In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode.

On the open source front:

• Wonder where OpenLayers 3 is heading?
• ImageI/O-Ext 1.1.4 was released
• Here's a short entry on creating hillshades with gdaldem

In the miscellaneous category:

• O'Reilly links to a few interesting stats on mobile maps in the context of Apple Maps vs Google Maps, including "In the US, Google gets about 31 million users a month on its Maps app on iOS. On average those users spend more than 75 minutes apiece in the app each month." and "90% of all iOS users used the Google Maps app at least once during April 2012. Only 71% of Android users used the Google Maps app."
• Slashdot discussed a story named Chuck Schumer Tells Apple and Google To "Curb Your Spy Planes", referring to the new high-resolution imagery coming later this year to Apple Maps and Google Maps

In the maps category:

• TMR shares an entry on fantasy maps, with the book 'Here be dragons' by Stefan Ekman
• Via O'Reilly, I stumbled onto the Art of GPS article which shares beautiful GPS-related visualizations, here's the U.S. electricity network

A lot of geoblogs mentioned the release of Quantum GiS 1.8.0. QGIS is one of the most mature and widely used open source desktop GIS software, with tons of useful community-contributed plugins. Version 1.8.0 is clearly a major update of this already excellent GIS software.

The list of new features is quite long, here's a few of them:

• QGIS Browser: a stand alone app and a new panel in QGIS. The browser lets you easily navigate your file system and connection based (PostGIS, WFS etc.) datasets, preview them and drag and drop items into the canvas.
• DB Manager: the DB manager is now officially part of QGIS core. You can drag layers from the QGIS Browser into DB Manager and it will import your layer into your spatial database.
• New symbol layer types: Line Pattern Fill, Point Pattern Fill.
• Terrain Analysis Plugin: a new core plugin was added for doing terrain analysis - and it can make really good looking colored relief maps.
• Ellipse renderer: a new symbol layer type to render ellipse shapes (and also rectangles, triangles, crosses) by specifying width and height.
• Support for nesting projects within other projects: embed content from other project files.
• Layer grouping: Option to add layers to selected or active group.
• Customization: Allows setting up simplified QGIS interface by hiding various components of main window and widgets in dialogs.
• Action Tool: accessible from the map tools toolbar. It allows you to click on a vector feature and execute an action.
• Pan To Selected tool: Pans the map to selected feature(s); does not change the zoom level.
• Updated CRS selector dialog
• Legend-independent drawing order: The order seen in the legend can be different from the display order.
• Other features include: MSSQL Spatial Support, Expression based labelling, Heatmap tool, WFS support in QGIS Server, and much more

Head to the release notes (link above) to learn more and see screenshots.

Via the OSGeo Discuss list I learned about OpenPerception.org, an independent non-profit foundation, focused on advancing the development and adoption of open source software for 2D and 3D processing of sensory data. Currently the main output of the foundation is the open source Point Cloud Library.

On the Point Cloud Library: "The Point Cloud Library (PCL) is a standalone, large scale, open project for 3D point cloud processing. The PCL framework contains numerous state-of-the art algorithms including filtering, feature estimation, surface reconstruction, registration, model fitting and segmentation, as well as higher level tools for performing mapping and object recognition."

On Open Perception itself: "We are an independent organization created with the purpose of supporting the development, distribution, and adoption of open source software for 2D/3D processing of sensory data, with applications in research, education, and product development."

It's been over two years since we mentioned the open source GeoMOOSE project, which just announced the release of version 2.6.

From the Why GeoMOOSE page: "GeoMOOSE excels at creating a useful web-based GIS environment for those who need something that works from the first download. The GeoMOOSE demo contains a fully operating web-based parcel application. It can render, investigate, and even edit layers without the need to write a single line of code. [...]

Beyond rendering, gaining information on a dataset is an important every day use of a Web GIS. GeoMOOSE includes all of the basic tools for traditional selection, identification, and searching on a dataset. However, GeoMOOSE’s functionality is not limited by those services. To power that functionality we have developed a power service-based architecture that users can use to create their own custom scripts in any language.

As of the 2.6 version, GeoMOOSE includes new powerful vector capabilities. While not seen in the default demo, GeoMOOSE can work with a WFS-T server to create, edit, and delete features in a dataset. The styling is defined in the GeoMOOSE mapbook and the layers can even be printed to a PDF!"

Direction Mag offers an update on Oracle and spatial.

From the article: "I met with Steiner later in the day and challenged him to share with me three ideas he wanted our readers to know about Oracle in 2012. Here’s his list:

• Spatial is in everything we do. It’s in the context, that is, in the very fabric of the Oracle technology.
• Oracle solutions scale. Oracle is literally working at a different scale from other IT and database companies. The support of some of the largest geodata sets, LiDAR point clouds, is testament to that.
• The technology and data are accessible and consumable. Oracle ensures this by supporting standards, working with partners and having a commitment to simplification.  Spatial technology should be presented to both developers and end users as “less of a professional GIS person’s thing” and more of a “just like other technology” kind of thing. This idea relates back nicely to “spatial is in everything,” above.
• Oracle is innovating. The company innovates not only in its databases and proprietary software but in hardware and open source as well."

