coal declined. At the same time, Trans Wonderland Limited (TWL), the parent
company of AAG, was working on a large project in Papua New
Guinea that involved supporting the drilling rigs and supplying transport
services to companies. TWL desired to add aviation services to its land
business. This was a perfect fit for its subsidiary’s air charter experience
and provided an opportunity for AAG to grow internationally by supporting the Papua New Guinea operations.
In addition, TWL recognized a need for better mapping services due to
rapid development of the energy industry in Papua New Guinea and
decided to enter the aerial survey market. The company began looking
for a camera that would provide AAG the highest quality images at different altitudes, as well as one that could capture large amounts of data
in less time and a system to process that data very quickly. Due to the
remote operations and challenging flying conditions in Papua New
Guinea, as well as in parts of Australia, AAG also put a high emphasis
on technical support and training from the manufacturer.
The camera collects multispectral imagery in four bands—red, green,
blue, and near infrared, which allows for enhanced analysis using infrared for certain applications. AAG’s UltraCam Eagle is the only digital
aerial camera based in Australia that collects four band imagery.
The UltraCam Eagle can be mounted on either of AAG’s two aircraft
modified for camera operations. The company has been able to produce high-quality imagery at speeds of up to 270 kilometers per hour. Due
to the difficult ground conditions, one flight with the UltraCam Eagle can
produce data that would take surveyors on the ground weeks, if not
months, to perform.
Exchangeable Lens System
The Right Technology for the Conditions
The UltraCam Eagle Lens Exchange System was an important factor in
TWL’s purchase decision. The exchangeable lens system allows AAG to
capture high-resolution digital images at different altitudes by switching
out lenses of different focal lengths. The company uses the 210mm lens
for high-volume, high-altitude flying, particularly valuable in restricted air
space such as military zones and central business districts, and the
80mm lens to capture higher resolution imagery at low altitudes, down
to 5cm resolution if necessary. A 100mm lens is another option to add
if the need arises in the future.
Many unique surveying challenges come along with the exciting opportunity to assist with infrastructure development for the primarily rural population in Papua New Guinea. Much of the country is in need of updated imagery to support future planning efforts; however, the
“The ability to change lenses assists the client and enables the aircraft to
be utilized to the maximum, saving time on location, which is great for
our bottom line,” says Alec Mercer, Managing Director, AAG. “We cur-
Figure 2: The UltraCam Eagle photogrammetric digital camera works with exchangeable lenses
in three different focal lengths—80 mm, 100mm and 210mm.
rently have a project with resolution specifications that require flying
part of the area at an altitude of 25,000 feet and other parts at six or
eight thousand feet, and we need different lenses to meet the requirements.”
Building the Business
Efficiency and reliability
Efficiency of collection, quick processing, and reliability of the entire system were also requirements that influenced the purchasing decision. The
ultra-wide footprint of the UltraCam Eagle and significant capacity for
data storage on board make large area data collection very efficient.
“The camera’s in-flight exchangeable solid data units can each store
more than 3,900 UltraCam images,” said Mercer. “This allows operators to fly for six or seven hours and capture all the images they need without landing the plane to download data.”
Once the plane returns to base, AAG is able to process the data within
a few hours with the fully integrated UltraMap workflow software system. UltraMap offers features such as highdensity 3D point cloud creation, highly
accurate and detailed digital surface model
(DSM) generation, and ortho mosaicing
capabilities.
“We were attracted to the leading-edge
aerial photogrammetric technology developed over the past twenty years, but also we
feel that Microsoft is a company that we can
trust,” stated Mercer. “We often operate in
remote areas and under difficult environmental conditions, so installation and operation needed to be straightforward and very
dependable.”
Mercer continued, “Our whole premise is to
have the very newest and best equipment that we can possibly have to
avoid maintenance problems and costly delays—the UltraCam technology meets our criteria.”
The ability to capture high-quality data consistently and efficiently and
deliver imagery that meets project specifications has helped AAG successfully enter and compete in the aerial survey market. Thus far, customers have been very receptive to the end results produced by the
UltraCam Eagle. Inquiries are being received specifically asking about
the new camera’s availability to work on a variety of projects. The
UltraCam product line also offers AAG a cost-effective upgrade path as
the company continues to grow.
“The UltraCam Eagle has given us a completely new revenue stream that
has already increased our income by 30 percent,” Mercer says, “We
are now able to serve customers who have very different needs, ranging
from stockpile measuring to road surveying
to environmental analysis.”
“We see Papua New Guinea and the
Western Pacific as an area of great opportunity for aerial surveying,” concluded
Mercer. “We are pleased to contribute to
the development of the area by providing
accurate, up-to-date imagery to our customers, and offering employment and training
to local people in the fields of photogrammetry and data processing.”
Linda Duffy, Apropos Research, www.aproposresearch.com
All information provided by Microsoft.
Figure 3: The UltraCam Eagle’s integrated housing concept reduces sensor head
size and balances weight.
21
GNSS Update
Addicted to Accuracy
Article
By Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk 22
The third quarter of 2015 saw the launch of a number of satellites. One of these
was a ‘regular’ GPS IIF (10), which was launched on July 15th. Although just as
important in terms of navigation, but more significant in terms of a milestone, was
the launch of two Beidou-3 satellites (M1 and M2) on July 25th. These are the
first two medium earth orbit Beidou satellites.
O
n September 11th two new Galileo satellites (9 and
10) were finally launched from French Guiana. Both
GPS and Galileo have another launch planned for
later this year, which will improve upon their current
constellation. All these launches are important steps
towards a seemingly much required quest for higher accuracies from the
surveying industry as a new report from GPS World recently identified.
According to this report it is “remarkable how quickly the provided accuracy in successive new survey products over the years
has increased the required accuracy from users and customers in
the field and consequently, the desired accuracy in a feedback loop
to the product developers.” In simpler terms, accuracy is contagious!
At the moment minimum acceptable GNSS accuracy is crossing the 1
cm mark for over half its users (in comparison to 8% in 2013).
Probably just as significant is that more than 95% of all users require
an accuracy greater than 5 cm with the remaining users being satisfied with a few decimetres…
Figure 1: Beidou-3 signal spectrum (source: gpsworld.com)
Beidou
The Beidou launch marks an important moment in industry history as,
with effect from July 25th, the Beidou signals can be received outside
the China-Asian region. Also of interest is the
fact that in August the first satellites were
acquired at the Joint Research Centre in the
EU in Ispra (Italy). Scientists have tried to
identify the various signal components received from these two satellites. So far their conclusions are that, as well as a legacy signal
(Beidou 1l) there are three signals being
transmitted; a civil signal on L1, a signal very
similar to the GPS L1C signal and a data signal (possibly the navigation message). As no
further interface control document is available
the results have not been verified.
fully replaced by the Glonass K2 satellite currently being built and of
which the first one is expected to be launched early 2017.
Glonass
In the case of Glonass the building of new
satellites continues with an additional satellite
(M61) joining the stock on the ground and
awaiting a launch between now and 2017.
When the last Glonass M satellite is launched
an additional 11 Glonass K1 satellites will be
launched up until 2020. After 2020 it will be
Figure 2: Glonass-M satellite in the factory (source: gpsworld.com)
Galileo
With the latest two additions to the Galileo
constellation, there are now four Full Operational Capability (FOC) satellites in operation
and an additional three In Orbit Validation
(IOV) satellites. This brings the total to seven
satellites out of a planned total of 30 by
2020.
Three satellites are currently serviceable to a
certain extent. The first of these is IOV-4,
which suffered a power failure in May 2014
and can only transmit on the E1 frequency.
The other two are the pair which were launched into the wrong orbit (FOC-FM1 and
FOC-FM2).
For the latter two the ground segment is currently adapted in such a way that the navigation messages for the deviant orbits can be
produced. As the navigation almanac cannot
be modified to contain the orbital parameters
for these satellites, the signals can only be
Figure 3: A relatively rare occasion; the leap second introduces a 61 second minute (source: gpsworld.com)
used by a receiver obtaining orbital information from a separate
source and not directly from the satellites.
Figure 5: US Nationwide dGPS network (source: insidegnss.com)
Leap second
On the evening between June 30th and July 1st another leap second
was added to the UTC making that day precisely 1 second longer.
The latest leap second might well be the last as the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) is considering a proposal in
November 2015 to stop using the leap second. The main reason for
this is the wide spread use of GNSS in time-dependent infrastructure.
