Archive for the ‘Google’ Category
Monday, September 8th, 2014
PDF3D 3D PDF conversion and publishing software has released their latest version update with more features of their advanced PRC technology for GIS users. The development timeframe has been speeded up to bring this technology to market early.
LiDAR draped over hills
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Tags: 3D PDF, Autodesk, cloud, collaboration, conversion, ESRI, geospatial, GIS, Google Maps, imagery, LiDAR, maps, mobile, PDF3D, satellite imagery No Comments »
Tuesday, August 26th, 2014
A recent CNN report announced thatNASA is asking for the help of citizens in viewing hundreds of thousands of images taken from space over the years, from the 1960s Mercury missions to the present images snapped from the International Space Station.
North Korea is barely lit when juxtaposed with neighboring South Korea and China.
Via The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, NASA is making these images available for citizens to examine.
NASA says the hope is that the images “could help save energy, contribute to better human health and safety and improve our understanding of atmospheric chemistry. But scientists need your help to make that happen.”
The catalog contains more than 1.8 million photos, about 1.3 million of them from the space station and roughly 30% of them taken at night.
Photos: International Space Station
NASA gets rare view of black hole
NASA tests supersonic parachute for Mars
Tyson on deep space exploration
The CNN report said that before 2003, night images from the space station could be blurry, even with high-speed film and manual tracking, because the station moves at about 17,500 mph. In that same year, astronaut Don Pettit used a drill and assorted parts he found on the station to cobble together a “barn-door tracker,” a lower-tech predecessor to the European Space Agency’s NightPod, which was installed at the space station nine years later.
According to the report, NightPod’s motorized tripod compensates for the space station’s speed, providing what NASA scientist William Stefanov says are the highest-resolution night images from orbit. Satellites collect data more regularly, but the photos tend to be lower resolution. “Now the pictures are clear, but their location may not be, which limits their usefulness,” the NASA news release says.
Citizen science has a better handle on location than the night images from the space station and satellite imagery. The Complutense University of Madrid is spearheading efforts to get citizen input and organize the photos. They have broken down the the images into three components requiring different levels of participation:
1. Dark skies. This is the easiest project, as it requires no scientific expertise. “Anyone can help” by sorting the images into the categories: cities, stars or other objects, said Alejandro Sanchez, doctoral student at Complutense.
“Without the help of citizens, it is almost impossible to use these images scientifically. Algorithms cannot distinguish between stars, cities and other objects, such as the moon. Humans are much more efficient for complex image analysis,” he said.
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Tags: citizen science, ESRI, geospatial, GIS, Google, Google Maps, iPhone, LiDAR, location, mobile, NASA, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, NOAA, satellite imagery, social media, USGS No Comments »
Thursday, August 7th, 2014
During the week of September 15th, GISCafe Voice will run a special feature blog on the topic, “Satellite Imaging.”
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Tags: ESRI, geospatial, GIS, Google, Google Maps, GPS, LiDAR, location, mapping, maps, remote sensing, satellite imagery No Comments »
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014
The Exhibit Floor reveals industry trends, as vendors respond to requests of their customers with timely products and services. The emphasis at Esri UC 2014 was on data and apps, reflecting the trends discussed in Monday’s Plenary session. Global data, the mining of crowdsourcing data, spatial analytics to business users, the launch of WorldView-3 that will open up worlds of data previously unable to be explored – are just a few of the exciting areas covered in the exhibits and special vendor presentations.
TomTom Traffic
This year marked the 22nd Esri conference for veteran company TomTom, which derived originally from the company GDT and later TeleAtlas. According to John Cassidy, vice president of sales and James Pardue, licensing, TomTom’s focus has evolved from the original interest in making Census data better back in the GDT days, to spatial navigation in the present day. Hardware, analytical, navigation and spatial are the primary areas of their business.
“Everyone wants global data,” said Cassidy. “TomTom is heavily invested in the crowdsourcing model.”
Cassidy said that in 2013, 6 billion pieces of information per day were processed by TomTom. In 2014, already 9 billion pieces of information per day have been processed. Their focus has become quality accuracy and quality control.
“Real world users are more valuable,” said Cassidy. “A lot information is gathered using smartphones.”
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Tags: ArcGIS, DigitalGlobe, ESRI, Esri UC 2014, Exelis, GeoMetri, geospatial, GIS, GISi indoors, Google, Google Maps, iForm Builder, location, mapping, mobile, SAP, satellite imagery, TomTom, USGS No Comments »
Wednesday, May 28th, 2014
I heard Peter Hansford, the Chief Construction Advisor to HM Government, UK speak about the Crossrail project at the Bentley Year in Infrastructure conference in London, 2013. While I’m not in attendance at the GEO Business 2014 event in London this week, Hansford is presenting a keynote at that conference.
With a career that has spanned positions at Amey, Maunsell, the Strategic Rail Authority and Gardiner and Theobald, Hansford has spent the majority of his career on highways and railways with project management largely being his focus. Peter is also an ardent advocate and supporter of the BIM initiative.
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Tags: Bentley, Bentley Systems, cloud, GEO Business 2014, geospatial, GIS, Google Maps, Infrastructure, mapping, social media No Comments »
Thursday, February 13th, 2014
For those Antarctic enthusiasts, Google has been exploring Antarctica with its special Street View backpack carrying a special Trekker camera. It persuaded researchers at the Polar Geospatial Center to carry the trekker, a 42 pound backpack with 15 lenses. Starting with easy to obtain images using , Google has now added a range of hard to reach places.
Imagery courtesy of Google Street View Imagery
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Tags: Antarctica, geospatial, GIS, Google, GPS, Trekker No Comments »
Friday, January 10th, 2014
Andrew Tosh, founder of GameSim of Orlando, a 3D visualization and GIS applications used in the gaming and military simulation industries, talked about the plans to expand their product Conform into the GIS market. GameSim is looking at 30% growth (2013). Tosh started the company in 2008 and now they have 33 employess. They will do revenue at $3.7 million this year.
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Tags: Conform, data, elevation data, feature data, GameSim, geospatial, GIS, LiDAR, point clouds, satellite imagery No Comments »
Wednesday, June 12th, 2013
Two articles in The New York Times point to the importance of maps and mobile services this week.
A screen shot of the Android version of Waze, a social mapping service used by millions of drivers around the world.
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Tags: data, geospatial, GIS, Google, maps, mobile services, The New York Times, Waze No Comments »
Thursday, December 13th, 2012
David Pogue reviews the new Google Maps app for the iPhone for The New York Times today. Readers of GISCafe Voice might remember Apple dropped their long time relationship with Google in order to provide their own Apple Maps, which some customers have not found as good as Google Maps.
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Tags: Apple Maps, apps, David Pogue, geospatial, GIS, Google Maps, GPS, location, The New York Times No Comments »
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