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GISWeekly examines select top news each week, picks out worthwhile reading from around the web, and special interest items you might not find elsewhere. This issue will feature Industry News, Top News of the Week, Acquisitions, Agreements, Alliances, Announcements, People, New Products, Around the Web and Events Calendar.

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Susan Smith, Managing Editor

Industry News
Skape Takes on 3D City Scapes
By Susan Smith

Known for its aerial imagery and height data, UK-based geospatial company Infoterra has been acquiring high resolution lidar data of big cities in the UK for its new 3D product Skape.



Skape is a geospatial 3D city mapping service product from Infoterra that offers advanced imagery of 3D heighted buildings of the UK's major cities. 99% of the data collected for this product is Infoterra-owned, and the company uses its own dedicated fleet of aircraft to capture fully textured imagery. The new product is designed for environmentalists, architects, planners, local authorities and surveyors. Skape enables users to manipulate urban landscapes online by combining high resolution 3D textured city models with 2D mapping and terrain data.

According to Jamie Ritchie, Skape allows users to access major UK cities, enabling urban planners to quickly develop highly detailed architectural models and save time and costs. Skape lets users import new buildings into city scapes and view them within the context of their surroundings, and remove existing buildings and replace them with others. The online environment has a high level of accuracy so that varying building textures, street furniture, light and sun shadowing at different times of the day, and unlimited vantage points can be observed from anywhere.

Jamie Ritchie, director of marketing for Skape, said, “One of the differences between Skape and other 3D building products is that the buildings and the terrain are very high resolution, we're talking about in London the lidar height accuracy is sub 1m  and the oblique imagery resolution is between 5cm and 8cm."
Ritchie said Skape has five different ingredients, including

• Terrain used in the past which is 1 meter DTM
• Aerial oblique imagery used in flying all the big cities in the UK
• Physical building geometries created through lidar
• Modeling technique to automate everything

Some complex structures such as St. Paul's Cathedral have had to be done by hand. By combining their own data, high resolution lidar and oblique imagery, the company has created a type of pilot for the UK for other cities, and they are doing other European cities currently. Ritchie said they can create a city in 3D in Skape in six to eight weeks.



Skape utilizes Midas technology for oblique imagery which offers five centimeter resolution in big cities such as London and Birmingham. Ritchie explained that combining 3D city models with 2D mapping is relatively new. “We've been working with 2D, terrain modeling and rough building models for companies such as telecoms for 10-15 years,” said Ritchie. Most “3D” is still 2 ½ D, “whereas we model every single building, and every building has its own geometry and roof geometry. It's new for us, and it's a first in terms of creating individual buildings where we can attribute data --whether it's emergency services data, or occupy data that you can see in Skape. You can see what shops are in a building.”

Complementing Building Information Modeling

Ritchie said they liken the product to being more “like building information modeling (BIM).”

We have seen geospatial infiltrate many markets in the past few years, and it is notable that Skape has targeted the architectural market. Some of the larger architectural firms in the UK have asked for a cost effective tool that allows them to use far more immersive 3D imagery as an alternative to the expensive process of creating high resolution scanned, surveyed images. With BIM, architects want to attach information to the buildings in 3D.

From the GIS side, a GIS manager who wants to export a model from Skape can put it within a GIS platform like Autodesk LandXplorer or 3D Studio Max. “They don't have to use Skape as a software tool, they can use something else,” said Ritchie. “In the GIS realm we have people using it for light studies for acoustic studies as well as planning for windfarms.”


As an online mapping service, users can buy data, 3D models and 2D ordnance survey mapping from Skape, as well as delete and import buildings, and create online flythroughs.



Those people who are accustomed to using Google Earth and SketchUp will find Skape to be “second nature.” AEC users as well as users in local authorities who are not familiar with 3D will find it easy to use. “The cost of exporting an average 3D model would be in the region of £200,” said Ritchie, adding that in terms of licensing Skape licenses 3D models for the duration of a project so that many engineers and third parties can use it.

Care has been taken to ensure that the 3D models can be exported into Autodesk's DWG format, MicroStation DGN, and 3D Studio Max, as those are the biggest CAD software programs used in the UK and Europe.

In the very early stages most people are going to use SketchUp and are not going to use expensive software, therefore they'll probably use Skape for very simple visualization. Ritchie said those people using AutoCAD, 3D Studio Max and MicroStation will be exporting it in the formats that are appropriate for their work.

“We've tried to keep it open, so if people want to make it cost effective to export models then they can use Skape and those who want to export it and then use it within AutoCAD or Bentley can do that as well.”

“We've found that Autodesk LandXplorer which is relatively new product but very powerful in terms of managing 3D models very quickly, it's one of the few products that actually handles both interactive information as well as 3D models quite well,” said Ritchie. “I think the market is slowly getting there in terms of management of 3D because it's such big media.”

“Google Earth is your best friend and worst enemy,” noted Ritchie. “It's been great because they've given 3D a wider audience, however, people's perception of how it's used is very different, especially on a professional basis.”

