GISCafe Voice 
Susan Smith
Susan Smith has worked as an editor and writer in the technology industry for over 16 years. As an editor she has been responsible for the launch of a number of technology trade publications, both in print and online. Currently, Susan is the Editor of GISCafe and AECCafe, as well as those sites’ … More » GeoEye and TerraGo Team Up to Offer Spatial Imagery on the GoOctober 10th, 2011 by Susan Smith
According to Frost & Sullivan analyst Daniel Longfield: “The explosion in the collection of advanced imagery and other spatial data and its consumption by non-GIS experts necessitates solutions to make data-rich intelligence more conveniently available and actionable by the broader enterprise and in the field.”
In mid-September geospatial companies GeoEye and TerraGo entered into a partnership to increase the access of their content to their broad community of users. GeoEye has developed an access platform called EyeQ that allows them to stream out imagery through web services and their web interface. One of the early customers for that technology was the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA). “The service makes all the imagery we collect on behalf of the NGA available online to be used by commanders, warfighters, and any user from the federal government that needs for that content,” said Tony Frazier, GeoEye senior vice president of Marketing. “We noted that many users in the community need to be able to take that content on the go and also collaborate through lightweight mobile tools. TerraGo is really a market leader in that space. We licensed technology from TerraGo to enable users to download our imagery in a GeoPDF format.” GeoEye references both the work to extend their GeoIQ access platform to enable users to take that imagery on the go with a GeoPDF while at the same time collaborating on value added use cases where they can push value added products out to that same format. They are going to demonstrate at GEOINT how the right imagery can find users rather than the users always having to go looking for it. On the TerraGo side, about 1,000 production customers create GeoPDF mapbooks, maps and imagery but there are about at least 10,000 organizations around the world who consume GeoPDF, that’s evidenced by the TerraGo toolbar. “The GeoPDF is generic, in the Adobe environment as well so that number could be low,” noted Richard Cobb, president and CEO for TerraGo. “If you look at that user population of consumers, the 10,000 organizations are largely in areas other than defense and intelligence which would be crisis management and response. Numerable vertical industries could leverage imagery with the Terrago platform.” “The whole idea of portability and mobility of spatial data imagery is the hardest problem,” Cobb said. “It’s big and complex and cumbersome. It’s going to take some work to crack that code.” The average size of a single file of high resolution imagery – a single image strip – a unit measure of what GeoEye would collect on a pass — could be upwards of 8 Gb of storage and requirement, and so part of the value of being able to have this online is being able to pick what product you want rather than downloading the whole thing. “That solved part of the problem which is to find content you really care about,” said Cobb. “Another challenge is it’s still big data. One of the benefits of GeoPDF is you can take large files and compress them down into a format where people who don’t have access to great communications infrastructure can get access to great quality content and take it on the go. We’ve seen some examples of products that would be more than 200 Mb in size get compressed to 100th of that using GeoPDF.” Downloads of the US Geological Survey’s (USGS) quadrangle maps increased from an average of 4,000 per month to nearly 150,000 per month following the introduction of TerraGo’s GeoPDF technology and software, which at the time was in the form of Topo Quads, 11 ½ min quads. These were offered at the USGS store online as geotiffs. In the past two or three years the National Map Program of the USGS has been creating the U.S. Topo that currently has eight layers of data that includes hydro information, one meter NAIP imagery,topo maps for elevation, and newly added vegetation maps. They have quickly gone from zero to 127,000 US topo downloads of GeoPDF. This technology is fast replacing the previous Topo Quads. Mobile users can now take robust imagery that has been recently gathered and apply it to situational awareness and navigation, and also use it as a basis for collaboration – to collect data that can then be shared using tools and technologies like TerraGo Mobile. “This addresses the challenges of limited bandwidth and the desire for people to collaborate more effectively in the field,” said Cobb. “We believe we’re going to be able to reach not only new users in our existing base but new industries and really expand the penetration of GeoEye imagery dramatically.” GeoEye has a system in production using their EyeQ technology to power different installations. “The installation we’ve deployed for the U.S. government under the NAIP Program runs in the cloud, and any government user/employee can request access to that system to be able to access imagery on demand. One of our team members that focuses on the state and local government and has been doing quite a bit of work with disaster response,” said Frazier. “Several years ago you couldn’t collect, process and disseminate imagery in enough time to be of use for a first responder. During the recent hurricane Irene that hit the East Coast, one colleague said the customer went from a request to having imagery in their hands within three hours. Being able to collect that content and stream it out – once it’s in a format like GeoPDF– then you can easily distribute it to many people. It allows everyone to have a common operating picture to what’s occurred on the ground.” With the acquisition of the analytics firm SPADAC, GeoEye can now take not only imagery but other forms of geospatial data, analyzing information and discovering