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Microsoft's Proposed Take-O Part of a Global Heavyweight Struggle Microsoft's Proposed Take-O I - Introduction & Background The background to this proposed take-over of Vexcel - which has still to receive regulatory approval from the appropriate authorities in the U.S.A. and Europe - is the intense compe- tition between Microsoft and Google regarding their respective Internet search engines that are so fundamental to the success of the World Wide Web. Recently the competition between these two companies has moved into the area of Earth imaging with both compa- nies having identified such imagery, combined with the supply of the associated maps, loca- tion-based business data and travel informa- tion, as being a vital component of the ser- vices being offered by their respective search engines. Besides these two heavyweight com- petitors, it is worth noting that Yahoo! may also join this competition, since it has recently introduced a beta version of its Yahoo! Maps software, see http://maps.yahoo.com/beta/ . However up till now, Yahoo! has not utilized imagery in this particular product. Still it would be no surprise if it decided to do so. I (a) - TerraFly, Skyline & Keyhole There have been quite a number of interactive services that, for some years, have offered extensive ground coverage based on satellite and aerial images in combination with the local business information associated with each specific image. A prominent example is TerraFly, which is a service covering the U.S.A. offered by Florida International University (FIU) with support from IBM, NASA and USGS, see http://terrafly.fiu.edu/ . Skyline Software Systems has offered a similar service with maps located side-by-side with the correspond- ing satellite images, see www.skylinesoft.com/ . Yet another similar service, entitled Earth- Viewer, was offered from 2001 onwards by the Keyhole Corporation, see www.keyhole.com/. This last service allowed customers to start from a world globe and to zoom rapidly, smoothly and in a very dynamic way to the specific area of interest, often at a very high resolution - down to street level within cities. This service was aimed originally at business users who paid a quite substantial subscrip- tion (annual fee) of several hundred dollars for the service. Indeed the full "enterprise" ver- sion of the software for multiple users within a large organization cost $20,000. However, in 2003, Keyhole introduced a lightweight version of the software with somewhat reduced capa- bilities - called Keyhole LT - which was aimed at the consumer market and which retailed at some tens of dollars. Keyhole needed to populate the very large (multi-terabyte) image and map database required to support all its various products and services. To this end, it obtained aerial photography from AirPhotoUSA; satellite imagery from i-cubed and DigitalGlobe; and map and address data from Geographic Data Technology (GDT), now owned by Tele Atlas. At that time, the Keyhole service mainly covered the U.S.A. at high resolutions. II - Google In October 2004, Google announced that it had acquired the Keyhole Corporation. The two companies are both based in Mountain View, California, which meant that there was a minimum disruption to the staff. Since then, April/May 2006 6 Viewpoint The news that the Microsoft Corporation is in the process of trying to acquire the Vexcel Corporation was first reported on 15th March 2006 by the Daily Camera, a local newspaper published in Vexcel's home town of Boulder, Colorado. Somewhat belatedly, this leaked news was confirmed by spokesmen for Microsoft and Vexcel a day or two later. All of which triggered an outpouring of comment on numerous Web sites from Microsoft "watchers" and "bloggers". It was only too apparent from the published comments that many of these "bloggers" simply have little or no idea as to what Vexcel does and why it should be attractive to Microsoft. So the publisher invited me to supply my own thoughts and opinions on the matter of this projected take-over of Vexcel. It is very much a personal viewpoint! A Commentary by Gordon Petrie The Vexcel UltraCam D large-format airborne digital camera showing the multiple lens cones that produce its panchromatic and multi-spectral frame images. (Source: Vexcel).

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geoinformatics 2006 vol03

Transcript of geoinformatics 2006 vol03

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Microsoft's Proposed Take-O vePart of a Global Heavyweight StruggleMicrosoft's Proposed Take-O ve

I - Introduction & BackgroundThe background to this proposed take-over ofVexcel - which has still to receive regulatoryapproval from the appropriate authorities inthe U.S.A. and Europe - is the intense compe-tition between Microsoft and Google regardingtheir respective Internet search engines thatare so fundamental to the success of theWorld Wide Web. Recently the competitionbetween these two companies has moved intothe area of Earth imaging with both compa-nies having identified such imagery, combinedwith the supply of the associated maps, loca-tion-based business data and travel informa-tion, as being a vital component of the ser-vices being offered by their respective searchengines. Besides these two heavyweight com-petitors, it is worth noting that Yahoo! mayalso join this competition, since it has recently

introduced a beta version of its Yahoo! Mapssoftware, see http://maps.yahoo.com/beta/.However up till now, Yahoo! has not utilizedimagery in this particular product. Still it wouldbe no surprise if it decided to do so.

I (a) - TerraFly, Skyline & KeyholeThere have been quite a number of interactiveservices that, for some years, have offeredextensive ground coverage based on satelliteand aerial images in combination with thelocal business information associated witheach specific image. A prominent example isTerraFly, which is a service covering the U.S.A.offered by Florida International University (FIU)with support from IBM, NASA and USGS, seehttp://terrafly.fiu.edu/. Skyline SoftwareSystems has offered a similar service withmaps located side-by-side with the correspond-

ing satellite images, see www.skylinesoft.com/. Yet another similar service, entitled Earth-Viewer, was offered from 2001 onwards by theKeyhole Corporation, see www.keyhole.com/.This last service allowed customers to startfrom a world globe and to zoom rapidly,smoothly and in a very dynamic way to thespecific area of interest, often at a very highresolution - down to street level within cities.This service was aimed originally at businessusers who paid a quite substantial subscrip-tion (annual fee) of several hundred dollars forthe service. Indeed the full "enterprise" ver-sion of the software for multiple users within alarge organization cost $20,000. However, in2003, Keyhole introduced a lightweight versionof the software with somewhat reduced capa-bilities - called Keyhole LT - which was aimedat the consumer market and which retailed atsome tens of dollars. Keyhole needed to populate the very large(multi-terabyte) image and map databaserequired to support all its various productsand services. To this end, it obtained aerialphotography from AirPhotoUSA; satelliteimagery from i-cubed and DigitalGlobe; andmap and address data from Geographic DataTechnology (GDT), now owned by Tele Atlas. Atthat time, the Keyhole service mainly coveredthe U.S.A. at high resolutions.

II - GoogleIn October 2004, Google announced that ithad acquired the Keyhole Corporation. Thetwo companies are both based in MountainView, California, which meant that there was a minimum disruption to the staff. Since then,

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Viewpoint

The news that the Microsoft Corporation is in the process of trying to acquire the Vexcel Corporation was first reported on 15th

March 2006 by the Daily Camera, a local newspaper published in Vexcel's home town of Boulder, Colorado. Somewhat belatedly,

this leaked news was confirmed by spokesmen for Microsoft and Vexcel a day or two later. All of which triggered an outpouring of

comment on numerous Web sites from Microsoft "watchers" and "bloggers". It was only too apparent from the published comments

that many of these "bloggers" simply have little or no idea as to what Vexcel does and why it should be attractive to Microsoft. So

the publisher invited me to supply my own thoughts and opinions on the matter of this projected take-over of Vexcel. It is very

much a personal viewpoint!

A Commentary by Gordon Petrie

The Vexcel UltraCam D large-format airborne digital camera showing the multiple lens cones that produce itspanchromatic and multi-spectral frame images. (Source: Vexcel).