Point Cloud Data

Infoterra (Skape) is working with architects and engineering companies to provide that point cloud data service. At this point it cannot actually import point cloud data but is working with clients. Skape's Bespoke Solution makes it possible to acquire point cloud data on the streets quickly and cost effectively. “Simply measuring and getting technical information out of point clouds is fine, but to actually start rendering it and making vector lines is totally another area altogether,” said Ritchie. “What we've found is it's very powerful, however utilizing that data for real professional use is quite tough because the data itself is so huge.”

Skape creates a lot of point clouds of interiors. “You click on a Skape building, it opens up within the building and you get a full building layout in point cloud.” Ritchie predicts that the evolution of BIM in the next couple of years will include seeing the interior building, fire plans and other information.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is of course huge for buildings, so Skape has compressed the buildings and shows them in first instance in low resolution. “As you stop and you pause over the building it comes into high resolution within a second or so,” explained Ritchie. “So we have kind of a delayed reaction, we try to be intuitive of where you want to view. So as you move around the city, soon as you stop it brings in the high resolution model. When you then export it it actually gives you the rule resolution so the highest resolution possible so you can then take it in to AutoCAD or MicroStation and then do what you want to do with it.”

Ritchie noted that with their compression technique, Google Earth cannot handle one of their buildings. The high resolution and oblique imagery techniques make it impossible for Google Earth to manage even one of Skape's simple historical buildings.

According to the press release, Skape launches with in-depth 3D coverage of major UK cities including London (centre), Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, Southampton, Brighton, Bournemouth, Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle. By the end of 2010 Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Cardiff, Edinburgh and additional London coverage will be added to Skape's city coverage.

Skape had been designed for a range of industries, including architecture, planning, building development and environmental consultation. In addition, Skape data allows interactive analysis for:

• Shadow casting
• Asset management
• Infrastructure design
• Planning consultation
• Verified views
• Occupier details
• Visualization design

Top News of the Week

HigherGround, Inc., a software developer of digital voice recording, quality assurance, and reporting tools for public safety communication centers, announced the release of their new NG9-1-1 solutions at the 10th Annual HigherGround International Sales Meeting being held at the Indian Wells Resort.

Getmapping has released a number of new datasets including LiDAR elevation data captured by the Environment Agency. In addition there's Getmapping's own digital terrain model, People's Map GB 100m contours, 1:1m vector data, national administration boundaries and a place name gazetteer made up of over 39,000 different names. All datasets are available from Getmapping.com except for LiDAR, which can be bought through the sales team.

Acquisitions, Agreements, Alliances

Intermap Technologies announced a collaboration with Waze, worldwide provider of community-generated live maps and real-time traffic information. Waze will provide Intermap with live data, consisting of anonymous GPS points - latitude, longitude, and height measurements.

Jinny Software, a global supplier of messaging, media and mobile advertising solutions to mobile network operators, announced that it has signed a partnership with mobile phone geolocation and zone detection specialist, Seeker Wireless, to collaborate in the development and delivery of mobile location-based advertising to the market.

Tele Atlas and TeleCommunication Systems, Inc., announced an expanded agreement through which TCS will have access to Tele Atlas' comprehensive global maps to power its range of wireless offerings.

Tele Atlas and TeleNav, Inc., have announced a renewed multi-year license agreement whereby TeleNav uses Tele Atlas maps and dynamic content to power a range of wireless navigation applications and its connected personal navigation device. The agreement marks an extension of the companies' current partnership, which began in 2006.

New Century Software Inc. and LandWorks Inc., two developers of asset management software for the oil & gas pipeline industry, have agreed to integrate their respective software solutions - the New Century Software Facility Manager and LandWorks Property Management (LPM).

Announcements

IceWEB, Inc. announced it was selected by a Canadian Governmental Agency to provide MLP Server Appliances for the Integrated Security Unit (ISU) at the 2010 Winter Olympics. The MLP Server Appliances have been fully deployed and will assist in securing the public, officials and athletes from around the world.

PCI Geomatics is pleased to announce that it will be participating in Ontario House at Canada 's 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Ontario House is hosted by the Province of Ontario and will showcase made-in-Ontario technologies, products and services. Creating a more ecofriendly, efficient, and safer world calls for instilling geographic science into wise design,

The GSDI 12 World Conference will take place in the garden city of Singapore from 19 to 22 October 2010. The Partners in organizing this conference include the GSDI Association, Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia & the Pacific PCGIAP and Singapore Land Authority ( Singapore Land Authority (SLA)).

The deadline dates to submit abstracts for two of URISA's conferences being presented in 2010 are rapidly approaching.

Abstract submissions are due on or before February 18 for the 2010 URISA/NENA Addressing Conference, taking place in Charlotte, North Carolina, August 16-18, 2010.

Abstracts are invited within these topical categories:
Adventures in Addressing
E-911: It's All About Location
Addressing Strategies for Success
For details about this conference and submission guidelines, visit: URISA

Pitney Bowes Business Insight, the leading global provider of data quality and location intelligence solutions, announced that its annual Insights User Conference will be held from May 12-14, 2010 in Miami, Florida. This year's three-day conference will provide attendees with practical tips and tricks, innovative ideas and networking to help them better connect with their customers and grow their business. The new format for the Insights User Conference 2010 features three unique forums for in-depth coverage of specialized core business topics, including the Customer Communication Management (CCM) Forum, Location Intelligence Forum and the Everything Postal Forum.