During a previous meeting of the ITU in 2012 the use of the leap
second was also discussed, however, at that time there was no
agreement about the discontinuation of using the leap seconds.
eLoran
With the abundance of GNSS satellites being launched, one might
be forgiven for overlooking the fundamental weakness of any GNSS;
namely its relatively weak signals. The main alternative, which has
been on the table for years already, is the widespread implementation of eLoran, the successor to Loran-C. Loran-C, an earth bound
positioning system developed in WWII as a guidance system for
bombers, uses high power signals which are not easily disrupted.
Starting on June 19th, the eLoran signal will be available in the
United States from a single station in Wildwood (New Jersey). In
Europe the situation is a bit further advanced with a prototype capability in the UK giving positioning data at the 10 m level within a radius of 30 – 50 km from so-called Differential Loran stations. These
function in a similar way to GNSS augmentation systems. In addition
to the use of dLoran stations a propagation model is used to compensate for signal delays. An enhanced version of dLoran (eDLoran) was
tested in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) and found to give accuracies
up to 5 m using the cellular infrastructure to deliver correction signals.
Locata
Figure 4: Egnos SES-5 satellite in orbit (source: esa.eu)
Augmentation
The Egnos constellation, providing GPS corrections over Europe, has
recently been upgraded with a new satellite (SES-5) replacing the current satellite. SES-5 is expected to provide augmentation serviced up
until 2026 and has the advantage of multi-frequency corrections (L1
and L5).
For users who require an alternative to GNSS and consider eLoran to
be too inaccurate, there is an alternative terrestrial positioning system
called Locata. NASA is currently planning to install such a system at
Langley (Virginia, US). The system will give centimeter level positioning information for testing safety-critical Unmanned Aerial Systems
such as the hexacopter, which delivered medical supplies to a clinic
in June.
Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk [email protected] is a freelance writer
and trainer in the fields of positioning and hydrography.
As a result of the success of WAAS in America and the limited availability of consumer grade receivers, the US government is now considering shutting down 62 stations from the national US DGPS network. The exception will probably be 22 coastal stations, which are
still being used. If the plan goes ahead, the termination of signal broadcast on the 62 sites is planned for January 15th 2016.
23
Article
24
Cloud-control for Drones
Creating Aerial Drone Maps Fast
Figure 1: Digital Surface Model
By Eric van Rees
Acquisition, processing and mapping of drone data in the cloud is the core business of
DroneDeploy, a San Francisco-based company. Through an easy-to-use app, drone users
can program a drone and upload the data to the cloud, where it then is being processed
and a final map is returned, even before the drone has landed.
D
roneDeploy is a San Franciso-based cloud software
company, offering a cloud-based solution which allows
anyone to create on-demand aerial drone maps in a
single click. “Lots of the expensive, high end drones
aren't easy—they require lots of money and training.
We offer a simple-to-use tool so people can do better things with their
data”, says Sales and Business Development Manager Ian Smith.
He continues: “The idea behind our tools is to remove the barrier to
entry of doing useful things with drones. We want to make it just two
or three taps on your cellphone for generating powerful and useful
data.” To make this happen, the company offers a free app, that is
connected to the drone and offers the user to do some simple planning. Then, the drone is launched through the app, flies and acquires
the imagery of the area as specified by the user and finally uploads
the imagery after landing to the company´s cloud services where it is
stitched together automatically.
Although the app can be downloaded for free, there´s a software
subscription rate that generates revenue for the company. Smith
explains: “until now, you could try the app for 30 days and generate
maps with it. After that, a monthly subscription rate applied, allowing
to generate up to 5000 acres of map every month. Our pricing struc-
ture has changed since September 15th though, removing any acreage restrictions and now there’s be a totally free, unlimited maps and
3D models tier. Also, we will now be able to process maps from any
type of drone or aircraft, not just DJI’s, as long as there is embedded
GPS EXIF metadata on the photos, you can use DroneDeploy to process them to create maps, 3D models, and take advantage of our
cloud-based features like annotations, measurements, and easy sharing.”
Need for speed
It´s the smart application of the cloud that sets the company apart,
yielding in fast results, says Smith: “we use multiple cloud servers to
process all this drone data. They´re optimized to process the data as
fast as possible, so that you can get your map on your phone half an
hour after you land the drone. By putting and processing the data in
the cloud, you can dramatically limit the amount of processing time
compared to if you would have to do it yourself. We have users who
have done fifteen to twenty flights in a day.”
One sector where speed is important is agriculture. Here, DroneDeploy booked a lot of success already, says Smith: “having instantaneous data is incredibly important for farmers. With our partners in
this sector, we now have a device on board which puts us on the
internet. As the images are being taken, they´re sent to the cloud
25
Figure 2: Orthophoto
immediately. That enables us to stitch the map and generate while
the drone is still in the air.” Another agriculture application is monitoring, with a modified camera attached to a drone that can generate
vegetation indices to monitor crop health. Smith states that this solution is already paying dividends to farmers who are using it.
However, a necessary condition for using the system this way is the
availability of cellular Wi-Fi, or some kind of online service if you
have a hotspot. Smith admits there are places with limited opportunities for data capture, but says that people are making maps everyw-
here: “we have offline versions so that you can go out and do the
mapping, and generate the data in an area where there is internet
connectivity available.”
Partnerships
The company has partnerships with lots of drone companies. The
most recent one is Chinese drone maker DJI, which is the world’s current largest manufacturer of drones says Smith: “they sell like 2000
units per day, all over the world.” Another important partnership is
with Esri and the company participates in
its Startup Program. Smith explains: “The
cooperation with Esri is ongoing. Our
goal is for the culmination to result in an
easy, one-click ArcGIS import, straight
from the DroneDeploy dashboard into
ArcGIS.”
For more information, have a look at
www.dronedeploy.com.
Figure 3: 3D quarry
An Interview with Don Murray
Technology Trends
Article
By Eric van Rees
Don Murray, Co-CEO of Safe Software, discusses trending technology areas that are important for the company and gives a sneak-preview of the upcoming release of FME 2016.
26
Minecraft imagery of Easter Island, generated using FME.
Minecraft
Safe Software counts as one of the early adopters in the geospatial industry of Minecraft, a 3D computer game. The game consists of a 3D world
where users have to search for blocks in order to build a living environment. In just a few years, the game has become a huge success and is
now used for more things than just entertainment. Don Murray explains its
success thus: “With Minecraft it´s easy to quickly build things. It´s a creative environment where you can pretty much build anything”.
What used to be a fun thing for children is now serious business for grownups as well, as it is now being used to create community awareness by
governmental agencies and municipalities. Don Murray explains that
these agencies engage the public in an interesting and fun way by putting
up a Minecraft world that the people can download and build whatever
they want with it, showing the desire of the general public to access anything that looks like the real world. An example of this happened near
where Safe Software is located, in Port Moody (Canada), where a big
industrial site was torn down and a new community plan was laid out in
Minecraft and made public. Safe Software is doing a lot of work concerning 3D data and Murray expects interesting things to happen once it really takes off: “we see the excitement that people have with Minecraft and
the 3D environment there. Now, imagine you start taking buildings with
textures and put them in gaming systems, maybe this augmented reality
thing we´ve been talking about for a long time will hit off big. With
Microsoft buying Minecraft and its upcoming HoloLens, that´s pretty interesting too.”
At the Esri UC exhibition, Safe Software showed a Minecraft 3D demo.
This is because the next version of the Data Interoperability Extension for
ArcGIS Desktop will have the ability to work with 3D data, LiDAR data
and building data. Lately, Esri has been focusing a lot on 3D, not in the
least with ArcGIS Pro. Logically, one of the extensions for ArcGIS Pro is
going to be the Safe Software’s Interoperability Extension.
Big data and IoT
Big data continues to be an important area for Safe Software, says
Murray: “We´re continuing to add and leverage Amazon Web Services,
and add different types of databases like MongoDB. Real-time data from
sensors is another area we´re getting more and more.”
The next release of FME, scheduled for January 2016, promises some
big announcements in the area of the IoT, the Internet of Things. Murray:
“Obviously when more things are connected to the internet, security
becomes more important. Some of these things that are connected are cars, industrial
equipment. OAF is a security-authentication technology that´s used for the IoT for
trying to make these things secure. So if you connect to my device, and you say
you´re you, I know it´s really you.”
Other important areas for Safe Software are spatial data within enterprises and
LiDAR :”We bump into Tableau a lot, as people want to be able to put all sorts of
data into Tableau. This is a business decision analytics tool which it has great
reporting with dashboards and all that sort of things. LiDAR is also pretty big for
us. We’ve seen people take LiDAR and the resolution is so high that it looks like a
photo and people building faces with textures from LiDAR, taking it completely the
other way.”