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matters have moved rapidly with the variousKeyhole products being renamed and integrated closely with Google's search engineand with Google Maps and Google Local. Fromthe users' standpoint, the most notable feature is that the map data can be superim-posed directly over the image data of the terrain. In June 2005, Google launched itsGoogle Earth product based on the Keyholetechnology. In particular, the lightweight version of the product was offered free for personal use through a simple download fromGoogle's Web site without any need for theuser to register. The previous enhanced, business and enterprise versions of the software - now called Google Earth Plus,Google Earth Pro and Google Earth Enterprise -still have to be paid for, though at a lowerlevel than before. However the availability ofthe free version of the Google Earth triggereda massive explosion of public and media inter-est and much favourable publicity. The Google Earth database has continued tobe developed at a rapid rate. From the specificpoint of view of Western Europe, many moreimage data suppliers have been signed upand coverage is now much more extensivethan before. However the rest of the worldoutside North America and Western Europe isstill very poorly served - at least in terms ofhigh-resolution imagery.

II (a) - @Last SoftwareTwo days before the news broke aboutMicrosoft's proposed take-over of Vexcel,another much smaller company, @LastSoftware - like Vexcel, also based in Boulder,

no longer has any stake in the TerraServerventure. Furthermore the main source of theimagery has also been changed. The baselineimagery is now the USGS aerial photographywith a 1m GSD that covers almost all of theUnited States. Internationally the baselineimagery became the 15m GSD Landsatimagery, mainly supplied by EarthSat (nowMDA Federal), and the 1km NASA imagery asprocessed by the Globe Explorer company. These systematic coverages are supplementedby (i) more scattered higher resolution aerialphotographic image coverage, mainly of theUnited States, supplied by AirPhotoUSA,Sanborn and other commercial aerial photog-raphy providers and (ii) by satellite coveragesupplied by Digital Globe. Topographic mapcoverage at scales ranging from 1:24,000 to1:250,000 is also available from TerraServer,together with aeronautical charts at still smaller scales, see www.terraserver.com.

III (b) - TerraServer-USAFrom 1998 till 2003, TerraServer was hosted byMicrosoft's MSN Network, after which, theagreement was terminated. Since then,Microsoft has been engaged in its own quiteseparate TerraServer-USA operation - seehttp://terraserver.microsoft.com/. In fact, thisproject started up in 2001. This service pro-vides free access to a large part of the vaststore of geospatial data of the USGS, includingthe USGS Digital Orthophoto Quadrangles(DOQs) and its Digital Raster Graphics (DRGs).TerraServer-USA also hosts the NASA data setsused by NASA's World Wind service. In May 2005, the TerraServer-USA operationwas transferred from the Microsoft Research

Colorado - was acquired byGoogle. @Last's main softwareproduct is SketchUp, whichallows the simple constructionand modelling of 3D objects,especially buildings, from scratch.It has gained a substantial cus-tomer base among architects,graphic artists and game develop-ers. Moreover two plug-in ver-sions of SketchUp had also beendeveloped (i) for use with ESRI'sArcGIS package, and (ii) to devel-op 3D content for Google Earth.One presumes that Google decid-ed to acquire @Last Software sothat this valuable tool would not

fall into the hands of a competitor, seewww.sketchup.com/.

III - MicrosoftThe Microsoft Corporation has been active inthe field of supplying spaceborne and airborneimagery for some considerable time - verymuch longer than Google!

III (a) - TerraServerThis involvement began with its participationin the TerraServer project that started in1997/98. Initially this was a collaborationbetween Aerial Images, Compaq and Microsoft.The Aerial Images company, through an agree-ment with the Sovinformsputnik company,supplied Russian SPIN-2 high-resolution spaceimagery as the initial baseline imagery to cus-tomers using TerraServer. Compaq supplied itshigh-powered Alpha servers to provide theconsiderable computing resources that wererequired for this on-line service.While, for its part in the partner-ship, Microsoft supplied a scaled-up version of its Windows NTsoftware and its SQL relationaldatabase management system.Essentially, at that early stage,Microsoft viewed TerraServermainly as a research project andtest bed for the development ofadvanced database technology.

Over the next few years, theTerraServer project graduallychanged, In particular, the ownership changed and Microsoft

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Viewpoint

-O ver of Vexcel-O ver of Vexcel

An annotated perspective view of part of Chicago showing the skyscraperbuildings in the downtown area of the city - as displayed on Google Earth.(Source: Google)

A perspective view of an area in which the buildings, roads and car parkshave been constructed using the SketchUp software from @Last Software -an example from the SketchUp gallery. (Source: @Last Software/Google)

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group to the company's MapPoint group. Thelatter group had for some time been selling itsMapPoint map products for travel location,navigation and planning. On 30th June 2005,Microsoft's MSN Search rolled out a beta ver-sion of its Local Search service that allowed a

MapPoint map or a TerraServer-USA aerialphoto image to be displayed alongside theresults of a search. On 25th July 2005, MSNreleased the beta version of its Virtual Earthproduct that fully integrated MSN Search,MapPoint's Maps & Directions and the

TerraServer-USA into a single application, see http://virtualearth.msn.com/.Like Google Earth, Virtual Earth is being offeredfree as part of MSN and it too has received agreat deal of favourable comment. Virtual Earthis entirely Web-based and there is no need todownload and install special software as thereis with Google Earth. With this product,Microsoft entered into a direct head-to-headcompetition with Google which had releasedthe beta version of its Google Earth product on23rd June 2005.

III (c) - Content Provision for VirtualEarthNeedless to say, a main concern for Microsofthas been to provide systematic image cover-age of large areas of terrain in order to under-pin Virtual Earth. The availability of low and medium resolution imagery of large areas hasnot been the problem. This is largely takencare of by using Landsat imagery. The mainproblem is to get access to high resolutionimagery, especially for large metropolitanareas. Thus Microsoft (like Google) has signedup a large number of aerial photographic service providers, as follows:-(i) Pictometry - On 23rd May 2005, Microsoftannounced a 5-year agreement with

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A screen shot taken from Windows Live Local, powered by Microsoft's Visual Earth. The lower part of the screen contains an annotated aerial image of Seattle; the upper part shows the three views provided by the corresponding"street side" images. (Source: Microsoft)

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Pictometry that will allow its geo-referencedoblique aerial photography to be used inVirtual Earth. From a West European perspective, it will be interesting to see if thisagreement will be extended to coverPictometry's European licensees - the Blomgroup, including Simmons Aerofilms (U.K.),CGR (Italy), GeoTec (Germany), FM-Kartta(Finland), Seficart (Iberia), etc.(ii) ORBIMAGE - Shortly after this agreementwith Pictometry was signed, Microsoft signedanother similar 5-year agreement with ORBIMAGE for it to supply its globalspace imagery acquired by its OrbView-2 (at low-resolution) and OrbView-3 (athigh resolution) for use in Virtual Earth.Since then, in December 2005, ORBIM-AGE has taken over Space Imaging andformed the new GeoEye Corporation.Again it will be interesting to see if thismeans that high-resolution IKONOSspace imagery will also be available foruse in Virtual Earth.(iii) EarthData - Yet another potentiallyimportant supplier of aerial imagery wassigned up by Microsoft in December2005 in the shape of the EarthDataCorporation, one of the largest U.S. aerial mapping companies - again on thebasis of a 5-year agreement.