patterns to predict where new events may occur. “We have tremendous imagery collection assets and we can really capture with our resolution and accuracy a precise view,” said Frazier. “But the adoption is going to be driven by how quickly you can get it into people’s hands, and so investments in enabling technology are a big part of our strategy.” As more people demand access on mobile devices, TerraGo is stepping up to the plate to offer TerraGo mobile collaboration software to both Android and iOS in the Q4 2011 and Q1 2012 respectively. In the past twelve months, they have released TerraGo on Microsoft Windows Mobile. “We see definite demand in core markets from working in defense and intelligence who were not traditionally interested in commercial mobile technology,” Frazier pointed out. “That has changed in the last year fairly dramatically. In other markets we serve, the Android and iOS platforms are fairly dominant.” GeoPDF is a platform for collaboration and the GeoPDF imagery itself is a container that can be merged with other data such as vector data. You can put live services inside of GeoPDF. Cobb said that with intelligent imagery in GeoEye’s EyeQ platform, a GeoPDF can have smart services embedded in it that can act when there is connectivity. With connectivity the services inside the GeoPDF can do “just about anything,” including update itself with local weather, with content from different sources, or newer content during a rapidly moving crisis for example. GeoPDF is a collaboration platform that can be used when you have no connectivity or limited bandwidth also. Frazier said that three-quarters of GeoEye’s business today is focused on imagery, the balance is producing other types of value added products. “We built over 3,000 3D airport products,” Frazier said. “We look at the exterior imagery of an airport, and we’re able to extract features or vectors that allow us to build a map accurate representation of both the airport itself as well as surrounding elevation and obstructions that can be helped to facilitate safe flight navigation. That’s a value added product we can distribute using this mechanism.” Not only is GeoPDF compact, portable and sharable, it has an interactive capability as well which may include redlines, markups stamps or embedding your own pictures from handhelds or uploading Power Point presentations. Top of the News DigitalGlobe and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. jointly announced they successfully completed the Critical Design Review (CDR) for DigitalGlobe’s next generation remote-sensing satellite, WorldView-3. The successful CDR was completed in late August and keeps WorldView-3 on schedule for a planned launch in the middle of 2014. WorldView-3 will expand DigitalGlobe’s orbiting constellation to four remote-sensing satellites, all of which were manufactured by Ball Aerospace. Acquisitions/Agreements/Alliances Intermap announced that it has received a $6.2 million contract to provide digital elevation data and orthorectified radar imagery from its NEXTMap database. The data will be used by the client for geospatial related applications. Under the terms of the agreement, Intermap will begin delivering the data during the first quarter of 2012. PennWell Corporation, a diversified global media and information company, announced that it has acquired the assets of eMarket Software, Inc., a Fort Worth, Texas company offering mapping products and services to energy industry. Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed. PCI Geomatics, a world leading developer of geo-imaging software and systems, announces that it has appointed Lotus (H&R) as its exclusive distributor for Taiwan. Lotus will represent PCI for the distribution of Geomatica, GeoImaging Tools, and the GeoImaging Accelerator (GXL) technology. With the growing demand for Geoinfomation products, Lotus (H&R) is committed to providing the world’s highest-resolution imagery and geospatial solutions. Products provided by Lotus (H&R) help individuals and businesses make decisions on a daily basis that allow them to maintain their competitive edge. Industry focus areas for Lotus include government agencies, educational facilities, as well as private companies who require geospatial products and solutions. Announcements The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and EuroGeographics recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to promote interoperability through open standards to benefit the European geospatial community. The two organisations both seek to promote compatible, standards-based Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) from the local to global level, and the OGC is positioned to help EuroGeographics support a broad range of European stakeholders responding to Europe’s INSPIRE Directive. CoreLogic reported that the current residential shadow inventory as of July 2011 declined slightly to 1.6 million units, representing a supply of 5 months. This is down from 1.9 million units, a supply of 6 months, from a year ago, and follows a decline from April 2011 when shadow inventory stood at 1.7 million units. The moderate decline in shadow inventory is being driven by a pace of new delinquencies that is slower than the disposition pace of distressed assets. CoreLogic estimates the current stock of properties in the shadow inventory, also known as pending supply, by calculating the number of distressed properties not currently listed on multiple listing services (MLSs) that are seriously delinquent (90 days or more), in foreclosure and real estate owned (REO) by lenders. Transition rates of “delinquency to foreclosure” and “foreclosure to REO” are used to identify the currently distressed non-listed properties most likely to become REO properties. Properties that are not yet delinquent but may become delinquent in the future are not included in the estimate of the current shadow inventory. Shadow inventory is typically not included in the official metrics of unsold inventory. In recognition of FEMA’s National Preparedness Month in September, Avineon, Inc. and Florida State