Don Murray
FME Cloud
The company´s cloud is growing pretty quickly too. The explanation for this is that
Amazon Web Services now has some data centers in Europe, such as in Frankfurt and
Ireland: “That definitely helps. Three years ago we went on the road and everybody was
telling us that they were not planning to go into the cloud, but now everything has
changed completely. The whole idea of data in the cloud is insecure is a foul
thing. Amazon has an army of people working on security. There are so
many ways to tie the data down. Even if you´re on premise, probably by
the time the data has gotten on premise it has gone through the cloud
somewhere.”
Safe Software’s biggest cloud adopters are in North America right
now. The pattern that has emerged is that people are using it for
simple prototypes and proof of concepts, resulting to more FME
Server usage: “you can easily spin things up in the cloud, because
you don´t have to punch a new hole in your firewall, or put any of
your internal systems at risk. You can demo it from the cloud and
then from there people will either deploy on the cloud if they like
what they´ve done, or just move it on premise. We really didn´t
appreciate how big that would be.”
27
FME 2016 will be out in January 2016. Safe Software will organize a User Conference in Vancouver,
June 2017. For more Information, have a look at: www.safe.com.
Minecraft imagery of Easter Island, generated using FME.
From Games Room to Board Room and Beyond
Article
Virtual Reality
By Faith Clark
Virtual Reality is firmly rooted
in the entertainment sector,
with early incarnations designed
to delight and even titillate.
However, modern day VR is
experiencing a revolution, not
only in terms of technology
being launched to market, but, more importantly, in the applications of this technology.
This article takes a closer look at some recent projects and future developments.
The concept
28
The term Virtual Reality is attributed to French playwright Antoin Artaud
in his book ‘The Theatre and Its Double’ which was published in 1938.
However, earlier attributions include 360 degree murals – trending in the
1860s, ‘What the Butler Saw’ erotic mutoscope machines in the early
1900s and the first goggle based VR system – called ‘Pygmalion’s
Spectacle’s – mooted in the 1930s in a science fiction work of the same
name by Stanley G Weinbaum.
The modern concept of VR is really not much different. Often referred to
as immersive multimedia or computer simulated life, VR replicates an
environment – simulating physical objects – either in the real or imaginary world. VR can also include additional sensory experiences such as
smell, sound and touch.
The delivery
Technology has moved on dramatically for VR delivery mechanisms from
the early devices, with the eagerly awaited Oculus Rift due to launch to
market in early 2016. One of the first consumer targeted virtual reality
headsets, the Rift has been described as ‘the first really professional PCbased VR headset’. Albeit a definition by its creators, it raises an interesting opportunity beyond the gaming and general consumer applications.
The use of the word ‘professional’ can be applied not only to the technology but the perhaps the application?
Other Head Mounted Displays (HMD) are, of course, available with the
Samsung Gear VR leading the way in wireless communication. Powered
by Oculus, the Gear turns the Samsung GALAXY Note 4 smartphone
into, again in the words of its creators, a ‘portable next generation virtual
reality system’. The Sony Morpheus is also currently in development and
is also due to be launched early next year. Designed to be fully compatible with the Playstation 4 and Playstation Vita games systems, the
Morpheus remains true to its gaming origins, only claiming to offer a
‘radical new dimension in virtual reality gaming’.
There are, however, other options for Virtual Reality viewing, including
360 degree theatre experiences. For mass audiences, VR content can be
projected within a dome-like construction, giving an immersive experience for the gathered spectators. One pioneer of such systems is Igloo
Vision, a UK company that has worked around the world with organisations such as the British Army, Nissan, Colgate and the United Arab
Emirates Government, to name just a few, creating and delivering simulations, visualisations and events.
The content
Virtual Reality content is already readily available, with even the Duchess
of Cambridge, Kate Windsor, captured sporting a Development Kit 2 version of the Oculus Rift during the summer. Spotted at the America’s Cup
Sailing Race when bad weather caused the day’s competition to be cancelled, no one is quite sure who was behind the sailing simulator nor quite
what the Duchess made if it. It is, however, thought that ‘what the Duchess
saw’ was an example of an emerging type of VR content known as video
VR or 360 degree video. Also known as spherical VR, it was this type of
content, rather than gaming, that supposedly convinced Facebook’s Mark
Zuckerberg to buy Oculus for a reported $2 billion in July 2014.
360 degree video in the entertainment and event sector is not really a
new thing. Companies such as Shepperton Studio based Arithmetica
have built on their locational heritage to develop a suite of hardware and
software solutions to record, process and play back 360 degree videos.
360 video systems like SphereVision are able to record a real-world environment in all directions at the same time, capturing every aspect of the
scene in one go. When the video is played back – on a laptop, mobile
device or over the Internet – viewers can pan around the image, moving
through and exploring the site as if they were there. Footage can be integrated with floor and site plans using innovative software and the highresolution 360 imagery can also be integrated with online mapping, for
example.
Applications
Working with specialist production companies, such as UK based TX,
Arithmetica has already completed a number of high profile media
deployments of their SphereVision solutions. Previously published projects include an interactive DVD of an award winning heritage railway
and popular tourist attraction in Wales, and an educational yet entertaining 360 degree interactive theatre experience for the Historical Royal
Palaces in England. Other ventures with big brands like Porsche and
Philips have also been completed.
More recently, Arithmetica has moved into more ‘professional’
applications of the technology. Working with Dutch creative services
agency Twain, SphereVision has been used to reveal the amazing journey of a suitcase at one of the world’s busiest airports. The three-minute
360 degree interactive video has, to the surprise of the project team,
gone viral – with thousands of hits on YouTube and Facebook as well as
international media coverage on CNN, Fox8, Al Jazeera and the Daily
Mail and Telegraph.
Despite such obvious consumer popularity, there is a serious concept
behind the hype. The original film was commissioned by the Schiphol
Airport Authorities following a multi-million dollar refurbishment and
upgrade of their luggage handling system. First debuted to an audience
of the personnel involved in the project, a limited edition iOS app was
also created. Designed to give an insight into otherwise inaccessible
areas and processes, the video shows the complexities faced by the airport which handles more than 50 million pieces of luggage every year.
Another project due to be released by the end client soon is the use of
360 degree videography for personnel training. An international leader
in the provision of critical industrial services, primarily to the energy and
natural resources sectors, has engaged with Arithmetica, using
SphereVision, to create and roll out a health and safety training programme for workers in high risk environments. Using 360 degree video, experienced through Gear VR Headsets, classroom based staff can interact
with a range of environments and simulated scenarios. Designed to promote situational awareness and risk evaluation, the experience is easy to
deploy, provides repeatable and therefore standardised training with no
risk to personnel or potentially expensive site shut downs.
Arithmetica’s Business Development Manager Mark Senior sees applications like these, and others in the pipeline, as the way forward for VR, in
particular 360 degree videography, “Gaming will continue to innovate
at vast rates and will eventually move onto the next big thing. However,
it is the day to day professional applications that will show the true potential of VR and 360 degree video. As we move from media and events
into training and risk assessment, so the jump to facilities management,
BIM, emergency planning and response become even easier.”
29
The future
While gaming – the spiritual home of VR – will continue to develop ever
more extreme graphics, building no doubt on its heritage of theatre and
cinema, professional applications are embracing other influences.
Moving on from 360 degree images and videography, work is already
underway to integrate map accurate representation of real world environments and constructions. Using high density laser scanners, millions
of highly accurate measurements can be taken from a survey aircraft, in
the case of LiDAR, or from terrestrial or vehicle mounted devices.
These measurements, collectively referred to as a point cloud, are then
processed using specialist software such as Pointfuse, to create high
fidelity 3D vector models. New functionality, recently launched to market, allow for these models to be made to look photorealistic with automatic and accurate texturing. Using the original RGB, Intensity or statistically derived values from the original point cloud, Pointfuse can
automatically add real world context.
So, not only are the 3D models truly accurate representations of the real
world, they now look and feel like the real world. Place this content within
the VR environment, and a new era really is dawning. Not only does the
immersive content look and feel real, but the user now has the ability to
take measurements and record or map detail in its true spatial location.
In terms of VR development, this is an important step forward as it
brings together, for possibly the first time, the accuracy of geographic modelling with the visual impact of real world simulation. This has
important and possibly far reaching implications for the mapping
and modelling worlds. To conclude, it may be said that, in the case
of professional VR, the whole truly may be greater than the sum of its
parts, and it’s going to be an interesting ride. (But don’t worry; someone will record it in case you miss anything!)