However notwithstanding the recruitment of all of these major suppliers of imagery, it isimportant to realize that they can only supplya part of the content that is needed to populate Virtual Earth. Thus Microsoft stillneeds to find other major sources of aerial

company based in Toronto, Canada. GeoTangohad already developed various software pack-ages for 2D and 3D content building and visu-alization, see www.geotango.com/. Its GlobeView software generates a DigitalEarth that allowed image data and location-based information from anywhere on theInternet to be streamed and displayed on theuser's screen. Its SilverEye software isdesigned to ease the task of generating 3Dmodels of high-value facilities and urban land-scapes. SilverEye also allows the rapid collec-tion and display of quantities such as dis-tance, area, volume, slope or bearing to anacceptable standard of accuracy for many pur-poses using a single airborne or spaceborneimage. Thus it does not require the provisionof a stereo-pair of images for this particulartask. A third development at GeoTango is itsSmartDigitizer software that allows the semi-automatic feature extraction of lines and poly-gons to be carried out on remotely sensedimagery. In fact, SmartDigitizer has alreadybeen incorporated into PCI's Geomaticaremote sensing image processing suite. Quiteobviously all three of GeoTango's softwarepackages could be utilized within Virtual Earthand in the Windows Live Local service that ispowered by Visual Earth.

IV - VexcelWith regard to Microsoft's proposed purchaseof Vexcel, one can see immediately that certainparts of Vexcel's activities are very attractive toMicrosoft - but not all. An overview of these

activities was given in my profile of theVexcel Corporation that was published inthe December 2004 issue ofGeoInformatics. My analysis (and opin-ion) of the potential value of these activ-ities to Microsoft will be conductedunder three main headings - geospatialdata, software and hardware.

IV (a) - 3D Urban Model DataAs discussed above, the acquisition ofimage, map and terrain data to act asadditional content for Virtual Earthwould appear to be a high priority forMicrosoft. In which case, particular atten-tion would have been paid by Microsoftto the high-resolution 3D building andterrain model data sets that have beengenerated from stereo-pairs of aerial

photographs by Vexcel's Mapping ServicesDivision for numerous cities in North Americaand elsewhere. Although these data sets weregenerated primarily for use in the planning ofcellular phone networks by telecommsproviders, they have also been made availableto other users off-the-shelf under Vexcel's

image and space image data if Virtual Earth is to become fully operational, not only in the U.S.A. (which is its first objective) butworld-wide. A complication with aerial imageryis of course that the image data obtained byservice providers does not always remain withthem - in many cases, the original films anddigital data are delivered up to the customerswho then own the data. This is often the case with government-owned mapping organizations.

III (d) - GeoTangoBesides data, Microsoft required additionalsoftware for the display, manipulation andvisualization of the image data held in VirtualEarth. To satisfy part of this requirement, on23rd December 2005, it bought the GeoTango

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Viewpoint

Another screen shot from Windows Live Local - in this case, showing the area of Fort Washington in New York city.This gives a "bird's eye view" of the area that utilizes the geo-referenced oblique photography supplied by Pictometry.(Source: Microsoft)

An aerial image with a set of measurements (distance, area, height) superimposed over the image - produced by GeoTango's SilverEye software.(Source: GeoTango).

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Global Landscape product line. This 3D building and terrain model data and the associated aerial photographic data fromwhich it was produced should be invaluableadditions to Microsoft's data portfolio to beused in Virtual Earth, see www.vexcel.com/services/mapping/.

IV (b) - Terrestrial PhotogrammetricSoftwareRegarding Vexcel's extensive range of software,the most obviously useful package in the context of Virtual Earth is the FotoG close-range photogrammetric software package. Thishas been used extensively both in-house and,through licensing, by various outside researchand industrial organizations (including NASAand General Motors) to produce 3D CAD models direct from film and digital pho-tographs. In the context of Virtual Earth, thissoftware could be extremely valuable in generating urban facades and models of buildings from photographs and video imagestaken at ground or near-ground level, seewww.vexcel.com/products/crange/fotog/

In this particular context, it is also worth noting that the Facet Technology Corporation -which is a mobile mapping company - hasbeen collecting comprehensive street-levelimagery of many cities in the U.S.A. using multiple digital cameras mounted in its vansequipped with GPS/IMU systems to providethe necessary locational information. Already

Microsoft has included part of the Facet company's street-level coverage of Seattle andSan Francisco in its beta version of VirtualEarth under the title ‘Street Side Views’. It isalso worth noting that Tele Atlas is undertakingsimilar surveys in Western Europe. This usesthe mobile mapping van system developed bythe Polish GeoInvent company - which TeleAtlas has bought. However, up till now, therehas been no news of Microsoft making use ofthis European imagery.

IV (c) - Aerial PhotogrammetricSoftwareTurning next to Vexcel's aerial photogrammetricsoftware, most of its UltraMap WorkSuite wasacquired when Vexcel bought the CanadianISM company in 2004. This WorkSuite includesthe DiAP digital photogrammetric workstation(DPW) and various complementary triangula-tion and orthophoto programs. Of course, thisis a useful state-of-the-art photogrammetricsuite that is being used by customers forVexcel's airborne digital cameras as well as theformer ISM user community. However it is difficult to envisage Microsoft going in for the

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Viewpoint

A perspective view of downtown Chicago based on the3D terrain model and building height data producedfrom aerial photographs by Vexcel's Mapping ServicesDivision. (Source: Vexcel)

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mass production of orthophoto, map and terrain elevation data on the scale needed topopulate Virtual Earth. To outside observers,Microsoft is much more likely to purchase orlicense the required data from the numerousexisting photogrammetric service providers.Still the UltraMap software and its associatedarchiving facilities are there if needed for specific purposes or projects, see www.vexcel.com/products/photogram/diap/.

IV (d) - Remote Sensing SoftwareVexcel's other software offerings are concen-trated heavily on a quite different area - namelythe advanced processing of remotely sensedsatellite image data and especially the proces-sing of SAR (radar) imagery for which it isrenowned internationally. This has included theextensive use of this software in the RadarsatAntarctic Mapping Project (RAMP) and in theShuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) -both of which have involved the mapping ofenormous areas based on SAR image data.Undoubtedly these are very valuable softwareproducts and might be useful to Microsoft inspecific circumstances and projects. However,again as seen from the outside, Microsoftseems much more likely to be interested inthe RAMP and SRTM data sets than in thesoftware that has been used to create them,see www.vexcel.com/products/remote/.

IV (e) - Aerial PhotogrammetricHardwareLike the software, Vexcel's hardware productsfall into two quite distinct and largely unrelatedgroups - used (i) for aerial photogrammetry;and (ii) for satellite remote sensing respective-ly. The two principal aerial photogrammetrichardware products are the UltraScan high-pre-cision photogrammetric film scanner and theUltraCam D large-format digital frame camera.The UltraScan has been an outstanding com-mercial success for Vexcel with over 400 unitssold. However, with the increasing sales of dig-ital cameras, one may assume that sales ofthe UltraScan are now past their peak. In thecase of the UltraCam, currently it is engage ina fierce struggle with its competitors in thearea of large-format airborne digital imagers -principally Intergraph (with its DMC frame cam-era) and Leica (with its ADS40 pushbroomscanner). Vexcel has more than kept its endup in this highly competitive market. One mayassume that there are still more sales to come- though, in the end, there must be a finitenumber of customers who can afford to buylarge-format airborne digital imagers at thepresent price of around $1,000,000 per unit ifa GPS/IMU system is deemed to be a neces-sary part of an overall system. See www.vexcel.com/products/photogram/.

