In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Blom announces the release of version 3.2 of the BlomDESKTOP Viewer, desktop application for geospatial data, with enhanced features and a collection of new functionalities, tools and datasets.

The main features of this new version of BlomDESKTOP Viewer are based on enhancing the user experience with new datasets such as the spherical imagery of BlomSTREET™ and high resolution LiDAR models.

To enhance the capability of the BlomSTREET product, BlomDESKTOP Viewer 3.2 now provides a complete integration with the Cyclomedia API offering full measurement capabilities of points, lines, heights, areas and volumes as well as year filtering, export, print and vector reprojection capabilities. New BlomSTREET datasets are also being added to our catalogue.

BlomSTREET datasets viewed within BlomDESKTOP

BlomDESKTOP Viewer LiDAR features have been developed to allow our users to work with continuous LiDAR models online, retrieving new data from the servers as needed and minimizing the needs to manually load new areas when moving to different sections of terrain. A powerful terrain profile tool is also included. It is now possible to define terrain profiles over the maps or imagery and extract the data from the LiDAR datasets to perform on-the-fly detailed measures of objects, making BlomDESKTOP Viewer and invaluable tool for utilities and forestry companies among others.

LiDAR dataset and profile extraction

Featuring additional enhancements to the user interface (help messages, tooltips, north compass, metadata information on-screen…) and performance, there is also a new, powerful way of geocoding address points using locally stored shapefiles. This includes the ability for the user to define fields to be used in the geocoding process.

BlomDESKTOP Viewer continues providing a complete showcase of Blom online geoservers capabilities, BlomURBEX™ and BlomURBEX 3D™, in terms of functionality and available datasets, including access to third party geospatial data from Blom partners and Blom’s unique database of BlomORTHO™, BlomOBLIQUE™ and Blom3D™ datasets.

Applications for BlomDESKTOP Viewer are vast, from exporting imagery for evidence reports or presentations, to use as an asset management tool. The software can be easily used throughout an organization with minimal installation effort and a small amount of training time.

BlomDESKTOP Viewer will update itself to version 3.2 when launched. If you do not have the application installed yet, contact your local Blom representatives to provide you a license for the application.

About Blom
The Blom Group is the largest provider of geospatial services in Europe for both government agencies and private commercial organizations and companies. Blom owns exclusive spatial databases composed of maps, images and 3D models. Focused on online services, Blom provides data and solutions to its customers in many markets and allows its partners to create high added-value applications based on Blom data models and services. This strategy is backed by Blom’s major technical capacity in aircrafts, cameras, laser scanners and mapping systems. This makes it possible for all projects to be carried out within the company, assuring a high quality product is delivered both on-time and to budget. Blom has more than 1,000 employees and offices in 13 countries and its HQ is located in Oslo, Norway. Blom is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker BLO). For more information, visit www.blomasa.com

At a flooding conference in the Danish Parliament on February 3 the Danish Minister for the Environment launched a new nation-wide online interactive tool that maps the risk of flooding in Denmark due to rising sea-levels. The tool visualizes the flooded area for a (user-) given sea-level rise, and is part of the national climate change adaptation portal (klimatilpasning.dk/en-us) available to government specialist, as well as ordinary citizens. It is made possible by a computation performed by SCALGO on a very accurate 1.6 meter resolution raster terrain model for the entire country of Denmark. The detailed and thus massive model contains more than 20 billion cells. It was vital for the accuracy of the sea-level rise flooding tool that such a high quality model was used, since it ensured that dikes and other important features with small spatial extent were taken into account.

The SCALGO technology for processing massive terrain data on normal desktop computers was essential for the computation behind the sea-level rise flooding tool. Using the SCALGO Hydrology software package the computation can be performed on the entire model of Denmark (without thinning or tiling) in approximately a day and a half on a normal desktop computer with 4GB of main memory. Apart from a module for the sea-level rise flood mapping, the package also includes modules for computing flow accumulation, watersheds, and bluespots (maximal depressions). SCALGO also offers more advanced hydrological analysis computation services using in-house software, including the SCALGO Flash Flood Mapping product, which estimates the risk of flooding during extreme rain events. The mapping shows how much rain has to fall before any given cell of a detailed raster terrain is below water, and thus it also shows what part of the terrain is below water after a given amount of rain.

Information about SCALGO technology, products and services can be found at http://scalgo.com.
Future information about SCALGO products and services can be received directly by signing up to the mailing list a http://scalgo.com/mailing_list.php.