For more information, have a look at: www.arithmetica.com.
Imaging Technology and Management
Book review
Essential Earth Imaging
for GIS
30
By Eric van Rees
This book offers a basic education in imaging technology and management, promoting the
effective use of imaging tools in GIS. The companion exercises supplement the theory
well, making it an effective book for self-study.
Introduction
sions organized by image types,
and method of image formation. The
author starts off with a description of
the physical basis and general
methods of remote sensing, describing the concept of electromagnetic
radiation and the difference between passive and active remote
sensing. A handy table concludes
this chapter describing the general
methods of remote sensing by sensor
type (optical, thermal, laser and
radar). After this, the effects of the
atmosphere and cloud cover on
The book includes five companion
image quality are discussed, as well
exercises (available as a 46-page
as how remote sensing systems work
PDF file), exercise data and access
to minimize atmospheric interferento a free 180-day trial of ArcGIS, all
ce. Next, the author covers how pasavailable for download on the Esri
sive and active sensors influence the
Press “Book Resources” webpage.
attributes of imagery, rather than the
The author is an emeritus (retired)
engineering details of the sensors.
professor of forest remote sensing
This chapter is about instruments that
and geographic information systems
create two-dimensional images,
at Humboldt State University and
including cameras, multispectral senhas been a remote sensing consulsors and imaging radar and conclutant for twenty years.
des with a summary of the
Title:
Essential Earth Imaging for GIS
two-dimensional imagery types geContents
Author:
Lawrence Fox III
nerally available for input into GIS.
As the author writes in the preface
Number of pages: 128
Of even greater importance is the
of the book, imaging technology is
Language:
English
examination of the four different
rapidly advancing and so is the proPublisher:
Esri Press
characteristics of image resolution.
cessing functionality of GIS software
These allow practitioners to evaluate
Year published:
2015
in an endeavour to keep up with the
different types of remote sensing
ISBN:
9781589483453
images for a variety of applications
technology. This book is meant as a
regardless of the sensor technology used to produce them – namely
“basic education in imaging technology and management, promospatial, spectral, radiometric and temporal resolution.
ting the effective use of imaging tools”. Rather than a chronological
description of imaging technologies, the author chose to organize the
The display and enhancement of multispectral imagery in grey scale,
chapters by image data type and the method of image formation.
natural color and false color with GIS is discussed next. The two
penultimate chapters cover what used to be the territory of photoThe book is divided into eight chapters and, except for the first chapgrammetry specialists, namely the generation of three-dimensional
ter which discusses a brief history of Earth imaging, contains discus-
This new Esri Press book discusses the
characteristics of images obtained
from aircraft and spacecraft and
instructs how to enhance, register and
visually interpret multispectral imagery and point clouds. The book is targeted at GIS professionals who wish
to learn about basic imagery technology, and students who might want to
use it as a reference for introductory
GIS courses which include multispectral image display and analysis.
data with photogrammeThe exercises provided
tric measurements and
with the book can be
active sensors (chapter
done with access to
6) and image procesArcGIS software and
sing (chapter 7). These
exercise data provided
chapters are comprised
online with the book,
of image restoration,
covering mostly Landsat
rectification, and enhanimagery. The five exercicement and have been
ses cover most of the
expanded for this occainformation presented
sion to include converwith the book (LiDAR is
ting brightness values to
conspicuous
by
its
radiance and atmospheabsence; probably omitric correction of brightted as Esri Press is planness values. A scheme
ning a separate book
Figure 2: Natural-color composite creation with ArcGIS Desktop.
of a typical workflow
title on this topic soon). I
shows which image proused ArcGIS 10.1 to
cessing procedures are normally performed by image providers,
complete the exercises and encountered no problems (the PDF with exerimage analysts and GIS software users.
cises states that they were produced using ArcGIS 10.2.2 for Desktop
and tested in ArcGIS 10.3 for Desktop). Apart from instructions on how
The book concludes with a chapter on extracting information from
to do the exercises, they include goals and learning objectives, which is
images, such as manual image interpretation and feature delinequite handy from an educational perspective. In the exercises, you mostation, both of which can be done with GIS software. The author staly work with the Image Window and the Symbology tab in the Layer
tes that although advanced image processing functionality will likely
Properties. Working through these exercises, I found that some of them
continue to require specialized image processing software, some of
were quite lengthy, for example the second one covers 20 pages. As
that software will be integrated with GIS as an add-on product rather
there are no indications as to how much time might be spent on them, it
than a stand-alone software suite. This will allow GIS professionals to
would have been more logical to subdivide them into smaller chunks in
do more image analysis within a GIS environment.
order to make them more manageable.
The exercises illustrate the concepts of the book by applying them in
Esri’s ArcGIS Desktop software. The user learns how to assign colors
Another thing that struck me was that throughout the exercises certain
in multiband images, working with global brightness and contrast
things are explained that aren´t found in the book, making the inclumanipulation with histograms, as well as color-coding of a singlesion of them a necessary part of the book. The basic idea behind
band image and a vegetation index image. The last exercise shows
working through the exercises is that you are advised to read a cerhow to extract information from a multispectral image by digitizing
tain part of the book and then start a particular exercise, which becopolygons on screen.
mes a problem when you find out that the explanation of the theory
behind an exercise comes later in the book. This, of course, is not
Verdict
logical. I found, therefore, that it´s better to read through the entire
This short book can be seen as a crash-course on imaging technology
book and then begin the exercises. There was a bit of a disappointand management for GIS users. This sort of publication is very much
ment at the end of exercise two, when I discovered that it could only
welcome, as Esri Press has not published anything on this topic for a
be done with an ArcGIS Online subscription (which is not free of
long time. Although the book is short, it´s packed with information,
charge). I´m not sure why this part of the exercise was included and,
especially if you´re not familiar with the subject. It is, however, someas I didn´t have the appropriate subscription, I was unable to finish it.
times quite complex, especially when you start to work with color
There´s also no info about what sort of image services ArcGIS Online
bands and channels in ArcGIS for the first time.
offers, which is also curious given the scope of the book. And how do
The fact that it’s a short book means that choices have been made
ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Pro compare when it comes to imagery
and some information on the topic has had to be omitted, which
and 3D? Again, this line of enquiry is overlooked in this book.
might limit its audience (as the author states, there´s no info on engineering details of sensors, for example). There’s also little informaAlthough the book is not perfect, it does succeed in illustrating that
tion on LiDAR and interferometric radar sensors. Another omission is
GIS and remote sensing are no longer separate entities, but are
the lack of a discussion on data types and formats, thus avoiding any
becoming increasingly integrated. With the aid of an increasing
discussion on open source and commercial vendor formats. This is,
amount of sensors, imagery will increase in significance, making this
however, to be expected from a book from Esri Press as its target
crash-course all the more important. It´s well-written, informative and
the exercises supplement the theory nicely. It is an interesting addiaudience are ArcGIS users. There are a number of occasions in the
tion to the Esri Press catalogue as the exercises cover parts of ArcGIS
book when the author compares specialized imaging processing softthat I haven´t come across in other ArcGIS workbooks.
ware capabilities with those of ArcGIS. More of that would certainly
have been welcome, as it would have broadened the discussion on
these software packages and would have given the reader an overFor more information, have a look at:
view of what´s available. Unfortunately, this falls outside the scope of
http://esripress.esri.com.
this book.
31
Connecting Physical and Digital Worlds Accurately
Creating an Authoritative NSDI
Bentley Software helps to connect physical and digital worlds accurately with a geocontext to integrate and reference national data.
By Aidan Mercer
Article
ties, land parcels, roads, and buildings so that they can be uniquely
identified and referenced. Bentley Map, along with OSi-specified
custom tools, allowed the agency to manipulate the re-engineered
data as part of their remote sensing flowline. The EUR 4 million project has already saved more than EUR 600,000 in operating costs
and established OSi as a leader in spatial data infrastructure.
Common Reference System
Headquartered in Dublin and with six regional offices, OSi has been
mapping Ireland in detail since 1824. Core products and services
are in the vector data captured at a scale of 1:1000 in urban areas,
as well as full coverage of the entire country and an authoritative
boundary dataset. The agency’s products and services are widely
used in all sectors of Irish society. OSi data supports the social, economic, legislative, and administrative functions of the state in Ireland.
To fulfill these responsibilities, OSi must update core data in a timely
manner. At the same time, OSi strives to meet three challenges: make
the data more useable by using open formats, make the data more
accessible to users, and integrate and share spatial data through a
central publishing node.