IV (f) - Remote Sensing HardwareVexcel's remote sensing hardware systems areof a completely different character - comprisingsatellite ground receiving stations and theirassociated image processing systems. Againthese are very high value items which Vexcelhas sold and supported very successfullyagainst strong competition - principally fromMDA in Canada and from ViaSat and Datron(now part of L3 Communications) in the U.S.A.However it is difficult to see how the sale ofsatellite ground stations to other independentorganisations can be of value to Microsoft inthe specific context of its Virtual Earth opera-tion, see www.vexcel.com/products/remote/.

IV (g) - Overall AssessmentIf the photogrammetric and remote sensinghardware systems that are currently beingoffered for sale by Vexcel are all state-of-the-art and fairly successful products, where willthey stand if Microsoft's bid for the companydoes receive regulatory approval? Unlike thedata sets and part of Vexcel's software portfo-lio, none of these hardware systems are anobvious fit into Microsoft's present wide rangeof activities. Indeed, in their editorial writtenon 29th March 2006 for the on-line edition ofDirections magazine, Adena Schutzberg andJoe Francica have expressed the view that ".... it is hard to imagine that Microsoft willwant to be in the business of selling sensorsand ground stations, so our guess, just now,is that these will be sold off in time". If thisprediction is correct, then undoubtedly there

will be potential buyers of these successfulproduct lines.

Still there are some other considerations to bekept in mind. As one might expect, the mar-keting manager of Vexcel, Jerry Skaw, sent outa letter by e-mail to all of Vexcel's customersconcerning the proposed take-over of the com-pany by Microsoft. It included the followingstatements - "... the acquisition is expected tobring with it resources and support thatenhance our offerings and allow us to expandin ways that greatly benefit our current cus-tomer base ...... We also plan to continue todevelop, sell and support our current products- many of which will contribute directly to ournew role. ..." The complete text of Skaw's letter is available at http://industry.slashgeo.org.

However potentially much more significant inthis particular context is the news thatProfessor Vincent Tao has been appointedDirector of Virtual Earth. Prof. Tao holds theCanada Research Chair in GeomaticsEngineering at York University in Toronto. He isa quite outstanding photogrammetrist and hasbeen the main driving force behind the soft-ware developments at the GeoTango companythat Microsoft purchased only three monthsago. His appointment to the position atMicrosoft appears to have been made veryshortly after its purchase of GeoTango. Thisputs a quite different complexion on the wholetake-over saga - both regarding the proposedacquisition of Vexcel in the first place and thepotential to fully exploit all the different ele-ments of its hardware and software portfoliooutlined above. I look forward with great inter-est to Microsoft's future developments in thisarea with Prof. Tao as Director of Virtual Earth.

The following links may be useful with regardto Microsoft’s Virtual Earth:- Windows Live Local (powered by Virtual Earth)-http://local.live.com/Windows Live Local – Community -http://local.live.com/community/default.aspxWindows Live Local – Technology Preview –Street Side Views -http://preview.local.live.com/Windows Live Local / Virtual Earth Blog -http://spaces.msn.com/VirtualEarth/MSN Virtual Earth Groups – Message Board –http://groups.msn.com/MSNVirtualEarth

Gordon Petrie ([email protected]) is Emeritus

Professor in the Dept. of Geographical & Earth

Sciences of the University of Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.

Viewpoint

A satellite ground receiving station that has been supplied by the Vexcel Corporation. (Source: Vexcel)

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ALK Technologies Winner of NFleetCenter Integrates with CoPilot LiveALK Technologies Winner of N

Navteq, one of the global providers of digital map data for vehicle navigation and

location-based solutions, recently announced the winners of the Navteq Global LBS

Challenge. This global program challenged application developers to build innovative

location-based services (LBS) that work with mobile phones or wireless handheld

devices using dynamic positioning technology and Navteq maps.

By Robin Wevers

The AwardThe Navteq Global LBS Challenge was createdto drive growth in the LBS industry by bringingtogether the key players in the LBS-wirelessvalue chain. The Global LBS The Challengeawarded a grand-prize winner and category

winners. The grand prize winner was ALKTechnologies, that developed CoPilot LiveFleetCenter, a fleet-tracking, messaging, report-ing and optimization application, which inte-grates with the CoPilot Live mobile navigationsolution to enable real time asset visibility.

Executives from wireless carriers, hardware anddevice manufacturers, venture capitalists andother influential players in the wireless indus-try served as the official judges and completedthe judging in February during 3GSM WorldCongress in Barcelona. The judges based theirfinal decisions on its commercial viability,unique functionality, and ease-of-use. Overall,out of 141 registration applications from 23European countries Fleetcenter was judged tohave the superior solution when these param-eters were aggregated.

CoPilot Live FleetCenterFleetCenter integrates with CoPilot Live to pro-vide integrated satellite navigation, trackingand fleet control using connected WindowsMobile-based devices. FleetCenter is devel-oped in partnership with organizations that arealready deploying the solutions. The productscombine to provide businesses of all sizeswith a combination of commercial grade GPSnavigation, real-time asset location-tracking,fleet optimization and management. Vehiclelocation data and other information is reportedto FleetCenter via a mobile Internet connec-tion, providing visibility of the locations ofmobile assets in real-time. Fleet managers canmonitor particular groups of vehicles and filterby group, status or estimated time of arrival.FleetCenter integrates with ALK’s CoPilot Live 6navigation, that turns Windows Mobile-basedphones, Pocket PCs and Symbian-basedphones into portable satellite navigation sys-tems, complete with turn-by-turn voice guid-ance, address input and street maps. CoPilotLive incorporates real-time services as stan-dard and makes use of Internet-connectedphones to combine navigation with location-specific information. In Germany the BavarianRed Cross are deploying mobile devicesequipped with CoPilot and will be usingFleetCenter to manage vehicles at the 2006World Cup.

ALK TechnologiesThe builders of FleetCenter, ALK Technologies,were founded in 1979 with headquarters inPrinceton, New Jersey. The company developssolutions for corporate and consumer cus-tomers globally. ALK's CoPilot Live mobile GPSnavigation solutions are available in Europe,North America and Australia as retail-brandedproducts and as the basis for OEM navigation

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systems. The company's PC*MILER routing,mapping and fleet management solutions areused by over 22 thousand transportation,logistics and manufacturing companies world-wide. ALK’s European operations are headquar-tered in Central London, with further offices inGermany and France. In total the company hasover 120 employees.