Scalable Algorithmics (SCALGO) was founded in 2009 with the mission to bring cutting-edge massive terrain data processing technology to market. The SCALGO technology is based on more than two decades of basic and applied research on I/O-efficient and geometric algorithms at Center for Massive Data Algorithmics (MADALGO) at Aarhus University in Denmark and at Duke University in the US, in collaboration with industry LiDAR and environmental GIS application experts. Software based on the technology can handle much larger terrain data sets on a normal desktop than most current software and thus it eliminates the need for accuracy-decreasing data thinning. The use of novel mathematical and algorithmic techniques also means that the software works provably efficient on all input data sets, delivering a completely specified output without the use of cumbersome work-flows such as those introduced by data tiling.

SCALGO has released version 1.1 of the software packages SCALGO Model, SCALGO Hydrology and SCALGO Simplify, which can be used to process massive terrain data sets (tens of billions data elements) on a normal desktop computer. One major new feature in version 1.1 is ArcGIS support. All SCALGO software modules can now be run from within ArcGIS, and can be combined with existing ArcGIS tools into complicated and scalable production pipelines using ArcGIS ModelBuilder. SCALGO Model can be used to construct raster and TIN terrain models from massive terrain points (such as LiDAR), as well as to simplify massive raster terrain models in a fully-specified and user-controlled way. SCALGO Hydrology can be used to perform basic hydrological modeling on massive raster terrain models, including computing flow accumulation, watersheds, bluespots (maximal depressions) and flood maps from rising sea-levels. SCALGO Simplify adds the raster simplification functionality of SCALGO Model to the SCALGO Hydrology package.

SCALGO has also launched the SCALGO Flash Flood Mapping product, which estimates the risk of flooding during extreme rain events on a regional or even national scale. The mapping shows how much rain has to fall before any given cell of a detailed raster terrain is below water, and thus it also shows what part of the terrain is below water after a given amount of rain. The SCALGO Flash Flood Mapping product is being offered as a computation service. Based on the service and its national LIDAR-based terrain model, the major Danish engineering, environmental science and economics consulting company COWI has already successfully launched a new flash flood map product in Denmark, which is being used by several local governments as well as one of the five regional governments in Denmark (covering approximately 13.000 km²).

Information about SCALGO technology, software products and services can be found at http://scalgo.com.
SCALGO staff are also available to answer questions at booth 108 during the 2012 International LIDAR Mapping Forum (ILMF).

Scalable Algorithmics (SCALGO) was founded in 2009 with the mission to bring cutting-edge massive terrain data processing technology to market. The SCALGO technology is based on more than two decades of basic and applied research on I/O-efficient and geometric algorithms at Center for Massive Data Algorithmics (MADALGO) at Aarhus University in Denmark and at Duke University in the US, in collaboration with industry LiDAR and environmental GIS application experts. Software based on the technology can handle much larger terrain data sets on a normal desktop than most current software and thus it eliminates the need for accuracy-decreasing data thinning. The use of novel mathematical and algorithmic techniques also means that the software works provably efficient on all input data sets, delivering a completely specified output without the use of cumbersome work-flows such as those introduced by data tiling.

Makai Ocean Engineering, Inc. has released a new demonstration version of its geospatial visualization software, Makai Voyager. The new release, available at http://voyager.makai.com, demonstrates Makai Voyager’s advanced volumetric data visualization and analysis capabilities.

Makai Voyager provides users with an easy to access, cross-platform software package to process, analyze, fuse, and display vast amounts of scientific and GIS data being collected and simulated in the earth, ocean, and atmosphere.

The 1.1 update is a major release, and includes many new features:

• Volume rendering of large 4D data models;
• Display of dynamic data on the ocean surface;
• Customizable graphs of scientific data; and,
• Faster streaming and improved WMS support.

The downloadable demo contains many of the scientific visualization capabilities of the Makai Voyager software platform. The full version of Makai Voyager will contain a wide variety of data import and fusion tools to import and process GIS and scientific data, and provide users with access to add-on modules for specific tasks (e.g., LIDAR analysis). Makai Voyager is cross-platform software, and runs on Windows (32- and 64-bit), Linux, and Mac OS X.

Makai welcomes inquiries about Makai Voyager and our other software products and services. For more information about Makai, visit http://www.makai.com.

A lot of interesting geonews in this 'batch mode' edition.