32
A Visionary Framework
Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi), Ireland’s national mapping agency,
has developed a standardized, authoritative digital referencing framework that enables consistent referencing and integration of national data related to location. This visionary framework, known as
Prime2, allows GIS data users to accurately integrate and use multiple data sources for improved analysis and decision making, resource
optimization, and efficiency gains.
More than six years in the making, the new spatial data referencing
platform is an object-oriented, digital mapping data model that enables the maintenance and development of the underlying physical
infrastructure of Ireland. It adds a geo-context to objects such as utili-
Government officials increasingly recognized that adding a geo-context to existing data for effective decision making would result in significant benefits to customers and users. The true value of information
is realized when it is combined, integrated, or overlaid with other
relevant information to gain a better understanding of the combined
data, especially as it relates to a common location or geography. It
became apparent that using a common data environment for spatial
data is essential to achieving quality results and that ensuring interoperability would be key to a successful project.
In 2011, OSi began development of the spatial data infrastructure
(SDI) in a common data environment that would provide a standardized coordinate referencing system as well as a standardized digital
mapping reference system that meets European Commission standards. The SDI would provide a consistent format for storing and
managing data so that it can be more easily integrated with other
data for enhanced interoperability.
Reengineering Data
The strategic SDI initiative commenced by populating a new data storage model that would be available to OSi customers. The key challenge was to determine a detailed set of automated rules that could
be applied to the data set. Once the rule definition set was in place,
it was possible to reengineer and populate the data remotely from an
outsourced resource based in India.
Bentley Map, in combination with OSi-specified custom tools, allowed the project team to manipulate the reengineered data. Schema
33
The Prime2 data model is based on industry standards.
were developed to extract Prime2 data from Oracle and encode
data in geography markup language (GML). Topology validation
tools checked all data changed by the user prior to exporting the
data to GML. The changed GML data was then imported back to
Prime2.
This authoritative spatial reference framework was delivered in 2014
and has so far ensured consistent and unique referencing of topological state information, both in terms of location and in terms of ID tag
referencing. The Prime2 data model reengineered 80 million cartographic items into 50 million real-world features.
Prime2 is an object-oriented digital mapping data model designed
and developed based on industry standards. Each mapping object
such as buildings, land parcels, roads, and utility infrastructure is uniquely identified and referenced throughout the object lifecycle via a
geographic unique identification code. The 3D data models multistory buildings, parking lots, subterranean utilities, and other features.
Seamless Data Network
The rules-based approach to Prime2 was integral to quality control.
The new data platform enables the joining of multiple national datasets, which allows for better analysis, more informed decision making,
and greater work efficiencies in both the public and private sectors.
The service-oriented architecture used to manage data workflow
between the home office and field-based operators provided quality
control via the rules-based approach. This highly efficient solution
also provides significant cost and resource savings, as well as improving the accuracy of the data.
The seamless database of roads, rail, and rivers allows users to
query the data based on network connectivity themes. This modeling
approach also negates the need for repeat surveys, providing considerable cost savings.
OSi data will not only help the government improve services to citizens but also report on European Union directives pertaining to
water usage, climate change, and other initiatives for European
Commission standards compliance.
Three-year ROI
The efficiencies introduced by the Prime2 spatial data referencing
platform have already saved OSi more than EUR 600,000 in operating costs. Prime2 introduced production workflow efficiencies that
allowed OSi to reduce staff. Meanwhile, Bentley software has reduced ongoing database administration overhead as well as potential
capital expenditures.
OSi projects a three-year return on investment based on production
efficiencies and resource savings. As new products and services
become available, the agency will also see future business growth.
Ireland’s geospatial information industry contributed more than EUR
69.3 million in terms of gross value added to the economy in 2012,
and that contribution is expected to grow with the accessibility of
quality spatial data.
Aidan Mercer is a Senior Industry Marketer at Bentley Systems with 6 years’
experience in high-technology environments.
Event
Conference and Trade Fair News
Intergeo 2015
(source: HINTE GmbH/INTERGEO)
The 21st Intergeo was held this year in September. This three-day geospatial event drew
16,500 visitors and featured 545 international exhibitors from 30 nations. A number of
product releases from the major exhibitors are covered below.
34
By the editors
I
ntergeo is an annual event for geodesy, geoinformation and land
management. The event consists of
a conference and a trade fair and
is held at a different venue each
year in Germany. The conference deals
with current issues from politics, administration, science and industry and anticipates around 1,200 participants. The
21st Intergeo was held in Stuttgart this
year. This is the capital city of BadenWürttemberg (Germany) and the event
took place from 15th-17th September.
This time the exhibition drew 16,500
visitors and the event showed a fifteen
percent growth in exhibitors and floor
space. There were 545 international
exhibitors from 30 nations spread
across more than 30,000 square meters
at the exhibition.
Conference highlights
The conference was opened with keynote
speeches by Chris Cappelli (Esri) on “The
Age of the Location Platform: How
Mapping and GIS are Transforming the
Work Environment” and Prof. Georg
Gartner (TU Wien, Vienna University of
Applied Sciences), President of the
International Cartographic Association,
on “The Future of the Map – the Map of
the Future”. A panel discussion held on
the second day on “Geospatial information – a key element for emerging markets” included Bengt Kjellson (UN-GGIM
Europe), Ola Rollen (Hexagon), Steve
Berglund (Trimble) and Chris Cappelli
(Esri). A further key topic at the conference, which will undoubtedly have a profound effect on the working world, was
geoinformation and mobility. Another
couple of topics covered at the conference
of particular interest were geodata as a
basis for construction management and
land development and big data.
It was good to see that the conference
organizers had decided to offer keynote
Drones
speeches and plenary talks in English, as
In line with international trends, drones
well as providing simultaneous interprewere destined to be a significant part of
ting for one strand of the conference on
this year´s exhibition. The trend in these unmanned aerial systems
the second day. This is a clear break with past conferences, where the
(UAS) is moving towards integrated surveying solutions that cover
majority of information was delivered in German. Hopefully, this shift
both the complete workflow; from flight planning to data evaluation
will attract more international conference visitors in the future.
and which can be fully integrated into geodesy work processes. As
announced at last year´s event, this year´s edition brought together
drone exhibitioners in a joint exhibition area and a flight zone outside of the venue. This was next to Stuttgart’s airport where live
demonstrations were provided showing the integration of flight planning, flight mission, data recording and later data processing, including transfer to a full range of software solutions for GIS and surveying purposes.
In order to integrate drones into the event, the Intergeo organization
teamed up with UAV-DACH e.V., the trade association for UAV systems in the German-speaking region. The association hosted a specialist forum that was part of the interaerial solutions exhibit and
made key contributions to establishing the aforementioned flight
zone. The interaerial solutions forum featured a three-day program
consisting of presentations from exhibitors such as Trimble, senseFly,
MAVinci Gmbh, DroneDeploy and Aibotix Gmbh.
Exhibition product releases
The following section provides an overview of major exhibitors’
recent hardware and software releases at the event.
Leica Geosystems released the SiTrack: One, a highly-accurate rail
track maintenance and refurbishment system incorporating the Leica
ScanStation P40 to generate 3D point clouds, which ensure complete
coverage of the entire rail infrastructure surface without the need to
receive GNSS signals for position information. The total solution for
rail maintenance and refurbishment produces synchronized engineering, survey-grade 3D point clouds for accurate as-built drawings.
Also on display were the Leica Captivate and the Leica
Pegasus:Backpack, which had been presented earlier this year at
HxGN LIVE in Las Vegas.
Riegl released the RIEGL VZ-400i 3D Laser Scanner, which is the evolution of RIEGL’s VZ-400 terrestrial laser scanner. The VZ-400i offers
ultra-high speed data acquisition at up to 1.2 MHz Pulse Repetition
Rate, an accuracy of survey-grade 5mm and delivers reliable scan
data based on RIEGL’s proprietary know-how in laser scanning technology.
A second new offering was the RIEGL BathyCopter, the world’s first
Small-UAV-based surveying system capable of measurements through
water and is suited for generating profiles of rivers or water reservoirs. The platform design integrates the topo-bathymetric green laser
depth-meter, an IMU/GNSS unit with antenna, a control unit and a
digital camera.
More product news from Riegl included the introduction of the VQ880-G Topo-Bathymetric Airborne Laser Scanning System now being
equipped with an optional infrared channel to supplement the data
acquired by the green laser and to further increase data reliability
and quality. There were also some software releases, such as the
new RIEGL Database (RDB) Format 2.0 now offering one Level of
Detail (LOD), additional point attributes, metadata information, and
SDK for 3rd party support.