The Future of LBSDavid Quin, Marketing Director of ALKTechnologies Ltd. has high expectations of theLBS-market: “The integration of navigationwith real-time tracking and fleet managementis a functionality that I believe is going tomake fleet management accessible to busi-nesses of all sizes. It is a massive growtharea.” He also says: “Integrated live services,for example real-time traffic information, andthe ability to import databases and POI infor-mation relevant to your location or your routewill become increasingly sophisticated andmore accessible. As the quality and variety ofcontent increases rapidly, location-specific content will become more compelling forusers. Furthermore the increased variety ofmobile devices with integrated GPS and high-speed mobile web connectivity mean that con-nected GPS navigation solutions will becomeubiquitous for consumers and businesses.”Jennifer Fondrevay, Marketing CommunicationsDirector of Navteq Europe, expresses similarviews: “The most important thing that is bothhappening and on the horizon is the integra-tion of GPS chips into handsets. Operators inNorth America, South America and Asia havemade the first move and are now beginning tolaunch services based on dynamic location inearnest. On the GSM side, we are seeing andhearing about the next generation of phoneson broadband networks (UMTS and W-CDMA)also expected to include this integration.Cumulatively, it is creating a baseline and criti-cal mass of location-ready devices and appli-cation developers are emerging to provide therequisite solutions that will increase the dataservices for the wireless operators.”

Location Enabled ServicesFondrevay continues: “Navteq believes thatthe initial market emphasis will be turn byturn navigation solutions because consumersinherently recognize the value of getting fromhere to there. Eventually, the focus will turn to

value chain is of content provider at the begin-ning of the value chain but they have devel-oped relationships across the value chain.Fondrevay: “We have relationships with everysegment in the wireless services value chainand this helps us to be more effective in evan-gelizing location. The Global LBS Challenge isone of the vehicles that we are leveraging tohelp move this along.” The challenge,launched in 2003, is intended to stimulate thedevelopment of location-enabled applicationsin the wireless space. It drives new applicationdevelopment while surfacing developer talentand raising the quality bar. Navteq believesthe challenge stimulates location awarenessand it brings LBS applications to the fore-front.

Location Based InformationWhat makes location-based information soimportant according to Navteq? Fondrevay’sview: “Location-based information and mobili-ty is the perfect marriage of technology andutility. End users are placed in the position ofnot only being able to make decisions basedon where they are or things around them arebut also to modify and make new decisions oreven extend the decision in real time. Locationand mobility are perfectly aligned, mobilityproviding the need for real time decisions andthe location enabling these decisions to begeographically relevant.”Quin’s view on LBS: “Location based androute-specific information is becoming accessi-ble and meaningful enough to genuinely helpbusinesses and consumers make informeddecisions when travelling. Businesses will beable to achieve greater efficiency throughbeing able to control their mobile teamremotely and through fleet optimization.Consumers will have easy access to location-specific information when in an unfamiliarplace or to avoid delays. Simply put, locationbased information fully integrated with naviga-tion makes being mobile easier.”

Robin Wevers ([email protected]) is a freelance

writer of geo-ict-articles.

More information can be found at www.alk.eu.com,

www.alk.eu.com/copilot/cp_professional.asp or

www.navteq.com.

horizontal services for which location will bethe enabler and not necessarily the verticalservice itself, like navigation.” Fondrevay prefers to talk about location-enabled services instead of LBS: “Navigationwill continue to be a part of the service offer,however, because even as you are becominglocation-aware of the things, place and evenpeople around you, you will always want tohave at least the option to find your way"there". This is fundamentally why we believethe term LBS is a misnomer. The more descrip-tive term is location-enabled services becausethere are very few services for which integra-tion of location does not create incrementalvalue but also very few services whose corevalue proposition is location. The term LBS isa bit narrow in scope and potentially mini-mizes the role location plays; location enabledservices better reflects the future role locationdevices can play in people’s lives.”

Navteq StrategyNavteq wants to continue to “push the mar-ket” to embrace location as a core, lifestyleenhancing enabler. Their nominal role in the

April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 13

Art ic le

of Navteq Global LBS Challengeof Navteq Global LBS Challenge

FleetCenter integrates with CoPilot Live to provideintegrated satellite navigation, tracking and fleetcontrol using connected Windows Mobile-baseddevices.

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GP - Now that Leica Geosystems hasbeen taken over by Hexagon AB, andgiven Hexagon's existing strengths inthe metrology field, one might expectnew product development to go towardsvery short-distance laser scanners thatcould be used indoors for metrologyapplications - for example, reverse engi-neering, prototyping and the measure-ment and recording of small objects. Willentry into this area be a long-term aimfor Leica Geosystems and a strategicobjective of Hexagon AB?

KM - One of the strategic objectives at Hexagonis to remain the leader both in the micro andmacro measurement space. As the existing lead-er, we will continue to monitor the needs of ourcustomers in all our markets and develop therequired solutions. I think the trend will continueand even accelerate to move towards laser scan-ning as a mainstream tool in both these microand macro markets. The benefits of accurate,

high definition as-built (as-is) information arenot only valuable to an engineer designing abridge retrofit, but also to an engineer who isreverse engineering an automobile part. Laserscanning in all markets for Hexagon, includingthose within Leica Geosystems, will continue tobe a long term aim.

GP - The former HDS Division of LeicaGeosystems concentrated its efforts onthe manufacture, sales and support oflaser scanners that operated over medi-um distances between 1m and 25m(with the HDS4500 instrument) and upto 300m (with the HDS2500 andHDS3000 instruments). Does the newlyformed Geosystems Division have aninterest in extending its product rangeinto the area of still longer range scan-ners - measuring distances up to1,500m, like the ILRIS-3D instrumentproduced by Optech?

April/May 200614

Interv iew

KM - There are really two aspects to thisquestion. The first aspect is a historical one.Our founder was actually a civil/structuralengineer who ran a large engineering andconstruction management company. In thatbusiness, he experienced at first-hand theneed for much better as-built (as-is) informa-tion, especially for plants and related struc-tures, than that which was typically availableusing traditional as-built methods. He recog-nized that better as-built information allowedbetter retrofit design, which could significant-ly reduce construction costs and risks forretrofit projects. He also saw that this was alarge, industry-wide problem. So this led tothe development of high-accuracy scanningsystems with a maximum range of about300m. This turned out to be a sweet spot inthe market in terms of the wide variety ofapplications that users could benefit fromthe technology and it has been one of themain reasons behind Leica Geosystems’ com-mercial success thus far.

g

Ken Mooyman, head of Leica Geosystems ground-based laser scanning business - with examples of the company's HDS laser scanners in the background.

Ken Mooyman, a Canadian by birth (of Dutch extraction), waseducated as a surveyor at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ontario.During the early 1980s, he managed a GPS services businessand a project management consulting practice. Later he workedfor Trimble Navigation as the company's Director of Sales forCanada and the Western U.S.A. He then left Trimble and, for ashort period in 1999, he worked as Sales Director for the VicinityCorporation. However he quickly returned to the surveyinginstrumentation field, joining Cyra Technologies (based in theSan Francisco area) as Vice-President of Sales. Shortly aftewards,the Cyra terrestrial laser scanning business was bought by LeicaGeosystems. In 2001, Mr. Mooyman became Vice-President forEuropean sales and support for Cyra’s scanner products, basedin Rijswijk in the Netherlands. He then returned to the SanFrancisco area business headquarters in 2003 as Senior Vice-President in charge of world-wide sales and support for whathad by then became the High-Definition Surveying (HDS)Division of Leica Geosystems. Under his leadership and drive,the Division's revenues have grown spectacularly over the lasttwo years. In recognition of Ken’s background and his successeswith Cyra and Leica Geosystems, Ken Mooyman has just beenappointed as head of Leica Geosystems' ground-based laserscanning business.

by Gordon Petrie

The Future for Leica's TerrestrialLaser Scanning BusinessInterview with Ken Mooyman

The Future for Leica's TerrestrialLaser Scanning Business

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The second aspect is a “looking forward” per-spective. If you look at the fundamental char-acteristics of terrestrial scanning systems formuch longer ranges, you will find a few inher-ent shortcomings that limit the types of appli-cations for which the technology is really well-suited. One shortcoming is accuracy. At longrange, the magnitude of the distance andangle errors combine with a much large spotsize and wider point-to-point spacing such thathigh accuracy is just not achievable at verylong ranges. Therefore, you see such systemsbeing relegated to low-accuracy applicationssuch as mining and terrain models. These areuseful applications of the technology, but thecost of this technology today may be tooexpensive. If we can bring the right value tocustomers, we will certainly do it.