We mentioned Oracle Spatial tons of times before.

Here's the recent open source-related geonews in batch mode.

In software updates:

• GeoServer 2.1.4 had been released
• And so was GeoTools 2.7.5 released

• Geopaparazzi 3 has been released too, more here
• And as an indirect user of it, I'm happy that GEOS 3.3.4 was released too
• The OpenGeo Suite 2.5 was released, with updated Linux packages

In other news:

• If you missed it, see this informative comment from the DB4GeO developers, including comparing it to PostGIS 2.0 3D capabilities
• Regarding QGIS, here's fixing invalid geometries with Quantum GIS, another entry named SLD Support and other QGIS 1.8 Style Features
• For GeoServer, Accurate datum shift and full transformation control in GeoServer
• Here,s a summary of the FOSS4G-CEE Conference in Prague

• Here's an entry named GeoWebCache Tweaks Checklist

• And we haven't mentioned OpenStreetMap yet, improving the OpenStreetMap Profile Page for more Social Interaction

There is a new project on Github that has made a 3D view for OpenLayers!  It integrates AGI's new open source WebGL globe (Cesium) and uses the OpenLayers drawing & navigation tools to interact with the globe.  Support for WMS layers and feature importing are next on the to-do list.

A live demo can be found here:
http://jktaylor.github.com/openlayers/examples/adapters/editingtoolbar.html

The source code is available here.

Still in my geonews catching up process, here's the open source-related geonews not shared yet.

• Via LinkedIn I learned about HSLayers and Proxy4OWS,
  • For HSLayers: "HSLayers is yet another JavaScript Mapping framework. You can use it for building rich mapping portals, as well as use it’s parts for improving your simple OpenLayers-based map."
  • For Proxy4OWS: "It is transforming OGC WMS request types from the client, into WCS or WFS requests, so that the target server can accept them."
• For OpenStreetMap, I liked the 'Worst of OSM' page showing failed imports, I guess we wouldn't see this from proprietary providers (via)
• For those unable to move to 2.0, PostGIS 1.5.4 was released
• If you want to learn about GeoExt 2 development
• GeoNode 1.1.1 was released
• And so was MapProxy 1.4.0
• As an indirect user of GEOS, I'm happy that GEOS graduated OSGeo incubation
• The OSGeo also informed us of the First Open Source Geospatial Laboratory in South America and First African Open Source Geospatial Laboratory
• You might have an interest in the Comprehensive preview of MapGuide Open Source 2.4 series
• libais 0.7 was released: "C++ decoder for Automatic Identification System for tracking ships and decoding maritime information"
• APB informs us  that the famous AP, Associated Press, is moving to TileMill and Leaflet for their interactive maps

At last week's 3D GeoInfo conference, I learned about the open source Glob3 3D GIS and Glob3 Mobile 3D virtual globe.

There isn't much on the sourceforge website: "glob3 is an open source 3D GIS multiplatform framework written in java with a very non restrictive license and advanced features." 

​But you'll get more on this page for Glob3 Mobile: "Glob3 Mobile is an open source 3D multiplattform virtual globe engine, running in mobile devices (Android and Apple) and in HTML5 web browsers. In this first version, it allows to connect to any OGC WMS public layer, and show it on the globe. Glob3 Mobile is also a framework for virtual globe development. It allows to write plugins directly in Javascript, and these plugins can run in the three plattforms (Android / Apple / web browsers). The project is currently in development, but first plugin examples can be tested in this site."

The apps for iOS and Android are free.

I was at the 3D GeoInfo 2012 conference last week and I learned about the DB4GeO / DB3D open source geospatial database, which is a Java object-oriented database focusing on 3D data. It supports CityGML, has a RESTful API and has its own WebGL visualization tool.

Since I failed to find much about it on the web other than the GitHub page (it seems the code wasn't synchronized for a while), let me serve you the abstract [pdf] of last week's presentation: "The analysis of complex 3D data is a central task for many problems in the geo- and engineering sciences. Examples are the analysis of natural events such as mass movements and volcano eruptions as well as 3D city planning and the computation of 3D models from point cloud data generated by terrestrial laser scanning for 3D data analysis in various domains. The volume of these data is growing from year to year. However, there is no geo-database management system on the market yet that efficiently supports complex 3D mass data, although prototypical 3D geo-database management systems are ready to support such challenging 3D applications. In this contribution we describe how we reply to these requirements advancing DB4GeO, our 3D/4D geo-database architecture. The system architecture and support for geometric, topological and temporal data are presented in detail. Besides the new spatio-temporal object model, we introduce new ideas and implementations of DB4GeO such as the support of GML data and the new WebGL 3D interface. The latter enables the direct visualization of 3D database query results by a standard web browser without installing additional software. Examples for 3D database queries and their visualizations with the new WebGL interface are demonstrated. Finally, we give an outlook on our future work. Further extensions of DB4GeO and the support for the data management for collaborative subway track planning are discussed."

I'd like to see the differences between PostGIS vs DB4GeO features in regards to 3D geodata. Is DB4GeO more and a playground for researchers?