Trimble presented its range of geospatial solutions, including UAS
imaging solutions, laser scanning solutions and mobile data capture
and mapping solutions. Trimble announced the availability of the
fixed-wing Trimble UX5 HP, a fully automated, high-precision system
35
capable of capturing aerial photography with resolutions down to
one cm with its 36 megapixel full-frame high-resolution camera.
Flight demonstrations were given for Trimble’s ZX5 Multirotor, which
captures and processes geo-referenced photo and video data for
mapping, volumetric and inspection applications. The ZX5 complements the Trimble UX5 fixed-wing system with the ability to reach
smaller, remote environments faster, while providing accurate mapping data. Other announcements included the Trimble MX7 mobile
imaging system; new versions of Trimble Business Center,
eCognition, Inpho UASMaster, RealWorks and Trident software, and
application examples demonstrating the integration of multi-sensor
data.
Intergraph launched a new Green GIS initiative in Europe, which
offers a more energy-efficient and, therefore, climate-friendly IT process. With the patented ECW (Enhanced Compressed Wavelet) data
compression format, in combination with the new version of the
ERDAS APOLLO application, Intergraph and its Hexagon Geospatial
software offer a solution package that drastically reduces the volume
of raster data and point clouds. This minimizes demands on storage
capacity and the associated operating and cooling power requirements. ERDAS APOLLO also minimizes the demand for servers, computing power and data transfer rates.
Teledyne Optech launched Lynx SG-S mobile surveying solution; a
welcome addition to its line of Lynx mobile survey systems. The Lynx
SG-S is built for surveyors conducting demanding, high-performance
projects. It combines a high-performance lidar sensor combined with
the Optech LMS Pro software, a high performance inertial navigation
Event
36
system, and deeply integrated Ladybug 5 camera. The software suite
delivers real-time data display and survey control with Optech Lynx
Survey and trajectory optimization with Applanix POSPac. The Lynx
SG-S system is positioned between the mapping-grade Lynx MG
model and Lynx SG mobile survey systems.
FARO announced a more accurate version of their Freestyle3D handheld scanner and a group of updated software offerings. The
Freestyle3D X is accurate to less than one mm and has an IP rating of
IP52, which means it can be used in harsh environments with dust
and water protection. The scanner also includes an “auto-mode”
automatic flash, which measures existing light conditions and turns
on an LED light when necessary. Also announced were versions 16.5
of the PointSense laser-scanning software and VirtuSurv, as well as
new AutoCAD plug-ins.
Topcon announced three new 3D scanners in their GLS line. The GLS2000S is rated for short-range applications, at distances of up to 130m.
The GLS-2000M is rated for mid-range applications, up to 350m. The
GLS-2000L is rated for long-range applications up to 500m. The scanners are designed using Topcon’s Precise Scan Technology II, which
can emit pulses up to three times faster than previous GLS scanners.
Each scanner includes two five megapixel cameras, one equipped
with a 170-degree wide-angle lens for high-speed imaging, and the
other with 8.9-degree telephoto lens that is aligned with the measuring axis. The scanner quickly switches focal length settings depending on the scan.
Microsoft’s UltraCam business unit introduced two new versions of
the UltraCam Osprey. First came the UltraCam Osprey Prime II, with
bigger nadir PAN, nadir RGB, nadir NIR and oblique RGB footprints
and secondly, the UltraCam Osprey Prime Lite as a new entry-level
camera system. Both combine a high performing photogrammetric
nadir camera with oblique image capture capabilities. The UltraCam
Osprey Prime Lite features five RGB color cones in total for nadir and
oblique collection and an optional nadir NIR cone can be integrated.
Also introduced was an updated version of the UltraCam Eagle, providing UltraCam customers with increased operational efficiencies
through an enlarged PAN image footprint, expanded storage capacity, and reduced weight and power consumption.
Intergeo 2016 will be held in Hamburg from 11th to 13th October.
For more information, have a look at: www.intergeo.de.
SkyTech is back for 2016, returning to London on the 27th & 28th January. Now in its second edition
SkyTech is more than doubling in size, featuring 70 exhibitors, 50 speakers and over 3000 attendees.
European Drone Marketplace
Entire Drone Supply Chain
Discover the latest in cutting edge technology & services at this mustattend marketplace for the European drone industry. Gain access to
information, connections and marketing solutions through 3 conferences, workshops, product launches, live demonstrations, networking events and a free-to-attend exhibition.
SkyTech will be attended by experts from across the drone industry,
bringing together manufacturers, software developers, suppliers,
component & sensor developers, service providers, government,
academia, investors, trade associations and regulatory bodies.
SkyTech will also bring together buyers from a range of targeted
industries including agriculture, environment, oil & gas, infrastructure, utilities, construction & property, policing, fire service, search &
rescue, media, broadcasting and mining.
New for 2016 SkyTech will also include breakout workshop sessions
for new drone users and three packed conference programmes:
• UAV Industry Conference: Over the course of two days senior level speakers will present on matters of regulation, safety,
data protection & privacy, next generation technology, research
& development, investment and funding support.
• The Survey Industry Conference: SkyTech will also feature
a two-day conference dedicated to the rapidly expanding use of
drones for the surveying, remote sensing, mapping and geospatial professions. Innovative uses for drones within the fields of
agriculture, the environment, oil & gas, mining, utilities, energy,
asset management, infrastructure and construction will be addressed through a combination of academic, industry and case study
led sessions.
• Applications Conference: SkyTech’s applications conference
will take place on the second day of the event. Manufacturers,
solution providers and end users will present the latest advances
and applications for drones within the fields of policing, search
and rescue, fire service, sport, security, real estate, media and
broadcasting.
• Workshops: SkyTech’s breakout workshops are must-attend
sessions for new and prospective drone users. These free-to-attend
interactive sessions will give you everything you need to know
about drones; get to grips with regulation & safety, meet with
qualification providers and discover the next steps for incorporating drones into your business.
Unmanned Air Systems Technology & Innovation Awards 2016
SkyTech 2016 will also host the inaugural Unmanned Air Systems
Technology & Innovation Awards. With the unmanned aviation
industry developing at such a great pace the awards have been
established to recognise innovation, excellence and growth across
the industry. The awards are open to all organisations involved in
the unmanned aviation industry, with entries welcomed from across
the globe. The awards will honour those organisations which have
pushed at the boundaries of unmanned aviation, serving as an endorsement of determination, hard work and a celebration of success.
The awards are now open for submissions, with the final closing
date for entries set as the 20th December 2015. Entries will be analysed by a select panel of judges. Winners will be announced
during a ceremony hosted at SkyTech 2016 on 27th January.
This year’s awards will select four winners:
• Start-up of the Year 2016
• The Innovation Award 2016
• Service Solution of the Year 2016
• The Award for Business Growth 2016
For more information or to register for your tickets to attend visit the event website
www.skytechevent.com.
event preview
SkyTech 2016
37
CLGE newsletter
Geoskills Plus Final Conference
The final event of the GeoSkills Plus project took place on 17th September 2015 at the House of European
Surveyors and Geoinformation in Brussels, Belgium. Organised by the Council of European Surveyors and the
Ordre Belge des Géomètres-Experts asbl in cooperation with the partners of this Leonardo Transfer of Innovation
project, the conference discussed the situation regarding geospatial careers, skills and education in Europe.
Karl Donnert and Jean-Yves Pirlot
geoskills in Belgium. Representatives of all the components of the “golden pyramid” – academics,
public authorities, business sector, professional
associations – offered an overview of the quantitative and qualitative gaps affecting the geospatial
market and other issues that affect this sector.
It was very worthwhile to unite all these players in
an official and structural way. Most of the time, the
same kind of issues are discussed in informal ways.
Unfortunately, it is often the case that during these
sort of occasions even important breakthroughs typically reach no concrete resolution. In conclusion, it
was decided to go on with the discussions during
the forthcoming BeGeo event, in March 2016.
38
CLGE President Maurice Barbieri signs the Brussels GeoSkillsPlus Declaration
T
he conference hosted a keynote presentation by João Santos,
Head of Unit of the Directorate General for Employment, Social
affairs and Inclusion at the European Commission, entitled
Medium and Long Term EU “Vocational Education and Training
policy” priorities. It was a very interesting presentation, paving the
way for other possible projects in the field of Sector Skill Alliances.
Sector Skills Alliances aim at tackling skills gaps; enhancing the responsiveness of initial and continuing Vocational Education and Teaching systems to
sector-specific labour market needs and responding to the demand for new
skills with regard to one or more occupational profiles.