The fact that all laser scanners are line-of-sightinstruments imposes another practical con-straint as you go out further. There are oftenobstructions between the scanner and the sur-face of interest and things tend to get worseas you get further from the scanner. Even if ascanner could capture data at 500m range,you may not have a clean line-of-sight to thesurface of interest. So, in practice, users haveto move a scanner around a site, only getting50m, 100m or perhaps 200m practical line-of-sight range. Yet another problem at longerranges is the scanner’s angle of incidence tohorizontal surfaces. If the angle of incidence istoo low, you cannot get a return and if youdo, it is just not very accurate. The bottomline is that when you look at longer range,wide-area applications, many users wouldbegin consider a combined solution of a Leicaaerial scanner, such as the ALS50, and a ter-restrial scanner such as the Leica HDS3000.This solution provides customers with the abil-ity to map large areas and to augment pointsof interest with higher accuracy points.

GP - Before the take-over by Hexagon,Leica Geosystems had already moved itsproduction of the ALS50 airborne laserscanner from Massachusetts to its mainmanufacturing plant in Heerbrugg,Switzerland. Now there is "talk" withinthe surveying industry that the produc-tion of the HDS3000 ground-based laserscanner will be transferred from the fac-tory in California to Heerbrugg. Wouldyou please like to comment on this"talk"? I am sure that the answer willbe of much interest to your existing cus-tomers!

KM - Actually, I don’t think most customerscare too much about where products aremanufactured, as long as they are produced

with excellent quality and at fair cost. I thinkcustomers care more about local service andsupport, especially with a technology likelaser scanning, in which support can be socritical to their success. So let me addresswhat this move means from both of theseperspectives.

First of all, the “talk” you were hearing iscorrect and I am very excited about thismove. With this move, we will be able tofully leverage Leica Geosystems’ high-end,state-of-the-art manufacturing facility inSwitzerland. The Switzerland team is excep-tional at quality, cost-efficiency, and long-term product serviceability. This is somethingthat can be a challenge for a smaller manu-facturing facility and especially one that islocated in the San Francisco Bay area, whichhas very high manufacturing labor costs.

Although we are moving the main manufac-turing line to Switzerland, we are keeping astate-of-the-art testing, calibration, and repairfacility in our San Ramon offices. So, cus-tomers in the Americas will still be able toget prompt service and support. OurEuropean customers now also have accessto a state-of-the-art European-based service,calibration, and repair facility. Asian cus-tomers will have access to both of thesefacilities.A final benefit of the manufacturing move forour customers is that without the distrac-tions of periodically supporting manufactur-ing issues, we can better focus our SanRamon talents on product development(R&D), marketing, service and support.

This will lead to better and faster innova-tions for our customers. In summary, themove allows the California team to focus onproduct innovation and service/support andthe Swiss team to do what our customershave come to rely on - produce high qualityLeica Geosystems products and provide firstclass service and support.

GP - In aerial photogrammetry, there ismuch interest in data fusion, especiallycombining airborne laser scanned datawith the image data produced by digitalframe cameras and pushbroom scanners.Is there a similar strong interest in datafusion among land and engineering sur-veyors? If so, do you foresee furtherdevelopments on the instrumentationside with calibrated photogrammetricimagers such as digital panoramic cam-eras being integrated into ground-basedlaser scanners? Presumably this wouldrequire very close co-operation betweenyour own unit and the photogrammetricside of your company's GeospatialImaging Division, both regarding soft-ware as well as hardware.

KM - There are currently numerous exam-ples of “data fusion” in the market. Oneexample - combining digital photographsand clouds of points - has already becomecommon practice in laser scanning. This isdone either using cameras that are integrat-ed directly into the scanner itself or usingimages from external digital cameras that arenot attached to the scanner. There has beena lot of activity in the industry over the lastyear in this area, including our own Cyclone5.4 release.

There are many different sensors to captureimagery or spatial information such as totalstations, GPS, digital aerial cameras, and ter-restrial laser scanners. The key is how tocombine this information efficiently to pro-vide intelligent data to users. Today, existingcustomers routinely use their total stationsand GPS instruments to complement thedata captured by laser scanning. I think thereal key in the future is not with the sensorsbut with the software that can intelligentlyreference, measure, analyze and present thisfused data. Software applications likeCyclone should not care about the type ofsensor used to capture the information. Thechallenge from a vendor standpoint will beto continue to keep pace with the sources ofnew spatial and image information and makeit easy for users to take full advantage ofthis information in their office software andin their networked and web environments.

16

Interv iew

April/May 2006

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As part of Hexagon, we are fortunate to addyet another dimension to the aspects of datafusion. As you know, Hexagon is expert in“micro” measurement technology. There arealso data fusion needs and opportunitiesbetween the micro and macro worlds. InHexagon, sharing R&D and other competen-cies is a key company value. We work close-ly within Hexagon to share development forboth hardware and software efforts to bringmore complete solutions to customers. Ourcustomers can be assured of this.

GP - Turning next to your market leader-ship in ground-based laser scanners,what do you feel are the main factorsthat have produced this success? Andwhere does your main competition comefrom - does it vary (i) from one regionalmarket (North America, Europe, Asia,Australia) to another; (ii) within differentindustries (surveying and non-surveyingapplications); and (iii) according to thelevel of knowledge and sophistication ofyour existing users and your potentialcustomers?

KM - Well, it is no accident that we havesuch a strong leadership position in theindustry. There are really several key factors.(i) One is having been an industry pioneer -we were able to get off to a fast start rightout of the gate. Together with earlyadopters, we created the growth of this mar-ket. Today scanning is already accepted asthe preferred solution in a number of marketsegments. (ii) A second factor is that I think we havemade some sound strategic decisions. Weoffer state-of-the-art software and hardware.The micro-chip laser offers the cleanestdataset and that helped to improve accuracy.We have the exclusive right to the two

where the value in laser scanning is not somuch the productivity to capture the as-builtinfo but more in the downstream benefit oflower construction costs, lower constructionrisks and shorter down-times of the facility.Reducing the period of time an oil rig isdown for a revamp project is just as valu-able in Malaysia as it is in the North Sea orthe Gulf of Mexico.

From a geographic standpoint, things aresomewhat more competitive in Europe thanother areas, as this is where most of theother hardware vendors happen to be head-quartered. These vendors tend to focus theirmarketing and sales efforts close to homeand customers are a bit less worried aboutsupport if the vendor’s headquarters are nextdoor. In terms of vertical markets, I think wehave a strong leadership position in eachone except for the mining market, althoughwe have some good successes here as well.Open pit mining is one market where thevery long range systems have a good fit, asaccuracy requirements are low, line-of-sightmay not be a problem, and, if you are scan-ning vertical walls in an open pit, you don’thave an angle-of-incidence problem.