On the Google front:

• Unsurprisingly, you can track Santa Claus again this year in Google Earth, thanks to NORAD
• As SA points out, Garmin went back to Google Maps in addition to Bing, due to popular demand 
• Google Maps improved its handling of the display of multiple stores in a shopping mall or doctors in hospital  
• Here's the official entry on last week's imagery update

On the Esri front:

• Esri is phasing out their Certified Trainer Program

In the miscellaneous category:

• In this press release, it was the first time I heard about MapInfo Stratus, a web based mapping application, related, PBBI also recently launched Geosk, their data as a service platform
• The GEB mentions access to seamless topographic USGS maps
• This O'Reilly entry details the GreenGoose stickers that are used as sensors
• LAS, the Lidar exchange format, has been updated to version 1.4
• Via O'Reilly, here's a new data structure for spatial search, named VP Tree, "Vantage Point Trees"
• Mapperz mentions qrd.by, a Geottager for QR Codes
• APB mentions the size of the Chinese GIS market
• Slashdot is discussing a 3D display we can touch, using cold fog and lasers
• DM shares an article named What are the Latest Developments in the Mobile LBS Market in Europe?
• James Fee reviews the Wacom Inkling digitizer for GIS work
• These five disruptions from Autodesk's CTO are interesting
• Here's a perspective from SS named Is it inevitable for BIM and GIS to force different pathways?

In the maps category:

• APB links to the new Wikileaks Spyfiles interactive map
• SS shares an entry named Himalayan Glacier Reductions Mapped
• Here's every death on every road in Great Britain 1999-2010 mapped

And as a bonus for reading this, see this wonderful time-lapse movie from the International Space Station around the world in 90 minutes

Scalable Algorithmics (SCALGO) was founded in 2009 with the mission to bring cutting-edge massive terrain data processing technology to market. The SCALGO technology is based on more than two decades of basic and applied research on I/O-efficient and geometric algorithms at Center for Massive Data Algorithmics (MADALGO) at Aarhus University in Denmark and at Duke University in the US, in collaboration with industry LIDAR and environmental GIS application experts. Software based on the technology can handle much larger terrain datasets on a normal desktop than most current software and thus it eliminates the need for accuracy-decreasing data thinning. The use of novel mathematical and algorithmic techniques also means that the software works provably efficient on all input datasets, delivering a completely specified output without the use of cumbersome work-flows such as those introduced by data tiling.

The SCALGO software portfolio includes software packages SCALGO Model and SCALGO Hydrology, which have successfully been used to process terrain datasets with more than 50 billion data elements on a normal desktop computer. SCALGO Model can be used to construct raster and TIN terrain models from massive terrain points (such as LIDAR), as well as to simplify massive raster terrain models in a fully-specified and user-controlled way. SCALGO Hydrology can be used to perform basic hydrological modeling on massive raster terrain models, including computing flow accumulation, watersheds, bluespots (maximal depressions) and the effect of rising sea-level.

More information about SCALGO technology, software products and services can be found at scalgo.com. The website also contains more information about some of the projects where SCALGO technology and software has been used successfully (scalgo.com/technology/success.php), including an interactive visualization of the results of using the SCALGO hydrology software on a massive and almost global terrain model to access the risk of flooding.

Having two daughters at home does require a lot of energy! That's why this edition of the 'pertinent geonews in batch mode' covers the last two weeks.

On the open source front:

• A new GeoServer 2.1 workshop is freely available
• From the OSGeo-discuss list, I learned about Open Indicators Consortium's Weave (in beta), an open source visualization environment supporting geography
• The MapFish Framework version 2.2 has been released
• ImageI/O-Ext 1.1.0 has been released
• uDig gets its plugin Image Georeferencing View at version 1.0
• The Orfeo ToolBox 3.10 and Monteverdi 1.8 have been released
• GeoTools 2.7.2 has been released

On the Google front:

• Google their biggest ever update of Street View imagery, available for 13 countries: Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Romania, South Africa, Taiwan, Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
• Google added lots of oblique 45 degrees imagery to Google Maps
• If you visited Google Maps, you probably noticed the new interface

On the Microsoft front:

• Microsoft announced that Bing Maps unveiled exclusive high res imagery with Global Ortho Project
• They also offer a new Microsoft Local Impact Map
• Their dev tip is Uploading Excel Data to the Bing Spatial Data Services

In the miscellaneous category:

• Via AGISRS, I learned about the charter edition of LiDAR Magazine is available free online
• Via email, I learned about the new online SDI Magazine, SDI meaning spatial data infrastructure in this context
• Regarding MapQuest, you can save maps and directions to your mobile and you can now add your business to MapQuest
• APB mentions TimeClock for iPhone, an app that logs your time spent at a specific location, such as work 
• MacRumors details the diverses mapping companies for iOS 5 in an entry named Evidence in iOS 5 that Apple is Building Its Own Mapping Solution
• Via a Twitter friend, I tried Rome's '3 Dreams of Black' interactive 3D music "video" in WebGL, reminiscent of Arcade Fire's interactive Google Maps / StreetView video