These objectives will be achieved by:
• Modernising Vocational Education and Training and exploiting its potential
to drive economic development and innovation, notably at local and regional levels, thus increasing the competitiveness of the sectors concerned.
• Strengthening the exchange of knowledge and practice between vocational education and training institutions and the labour market by integrating work-based learning.
• Facilitating labour mobility, mutual trust and increased recognition of
qualifications at European level within the sectors concerned.
The Final GeoSkills Plus Conference also included a special session on
The conference participants were invited to sign the
Brussels Declaration on GeoSkills in Europe; a document that makes a series of recommendations for
establishing a spatially enabled society and meeting the growing needs for “geoskills” at national
and European level.
About GeoSkills Plus
Under the Digital Agenda for Europe, the European Commission has identified the need for 21st Century e-skills as a key determinant for the future
growth and development of the European economy. The European market
has to deal with a range of specific e-skills shortages, gaps and mismatches. The GeoSkills Plus Project created opportunities to address the quantitative and qualitative gaps in relation to the demand of Geospatial specialist
and to offer solutions to bridge the gaps.
The main outcomes of the project include:
1. a cooperation model to be used across the geospatial marketplace,
2. strategies for raising awareness of the subject and approaches for solving the mismatch between the market requirements on labour force and
the numbers of students provided by the geospatial vocational education
and training institutions and
3. the identification of ways to bridge the gaps that exist in the geospatial
market, which currently prevent the system from working properly.
The GeoSkills Plus project is a Transfer of Innovation Project funded by the
Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission. The House of
the European Surveyor and GeoInformation is located at 76 Rue de Nord,
1000 Brussels, Belgium.
39
From left to right: Eric Bayers (Associations), Tanguy de Lestré (Labour market), Kris Lentacker (Government), Rolan Billen (Academics) and Eric Auqière (Government)
For more information, please contact:
• Jean-Yes Pirlot, e-mail: [email protected]
or [email protected]
• Paula Dijkstra, e-mail: [email protected]
• Karen Levoleger, email: [email protected]
Thursday 17th September 2015, Brussels Manifesto
on GeoSkills in Europe
The GeoSkills Plus Project has developed a platform that can be used to
improve skills for geospatial vocational education and training in Europe
and encourage cooperation between the geospatial academic domain
and the world of work.
The GeoSkills methodology was developed and used to identify and analyse key factors responsible for the mismatches in education, training and
employment in Belgium, Bulgaria, Lithuania and The Netherlands.
The final meeting of GeoSkills Plus demonstrated the methodology that
was developed to define the gap between key players in the geospatial
sector within a country.
Results on how to establish a golden pyramid at national and regional
level have been presented. For future success, one of the key elements
identified is to create a solid foundation for the pyramid.
GeoSkills Plus has produced an overview of the opportunities for aware-
• Follow GeoSkills Plus on the Web:
www.geoskillsplus.eu, Twitter: @GeoskillsPlus and Facebook:
www.facebook.com/groups/1484458188448204
The final declaration was not only signed by major participating associations, but also by many individual participants attending the conference.
The full text of the Declaration can be read here.
ness raising activities that countries might use in their efforts to raise awareness about the importance of ‘geoskills’.
Recommendations
In order to establish a spatially enabled society and meet growing needs
for ‘geoskills’ at national and European level, we make the following recommendations:
Measures to monitor, identify and address the qualitative and quantitative
gaps in the geospatial labour market in all European countries should be
a European priority to be developed, supported and resourced.
In order to exchange strategies and best practices between countries and
associations, raise awareness of the relevance and importance of geospatial education in Europe, and the need to recognise surveying and geocareers.
Resources must be provided to encourage joint cooperation between all
levels of education, government, the labour market and professional associations.
CLGE newsletter
The End of an Era and a New Beginning
for Geomatics in Ireland
The merger of the Society of Chartered Surveyors, Ireland with the Irish Institute of Surveyors is now a fact and
heralds a new beginning for the Geomatics Sector in Ireland.
Muiris de Buitleir
40
F
or many years there were two professional bodies representing surveyors
in Ireland. The older of the two institutions, The Society of Chartered
Surveyors, Ireland had a very strong
representation amongst quantity surveyors,
building surveyors and other similar construction
oriented branches of the profession, whilst the
more recently established of the two institutions,
The Irish Institution of Surveyors, was exclusively
representative of geodetic surveyors. In recent
years integrations took place between the SCSI
and various other surveying institutions, particu- The Irish Institute of Surveyors was well represented at CLGE. Here you can see its
successive Presidents. Back row left to right: Paul Burke, Brendan Sweeny,
larly property management surveyors, resulting
Eugene McGovern, Paddy Prendergast; Front row: Mike Flynn, John Dixon,
in a society with a membership of over 5,000
Muiris de Buitléir, Paul Corrigan.
representing practically every branch of the surveying profession in Ireland.
Some two years ago, a number of members of the
full range of other surveying disciplines providing a
small geomatics professional group within SCSI,
synergy and degree on interaction, that never existput forward the idea, during informal encounters
ed before. The strength and comprehensive coverwith members of the council of IIS, that there might
age of SCSI allow it to speak with a powerful and
be considerable merit in exploring the possibility of
coherent voice, particularly to government and
a merging of the membership of the two institutions
other representative bodies, on all matters that conto the mutual benefit of all members. IIS saw
cern surveyors and surveying.
advantage in the suggestion and a more formal
process of discussion and negotiation was
IIS members are justly proud of what they have
embarked upon. This continued over a period of
achieved over the years. IIS was in existence for
two years, until finally, after many vicissitudes, an
exactly 25 years, and during that time represented
agreement, mutually acceptable to all parties, was
geodetic surveyors in Ireland on the councils and
reached. The process reached its culmination in
committees of CLGE and also, jointly with SCSI, on
late June of this year with the signing of an asset
FIG. A great deal of good work was achieved,
transfer agreement between IIS and SCSI, which
including the production and publication of many
allowed for the transfer of all existing members of
key papers on aspects of surveying in Irish life, the
IIS to SCSI, with agreed levels of membership
most important of which were the papers dealing
grade, and the wind-down and disbandment of IIS
with boundary issues in land registration. IIS, given
as an institution.
its small size, also punched above its weight in its
contribution to CLGE. Paddy Prendergast and subThis event marks a new dawn in the representation
sequent presidents were enthusiastic participants in
of geomatics surveyors in Ireland. For the first time
European surveying affairs. Many of those from
all practitioners are members of a single, strong
other European countries, who were active in
institution. No longer alone are the geomaticists
CLGE affairs over the years will know Paddy, as he
united, but they share an institutional body with the
was the primary Irish representative, both as secre-
tary or president of IIS, during the early years of
IIS and CLGE.
IIS started in a very small way, with eight members and grew over the years to an impressive
540 members; at its highest point, representing
practically the entire geomatics profession in
Ireland. Our membership now look forward to
their new future with SCSI. We have every confidence that geomatics will grow and prosper in
its new home and that the influx of new and
active members to SCSI will guarantee a geomatics community that will be vibrant and ambitious. In both the Irish and European spheres
there are a great many issues where surveyors
can play a beneficial and constructive role. It is
my earnest hope that the Society of Chartered
Surveyors Ireland will play such a role and that the
profession of surveying will advance to the benefit
of the practitioners and to the benefit of their clients
who stand to gain so much from the application of
the surveyors professional expertise, not to mention
the government and administrative agencies in
which surveying plays such a key operational part.
The constant advances in technology opens up limitless opportunities in surveying and its related disciplines. It is up to us, as members of the profession,
to identify these opportunities and to develop them
for the benefit of all. Surveyors have a unique set of
skills and qualifications which allow them to
engage in such projects and bring them to fruition
especially when such knowledge and expertise is
supported by a high level of ethical and professional behaviour. Of course, we should not forget the
long standing focus of geomatics surveying, over
the years, on cadastre, property registration and
civil engineering. The new technologies also make
possible advances and improvements in these traditional areas.
COLUMN
Is new GIS walking
before it runs?
Three worlds define new GIS and what is now
possible:
1. Mobile – Suddenly with low cost mobile devices – smartphones and tablets – location became important to everybody.
2. Cloud – Location (GIS) services hosted in the
amazon cloud etcetera became available at
any time (without the need for expensive, complex set ups). And with releases like ArcGIS
Online, GIS was suddenly accessible and easy
to use for all.
3. Vision/Process – Finally visions can become
reality. Intransitable problems now have potential solutions. Finally the closed narrow “map
expert” world we had lived in is going away.
To be replaced by a new exciting use of GIS
and location technology to answer questions.
An endless stream of location based questions.