University (FSU) announce the establishment of a center of excellence to promote process reliance in the emergency and disaster management profession for public and private enterprises. The process center of excellence (PCOE) mission is to research, develop, and promote the utilization of metrics and business processes in the emergency and disaster management profession. The initial focus is on defining pragmatic and reusable models for measuring emergency preparedness. Future efforts will center around development of macro and micro process templates covering pre-event, mid-event, and post-event activities. The models and templates will be tailored and ready for use by federal or state government agencies, local governments, hospitals, universities, and international agencies. New Products TomTom announces the availability of its latest map and enhancement product portfolio, delivering new coverage and features. With the addition of 400,000 kilometers across the globe, TomTom’s navigable map database is the first to reach 35.2 million kilometers of roads, covering 104 countries and a record 3.4 billion people worldwide. ERDAS proudly announces the release of ECW for ArcGIS Server, version 11.0.2. This product provides a means for ArcGIS Server to deliver data in the ERDAS-patented Enhanced Compression Wavelet (ECW) format to clients via OGC-compliant Web Coverage Service (WCS) and Web Map Service (WMS). Based on technology originally provided in ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK version 4.2, ECW for ArcGIS Server enables ArcGIS Server to support ECW imagery, providing the fastest decompression available. In concert with the release of the English version of the geomarketing solution RegioGraph, a new online platform has been created where current and prospective customers can access details on the software’s applications, user reports and downloads. The English version of RegioGraph 2011 will be available as of the beginning of October. The geomarketing software RegioGraph allows users to carry out detailed visualizations and evaluations of company and market data directly on digital maps. This provides objective insight into data trends and relationships that would otherwise not be apparent. TatukGIS value added partner, TatukGIS Consulting, has redesigned and released the affordable Forestry GIS (FGIS) plugin to the TatukGIS Editor product, which extends the features of the TatukGIS Editor with a simple, easy-to-use, and customizable suite of tools aimed at making forestry and land management professionals’ jobs easier. FGIS can be used to update Acres (or any shape measurement) values for all polygons in a vector layer or display the Acreage (or any shape measurement) for all selected shapes in the view. FGIS has tools for easily creating polygons that share coincident boundaries. FGIS can be used to generate a random or systematic sample of points (cruise points) within a given polygon area or search for a given Township, Range, and Section. With FGIS you can easily input a traverse description into a point layer. Other features include calculation of the best route between two points in a road network and plotting the current GPS location on a map in real-time. Ubisense introduced Transit Yard Manager for Rails, a real-time location system (RTLS) that automates yard operations and improves efficiencies and productivity. By precisely locating rolling-stock in both indoor and outdoor areas, operators gain an unprecedented level of visibility into workflow which helps to improve all areas of rail yard operations. Bentley Systems, Incorporated announced that Westernport Water, a utility in the state of Victoria, Australia, is using Bentley’s WaterGEMS water distribution modeling software, integrated with Open Spatial’s geographic information system (GIS) and Control Microsystems’ supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA), to cost-effectively operate and manage more than $43 million in water assets. The SCADA system allows field-measured data to be brought directly into WaterGEMS using the modeling software’s SCADAConnect and Darwin Calibrator modules. The SCADAConnect technology with real-time updates will save Westernport Water approximately $80,000 in calibration costs. Prior to deploying this system, Westernport Water annually engaged the services of external contractors to manually upgrade and calibrate the water model. Trimble announced the release of eCognition 8.7, a new version of its advanced software suite designed to extract information from a range of geospatial data including images, point clouds and Geographic Information System (GIS) vectors. The software suite enables aerial imaging companies, geospatial data providers, scientists and end users to integrate and analyze earth observation and remote sensing data to generate accurate GIS-ready information. Trimble introduced a new version of its terrestrial mobile mapping office software—Trimble Trident Analyst 4.7. The software is designed to effectively manage and interpret high-resolution digital images and large point clouds, and automatically extract features from Trimble’s MX Mobile Mapping and Survey systems. These capabilities allow land mobile data to be transformed into geospatial intelligence. Tri-Global Technologies, LLC, introduced Tri-Global UtiliDroid for Android smartphones. UtiliDroid allows field technicians equipped with portable Android devices to easily document utility mark-outs. Tri-Global developed UtiliDroid with integrated spatial technologies that enable Bluetooth connectivity with third-party electromagnetic utility locators so the user can record critical utility-locate information documenting the depth of the asset, its geographic location and time/date of the mapping. Wireless Google KML/KMZ data transmission can be established between office and field, allowing managers to view field mapping progress within the Google Earth or Google Maps environment. Around the Web GISCafe Today Blog The World Mourns Steve Jobs October 6, 2011, Reuters Events
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