Slashdot ran a couple of geo-related discussions:

• Supreme Court To Weigh In On Warrantless GPS Tracking
• Tracking Bracelets for Autistic Kids and Senior Citizens
• Franken Bill Would Protect Consumers Location Data
• Weather satellites are losing funding

In the maps category:

• TMR shows a map of the increase of the new Normal Temperatures, years 1971-2000 vs 1981-2010, for the U.S., scary
• The same site mentions ESA's map of of the Arctic Sea Ice
• MapTogether mentions Mapnificent, allowing you to learn how far you can go from a certain point in a certain time using public transit

[submitted by user hledouxtud]

The TUDelft Cloudviewer, developed as a final student project for the minor 3D Virtual Earth (http://3dve.tudelft.nl) at the Delft University of Technology, is the first to allow 3D exploration of massive point clouds directly from the web browser. First, source aerial photography and 3D point clouds are pre-processed for use in a real-time 3D rendering engine. Then, students designed a system to simulate a virtual camera that creates tens of thousands of oblique (or "birds-eye") snapshots for various zoom-levels and view angles. These resulting images were placed on a web server so they can be shown as a layer in Google Maps. We believe they are the first to allow "3D" oblique viewing angles and a rotating view with custom 3D data, enabled by extensively tweaking the Google Maps web-mapping interface. This makes the exploration of 3D point clouds almost as impressive as on a real-time 3D visualization systems, but now over the web for everyone to use and enjoy! Experience their impressive result on a part of Delft, The Netherlands in the public release at: http://graphics.tudelft.nl/cloudviewer

Here's the recent Google-related geonews.

From official sources:

• Here's the Grimsvötn’s ash cloud visualized in Google Earth, the Iceland volcano in eruption
• Google updated Google Maps on your mobile browser, specifically smartphones and tablets 
• Learn more here about Fusion Tables dynamic styling
• Here's an entry on Google Map Maker on U.S. campuses
• If you're looking to images and data of Mississippi floods, here they are
• And there was an imagery update to Google Earth and Maps last week, bringing more high resolution imagery to tens of countries

From other sources:

• Here's an update on the collection of weather and storm tracking tools for Google Earth
• Mapperz mentions a new feature being tested, Google Maps Sneek Peek
• An entry on analyzing ancient bays, the Carolina Bays, with hsv-shaded LiDAR DEMs and Google Earth

The second session I attended at the Where 2.0 Conference after the Thursday morning Keynote addresses was a talk entitled “The Use of Light Detextion and Ranging (LIDAR) for Collecting Map Data”. The talk was given by Jeff Raimo and Jessica Borak of Navteq. Navteq is a provider of global navigation data.

The pair explained the three components that make up the mapping platform mounted on the Navteq vehicles. The first is a 360 degree mobile laser scanner. I recognized it as the kind of mobile laser scanner sold by Topcon. (Other surveying equipment vendors sell similar products, and my company has an instrument that uses a similar technology. However, our scanner is the more precise “non-mobile” type that is placed on a traditional surveying tripod and operated by qualified land surveying technicians.) The second component is high resolution panormaic cameras. The third component is positioning sensors, such as GPS, gyros, and IMUs.

Navteq has 19 of the mapping vehicles using the mapping platform I just described on the road currently. They will have 23 on the road by the end of the year. In three to four years they will have LIDAR mapping for all the major metro areas and major road corridor's in the United States.

This massive LIDAR data set will be made available to application developers through an API that has yet to be released. This will allow, in theory, GIS users to perform feature extraction from the data from the comfort of there own computer, via the API. Responses to my questions confirmed the mapping platform was using commercially available surveying equipment, and that high-quality RTK GPS or traditionally established surveying control was not being used to determine the position of the point clouds collected with the LIDAR mapping platform. As is typically the case, little discussion was given to the techniques used to process and clean the data, or to its overall quality and accuracy.

I believe land surveyors and other geospatial professionals should be aware of the impacts this mobile scanning technology will have, while data consumers need to get over the “wow factor” quickly and start asking tough questions about data quality so they can determine what these point clouds can actually be used for. There will be numerous applications, but the data won't be good enough for some things people will try to use it for.

The Sunburned Surveyor