But, I’m confused. I’m reading, talking, listening,
running a location technology company and let
me tell you I do not understand. Not at all.
Everything seems to be moving slowly. Is that just
our experience? And if is not then why?
New GIS is Confusing
Let's consider mobile GIS. Today there are three
popular patterns or approaches:
1. Linked Native Mobile GIS Apps
These are native mobile apps which provide a
fixed set of tools with pre-designed workflows.
They are light-weight and focused, increasingly
linked with other apps. For example Esri’s
Collector for ArcGIS opening Navigator for
ArcGIS.
2. Configurable Mobile GIS Apps
Configurable apps can be styled to fit with an
organizations branding, with the option to
add/remove map tools as required. Customization is less easy, but these are more flexible than linked native apps.
3. Mobile GIS Web Apps
Mobile GIS Web apps offer maximum flexibility, and in many ways provide the best of all
worlds: configurable, customizable with
advanced functionality. They run on any device
and any platform, and can be converted to a
native-like app using Phonegap.
Matt Sheehan is Principal and Senior
Developer at WebmapSolutions.
The company build location focused
mobile applications for GIS, mapping
and location based services (LBS).
Matt can be reached at
[email protected].
There are good arguments to choose one of other
of the above patterns based on requirements. But
deciding which is the best choice for your particular problem takes understanding, time, and careful thought.
41
Is new GIS walking before it runs?
If new GIS is truly walking before it runs, my suspicion is this slowness is driven by the new world of
GIS being confusing, and a little threatening. The
value message has yet to be fully realized. Cloud
based mobile GIS turns our world on its head.
Maybe that is just it. For those familiar with the
technology it is such a huge change, many are still
wary. Those new to GIS are struggling to see the
advantages this technology brings to their organizations. GIS is far more than simply publishing a
spreadsheet to ArcGIS Online. Or indeed just
about a map.
Part of our service offering at WebMapSolutions
are GIS fast tracks; low cost jump start implementation packages. Helping organizations quickly
get up and running or advance their use of GIS.
Simple, focused, accelerated help. I’ll be honest,
this area of our service business is slow. Quite the
opposite of what we expected. Such huge changes take time. It truly feels like GIS is walking before it runs.
For me, what I always wanted from my working
life was to apply geography (using GIS) to solve
problems. Location based problems. And there
are so many. With cloud and mobile technology
we now have all the pieces in place to add incredible value to organizations. But revolutions do
not happen overnight. Looking to new non-traditional approaches to solving GIS problems, and a
degree of patience, would appear to be today’s
reality.
C a l e n d a r 2 0 1 5 - 2 0 1 6 / A d v e r t i se r s I n d e x
23 November UDMV 2015 - 3rd Eurographics Workshop on Urban Data
Modelling and Visualisation
Delft, The Netherlands
Internet: https://3d.bk.tudelft.nl/events/udmv2015
October
20-21 October CyArk 500 Global Summit
Berlin, Germany
Internet: http://archive.cyark.org/500_2015/index.php
23-25 November Capturing Reality forum
Salzburg Congress, Austria
Internet: www.CapturingRealityForum.com
21-22 October Geospatial Techniques in Geosciences
Taza, Morocco
Internet: https://sites.google.com/a/usmba.ac.ma/gt-geosciences
23-25 November 4th International Geoscience and Geomatics Conference
Manama, Bahrain
Internet: http://arabgeomatics.com
22-23 October High Precision GNSS using Post-Processing
Newcastle University, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, U.K.
Internet: www.ncl.ac.uk/cegs.cpd/cpd/gnsspostprocess.php
26-29 October 15th International Scientific and Technical Conference “From
imagery to map: digital photogrammetric technologies”
Yucatan, Mexico
Internet: www.racurs.ru
28-29 October DroneShow 2015
São Paulo, Brazil
Internet: www.droneshowla.com
December
3 December GeoDATA Seminar
London, U.K.
Internet: www.geoinformationgroup.co.uk/training/geoDATA
28-30 October Geoadvances 2015, 2nd International Workshop on
GeoInformation Advances & ISPRS WG II/2 Workshop
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Internet: www.geoadvances.org
9-11 December 9th International Symposium on Mobile Mapping Technology
(MMT2015)
Sydney, Australia
Internet: www.mmt2015.org
28-30 October 10th International 3D Geoinfo conference
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Internet: http://3dgeoinfo.com
www.geoinfo.utm.my/jointgeoinfo2015
9-11 December SPATIAL the un-conference - Spatial Information for Human Health
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, U.S.A.
Internet: http://spatial.ucsb.edu/spatial2015
10-11 December GeoBIM
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Internet: www.geo-bim.org/Europe
November
42
23-25 November GeoCom: Resilient Futures
Chesford Grange, U.K.
Internet: www.agi.org.uk/events/geocom
2-5 November Bentley The Year in Infrastructure 2015
Hilton Metropole, London, U.K.
Internet: https://app.certain.com/profile/web/index.cfm?PKWebId=0x58649397e7
2016
5 November GeoDATA Seminar
Belfast, U.K.
27-28 January SkyTech 2016
Business Design Centre, London, U.K.
Internet: www.skytechevent.com
10-12 November Esri Developer Summit Europe
Berlin, Germany
Internet: www.esri.com/events/devsummit-europe
18-19 February 7th International Conference “Geodesy, Mine Survey and Aerial
Photography. At the turn of the centuries”
Moscow, Russia
E-mail: info@con-fig.com
Internet: www.con-fig.com
12 November GeoDATA Seminar
Edinburgh, U.K.
16-19 November Pacific Islands GIS\RS User Conference 2015 ‘Bridging
Information Gaps by Creating Smarter Maps’
Suva, Fiji
Internet: http://picgisrs.appspot.com
11-15 April ASPRS 2016 Annual Conference
Grand Sierra Hotel, Reno, NV, U.S.A.
Internet: www.asprs.org
16-20 November Joint Workshop and Annual Meeting on Crowdsourcing of Land
Information of FIG Commission 3, Commission 7 and Malta institution of
Surveyors
St. Julians, Malta
Internet: http://com3fig.wix.com/fig-commission3-2015
18-20 November HxGN LIVE 2015
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Internet: http://hxgnlive.com/hkg.htm
19-20 November Geography 2050: Exploring Our Future in an Urbanized World
Columbia University, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Internet: www.geography2050.org
26-27 April 2nd International Conference on Geographical Information Systems
Theory, Applications and Management - GISTAM 2016
Rome, Italy
Internet: www.gistam.org
24-25 May GEO Business 2016
Business Design Centre, London, U.K.
Internet: www.GeoBusinessShow.com
31 May - 2 June Hexagon Geospatial Defence Summit Western Europe
Vaalserberg, The Netherlands
Internet: http://2016.hexdefsummit.eu
Please feel free to e-mail your calendar notices to: [email protected]
Advertisers Index
12
RIEGL
www.riegl.com
9
Spectra
www.spectraprecision.com
2
www.trace.me
17
Topcon
www.topconpositioning.eu
44
www.leica-geosystems.com
43
DAT/EM Systems
www.datem.com
Hexagon
www.hexagongeospatial.com/smartmapp
KCS TraceME
Leica Geosystems
13
Leica ScanStation P30/40
Because every detail matters
The right choice
Whether you need a detailed as-built representation of a façade,
a 2D floor plan or 3D data for integration into Building
Information Modelling (BIM), real-time planning of architecture
and building projects with fast and accurate deliverables is
important. The new ScanStation laser scanners from Leica
Geosystems are the right choice, because every detail matters.
High performance under harsh conditions
The Leica ScanStations deliver highest quality 3D data and HDR
imaging at an extremely fast scan rate of 1 mio points per
second at ranges of up to 270 m. Unsurpassed range and angular
accuracy paired with low range noise and survey-grade dual-axis
compensation form the foundation for highly detailed 3D colour
point clouds mapped in realistic clarity.
Leica Geosystems AG
Heerbrugg, Switzerland
scanstation.leica-geosystems.com
Reduced downtime
The extremely durable new laser scanners perform even under
the toughest environmental conditions, such as extreme
temperatures ranging from – 20°C to + 50°C and comply with the
IP54 rating for dust and water resistance.
Complete scanning solution
Leica Geosystems offers the new Leica ScanStation portfolio as
an integrated part of a complete scanning solution including
hardware, software, service, training and support. 3D laser
scanner data can be processed in the industry’s leading 3D
point cloud software suite, which consists of Leica Cyclone
stand-alone software, Leica CloudWorx plug-in tools for CAD
systems and the free Leica TruView.

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