People

OpenGeo's parent organization, The Open Planning Project (TOPP), recently brought entrepreneur and investor Dan Kohn on board as its Executive Director. Kohn has spent the past 15 years leading forward-thinking technology organizations, and his knowledge of open source software and web publishing will be of huge value to OpenGeo.

New Products

Bentley Systems, Incorporated announced that Bentley Map now includes support for FME, the leading spatial ETL (extract, transform, and load) solution from Safe Software. This enhancement enables GIS and mapping professionals to easily move spatial data - regardless of the format it's in, coordinate system used, or storage location - into and out of Bentley Map without pre- or post-processing, or data conversion. The new Bentley Map Extension for FME Desktop adds more than 225 widely used formats, including raster data, spatial databases, and legacy CAD and GIS, to the many file formats already supported by Bentley Map. This ensures that users have the highest-fidelity data in their workflows, improving project quality and increasing efficiency.

Netezza Corporation announced the availability of a new version of Netezza® Spatial™; a powerful application that simplifies the process of bringing together location and business data in a business intelligence environment. The new release of the Netezza Spatial package, which is available immediately, was developed by Netezza and completely redesigned to take full advantage of the advanced analytics capabilities of the Netezza® TwinFin™ appliance.

One of the United Kingdom's top mobile phone tracking service providers Locate Mobiles have announced the launch of three new personal mobile GPS location tracing products.

The first of these is a GPS watch. Retailing at £236, including vat and delivery, these compact, fashionable looking watches are fitted with rechargeable Li-Ion battery and have 2 band GSM antenna for pinpoint accuracy.

The 2010 update of the geomarketing solution RegioGraph has a wide range of applications in sales, marketing, expansion and controlling divisions of companies from all branches of trade.

RegioGraph 2010 allows users to analyze and visualize their customers, target groups and potential on up-to-date digital maps, supplemented with market data such as GfK Purchasing Power. Some of the features of the new of RegioGraph include street-level address visualization, professional sales territory planning tools (including zone calculation) and a fast, user-friendly interface with background maps that resemble the Google Maps look.

ARCHIBUS Inc. announces the integration of a select set of ESRI ArcGIS map services with ARCHIBUS Web Central V.18.2., the world's most powerful, and widely used, intuitive business transformation platform. Over 4 million ARCHIBUS users employ this self-service Web platform to speed work processes and access intelligence about their organizations' assets.

Adapx announced Capturx for SharePoint support for ESRI MapIt, enabling teams to instantly send field data collected on paper forms to SharePoint where it can be overlaid on top of ArcGIS or Bing maps for easy data visualization and analysis. The company also announced that the US Army Corps of Engineers' Combat Terrain Information Systems (CTIS) and Maneuver Support Center (MANSCEN) has selected Capturx for ArcGIS to be part of the Engineering Field Planning, Reconnaissance, Surveying, and Sketching Set (ENFIRE). Live product demonstrations of Capturx for ArcGIS as well as Capturx support for ESRI MapIt will be available in the Adapx booth #306 at the 2010 ESRI Federal User Conference from February 17-19, 2010 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington DC.

MapMart introduced the MapMart On-Demand Toolbar for ESRI ArcMap. Available free from MapMart, the On-Demand Toolbar integrates directly into ArcMap and enables ESRI users to search, compare imagery options, preview and purchase a wide variety of geospatial data from inside their GIS environment.

Digital mapping and geographic information systems (GIS) software developer Cadcorp has announced the release of another application for GIS users in the fire service sector. The Cadcorp Incident Support Mapping System (ISMS) extends the range of applications available to fire services that are based on the Cadcorp SIS - Spatial Information System product suite. It has already been deployed at a number of UK fire services.

NAVTEQ announced the launch of NAVTEQ Traffic™ in the United Kingdom, increasing its real-time traffic European coverage to nearly 400,000 kilometers of total coverage, across nearly 35 major cities in 13 European countries.

Wacom announced the introduction of its first full HD interactive pen display, the DTU-2231. With direct pen-on-screen input, the DTU-2231 is designed to optimize efficiency and productivity by allowing geophysicists, oil & gas experts, planners, engineers, cartographers and emergency responders to quickly and easily create original content, edit maps as well as manage, analyze and share geographic information.

Around the Web

GISCafe Today Blog

GISWORX 2010 to provide rich content to all Enterprise and GIS clients, February 17, 2010, Arabian Business

Ohio University Geographers to use GIS to Study Climate Change Adaptation in East Africa February 16, 2010, GIS and Science

Expanded GIS Services Available at the University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection February 17, 2010, Ball State University Libraries' News

Weather Forecast: Why GIS is the Future of Weather Tracking TechWonder blogspot

OSI Geospatial to Report 2009 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Financial Results February 16, 2010, IT.TMC.net


Events


You can find the full GISCafe.com event calendar here.

To read more news, click here.


-- Susan Smith, GISCafe.com Managing Editor.