The last portion of your question – aboutthe level of sophistication of prospective cus-tomers - is an interesting one. We are fortu-nate in that we do well across the board,but I think that we probably tend to get aneven higher share of the more sophisticatedusers who have done their homework. Forexample, there are as yet no standards forspecifying laser scanners. Some vendors aremuch more aggressive than others with theirspecs and what they include or exclude fromtheir specs. Leica Geosystems has tended tobe very conservative with specs, oftenchoosing to let the actual performance ofour products significantly exceed our specs.So, newcomers are well advised to evaluatevendors’ specs carefully. More sophisticatedprospects will do the extra homework tomake sure that they get what they want.They will talk with other users and actuallytest products before buying. They also tendto be more successful when they do buy,which leads to more referral-based businessfor their vendors. Because of this, we put alot of effort into educating the market aboutthe technology to help customers make wellinformed decisions.

Gordon Petrie ([email protected]) is Emeritus

Professor in the Dept. of Geographical & Earth

Sciences of the University of Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.

Visit www.leica-geosystems.com for more information

about the company and its products

patents on the use of micro-chip lasers. Thepower of the Leica Cyclone software is wellknown. Customers expect our commitment todevelop these technologies further. Theytrust Leica Geosystems to have the staminaand the resources to further advance thistechnology for their benefit. I think the mar-ket has highly valued this in LeicaGeosystems. (iii) I think a third factor behind LeicaGeosystems’ success is that we have hit themark in terms of the breadth and the capa-bilities of our hardware and software prod-ucts. Laser scanners and associated softwareare still fairly costly to acquire, so customersreally want them to be as versatile as possi-ble in terms of the number of applicationsthat they effectively address. The capabilitiesand actual performance of both our hard-ware and software have met this need andthis has been a big plus. (iv) If you ask around, you’ll find that cus-tomer support is the fourth factor. Especiallywith a new technology, support can be justas critical as the products themselves as faras helping to make users successful. And, inthe end, this has really been the biggest fac-tor of all: the success of so many of our cus-tomers. It is their success that fundamentallydrives adoption of the technology and hascontinued to bring the majority of new cus-tomers to Leica Geosystems.

The main “competitor” in the laser scanningindustry is not another manufacturer but theway customers are currently doing their as-built activities. This barrier does vary fromregion to region. In areas of generally higherlabor costs, such as much of Europe, NorthAmerica and certain parts of Asia/Pacific,laser scanning’s productivity advantages aremore appealing. In regions with low laborcosts, we focus on industries like oil & gas,

April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 17

Interv iew

An image of the interior of the central dome of the famous Hagia Sophia church in Istanbul, Turkey that hasbeen generated by a Leica Geoosystems HDS laser scanner.

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April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 19

Conferences & Meet ings

A Discussion on SDI in the UAESeminar on Spatial Data InfrastructureA Discussion on SDI in the UAE

GIS Development and the Military Survey Department of the United Arab Emirates

(UAE) presented a Seminar on Spatial Data Infrastructure in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on Feb.

12, 2006. Invited speakers from Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia and the United

States shared the challenges they have faced developing and implementing a Spatial

Data Infrastructure (SDI).

By Daniel Shannon

ParallelMany speakers drew a parallel between traditional infrastructure and SDI, and thesetting couldn’t have been more appropriate.The Emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai pro-vide stark visual examples of the demandsbeing placed on infrastructure in the face ofthe massive growth occurring in the region. The Geospatial Information & TechnologyAssociation (GITA)’s Executive Director BobSamborski spoke on the organisation’sresearch into return on investment forgeospatial technology implementations.Several of his observations were germane tothe discussion on Spatial Data Infrastructure.Particularly relevant was the assertion thatsound financial analysis is fundamental toany investment in geospatial technology, andthat those investments must support busi-ness objectives. SDI Necessary?While it is difficult to quantify the value ofsomething as large and overarching as a

Spatial Data Infrastructure, allpresenters had compellingcases for why an SDI isrequired. According to MajorGeneral M Gopal Rao, SurveyorGeneral of India, an SDI will‘save time, effort and money infinding data’ and will ‘avoidunnecessary duplication.’ Hostand keynote speaker BrigadierGeneral Khalifa Al Romathipointed to ‘better outcomesthrough improved economic,social and environmental deci-sion making’ while others citedstandardisation and supportfor the development of thegeospatial industry itself.

The need for government leadershipappeared to be the consensus opinion. Therole of government in the establishment of aSpatial Data Infrastructure does not, howev-er, preclude or diminish the focus on the pri-vate sector. Both the general public andindustry are expected to benefit when doingbusiness within the framework of a fullyrealised SDI. Indeed, Canada’s vision ofSpatial Data Infrastructure specifically focuseson enabling ‘value-added commercial activi-ties.’

Economic BenefitsBut will private industry wait? Virtually all ofthe six nations represented in Abu Dhabihighlighted economic benefits as a primaryobjective of their SDI. However, they alsospoke of efforts that have taken decades,and some that are expected to take just aslong. In the world of information technology,this is a long time to spend defining ontolo-gy. More to the point, Ravi Gupta, Editor-in-

Chief of GIS Development reminded us ofthe following: “Development of a state-endorsed online spatial data system is still adistant dream in the Internet age for mostdeveloping and emerging countries.”This is not to say that there is either a pub-lic or a private sector solution. As GeneralKhalifa stated: “A partnership between gov-ernment and the private sector needs to bedeveloped to realize the benefits of SDI.”

UrgencyGrowth of the geospatial technology industryis prompting the organisations in attendancein Abu Dhabi to move quickly, and the senseof urgency only builds as volumes of legacydata grow. The acquisition of geospatial datais accelerating, and any major re-definition ofspatial framework will have a major impact.For example, Dr. Taib’s paper articulated thechallenges of implementing the GDM2000datum and the difficulty in applying suchchanges to the catalogues of data built uponwhat is now obsolete datum. This is anissue particularly for early adopters of GIS—those who have built the largest cataloguesof data on early frameworks.Global economic growth will place a premi-um on being able to effectively deploy andmanage traditional infrastructure. This wasput in the spotlight recently with the contro-versy surrounding the transfer of U.S. portmanagement contracts to Dubai World Ports.The financial community has also acknowl-edged this trend, as evidenced by the cre-ation of new ‘Infrastructure Funds’. In thesame way, exponential growth of geospatialdata and applications will challenge our abil-ity to move spatial data seamlessly acrossmarkets and jurisdictions. How well we faremay depend upon how the global geospatialcommunity delivers on the promise of an SDI.

Daniel Shannon ([email protected]) is

Manager Data Operations with TELUS Geomatics in

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

GITA’s Executive Director Bob Samborski.

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GNSS UpdateLaunch of New GNSS Receivers and ChipsetsGNSS Update

At the moment GNSS product manufacturers are busy developing new products.

Chipsets are becoming available that are capable of receiving signals from all three

GNSS systems. Furthermore the production of chipsets for the new GPS frequencies is

coming up to speed. But the development of GNSS systems themselves is not at rest

either. One fact is that GPS has become ten to fifteen percent more precise over the

last few months.

By Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk

EgnosIn December 2005 the use of Egnos for con-trolling rail traffic was tested in South Africa.In this test only GPS, Egnos and train boundsensors were used, eliminating the need forexpensive railroad based sensors.Furthermore this was a test for calculatingand broadcasting Egnos signals over Africa. Itis expected that Egnos will be expandedtowards the African continent in (near) future.March this year showed further testing inPortugal performed by Alcatel Alenia Space.This test was directed at localizing GSM tele-phones for better response to 112 emergencycalls. It is expected that in the years to comeover half of the mobile telephones will usethe technology tested. This technology, whichuses a combination of GPS, Egnos and GSMpositioning, makes exact telephone locationpossible, both indoors and outdoors.

GalileoA contract between the European Union andGalileo Industries Gmbh for the developmentof the first four Galileo satellites was signedin Berlin on the 19th of January this year. Forthe European Union Giuseppe Viriglio, directorEU and instustrial affairs from ESA, signed thecontract. For Galileo Industries CEO GunterStamerjohanns signed the contract. This is animportant step towards the development ofan operational Galileo system. Furthermorethe European Union and Korea signed a con-tract for mutual cooperation in the develop-ment of Galileo, after six months of negotia-tion. Korea is not the first Asian country toparticipate in the development of Galileosince earlier contracts were signed with bothChina and India.GIOVE-A, which was launched December2005, is fully operational and extensive testsare taking place. Ground stations in theNetherlands, Belgium and Great Britain aretracking the satellite and the broadcasted sig-nals. The great radio telescope in Chibolton,Great Britain, is for example used to track thesignals from GIOVE-A in order to gain insightinto the radio environment in the satelliteorbit. Furthermore tests are performed tocheck whether the Galileo satellite signals areinterfering with other radio signals.The first experimental receivers made bySeptentrio, Belgium, are being tested with theuse of GIOVE-A as well. This is an importantaspect of the development of Galileo sincethis provides insight into the practical use ofGalileo. The sister satellite of GIOVE-A, GIOVE-

April/May 200620

Art ic le

Signing of the contract for the first four Galileo satel-lites (source: www.esa.int).

ESA's Director General, Mr Jean-Jacques Dordain,delivering his address at the contract signing ceremo-ny. (source: www.esa.int).

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B, is currently being put together at AlcatelAlenia Space in Italy. When complete, thesatellite will be transported to Estec, theNetherlands, for testing in the laboratoriesunder simulated space conditions. The launchof GIOVE-B is planned for the autumn of2006.

GPSThe GPS satellite tracking system used by theAmerican air force was recently updated. As aresult twice as many orbital information is col-lected, resulting in an improvement of ten tofifteen percent of the precision of the GPS sys-tem. The first Block IIF satellite, which is beingbuilt at Boeing, has undergone the first radiotests with success. In January Boeing receivedan order for three additional Block IIF satel-lites. Including options this amounts to a totalof nine satellites commissioned to Boeing.Boeing has a rich history in building GPSsatellites since they also built the block IIAsatellites. Of these block IIA satellites two havebeen in operational service for more than 15years, twice the design life.

GLONASSAfter the successful launch of three satellitesin December 2005, Russian president Poetin

The GNSS market is not only preparing forGalileo, but even GLONASS seems back ingrace after a number of years with virtually noGLONASS receivers (or satellites) available.Some highlights:• Trimble recently introduced their new

GLONASS and GPS combined receiver(R8 GNSS). Apart from being able toreceive Glonass signals, this receiver canalso handle the new L2C and L5 frequen-cies introduced into GPS. There is nosign of Galileo compatible receivers atTrimble at the moment;

• Leica launched a new series of receiversand reference stations as well as suppor-ting full GNSS capability, including thenew GPS frequencies, GLONASS andGalileo;

• Topcon, a company which has alwaysbeen a full GNSS supplier, brings the G3technology thereby choosing the sameapproach as Leica;

• Novatel chooses a different approachwith the GPS+ technology for GPS andGLONASS L1/L2 on one hand and theGalileo / GPS technology on the otherhand. The latter is capable of receivingboth L1/L5 and E5 frequencies;

• Javad, who until half 2005 had an exclu-sive agreement with Topcon for thedevelopment of land survey GPSreceivers, is currently producing GPS andGLONASS combined products only. Theyhave however recently announced thefirst products based on the new GeNiuSSchipset, which is capable of Galileoreception as well.

Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk

([email protected]) is a freelance

writer and trainer in the field of positioning and

hydrography.

has decided to become per-sonally involved in theGLONASS program. As a resultfour additional satellites will bebuilt in 2006, resulting in threesatellites to be launched in2006, followed by seven in2007.Building additional satelliteshowever is no luxury. In thelast article we already men-tioned the large amount ofold(er) GLONASS satellites.Over the last few months,three have stopped functioning, bringing thenumber of active satellites down to 11. Of thesatellites launched in December, two have notbeen activated yet so the number of activesatellites can go up to 13 if no other satellitesbreaks down.

GNSS ReceiversIt is good to see that GNSS systems are inconstant development, but without thereceivers there is little use for these improve-ments. However, the manufacturers of GNSSreceivers and chipsets seem to realize this aswell and at the moment we see one new sys-tem after the other.

April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 21

Art ic le

First radiospectrum received from GIOVE-A (source: www.esa.int).

Chilbolton Observatory in England where GIOVE-A tests are being performed. (source: www.esa.int)

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Autodesk Goes Open SourceGiving Way to Two-year-old ‘Visionary View’Autodesk Goes Open Source

Over the past few months the author of this article got a bit confused by some of the

announcements made by Autodesk. The release of the 2007 portfolio of products, nice-

ly demonstrated by Marketing Manager Northern Europe Sjoerd Lazeroms at a press

meeting in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, May 2nd, was quite straightforward. But what

about the Open Source version of MapGuide? And where did MapServer Enterprise,

MapServer Cheetah, and the MapServer Foundation go? Time for an overview.

By Sonja de Bruijn

CAD TalkLet’s start with an overview of the 2007products. Autodesk has retired the AutoCAD2002-based family and it will not take longbefore exactly the same thing will happen tothe AutoCAD 2004-based family of products. During the plenary session on March 2nd inHotel New York, Rotterdam, Lazeroms firstintroduced Autodesk Inventor 11 as one ofthe new next generation products. This ver-sion is specifically meant for AutoCAD userswanting to move to 3D. True DWG compati-bility, a complete ‘concept to production’ pro-cess via fully integrated 2D/3D design solu-tions and a dedication to ‘functional design’are just a few phrases applicable toAutodesk Inventor 11. Another newborn family member is AutoCAD2007 (www.autodesk.com/autocad): a version

based on an intuitive way of working andnew visual styles/rendering tools to presentconcepts to non-technical audiences.Conceptual design and accessibility for bothexperienced users and beginners were keywhen developing this new version. When 2Ddrafting is concerned AutoCAD LT 2007(www.autodesk.com/autocadlt) can be used:software that features Dynamic BlockAuthoring and integrated Layer managementtools.

Two SessionsSo far the most relevant part for CAD users.The afternoon of the press meeting with thesubtitle ‘Accelerate Your Ideas’ was split upinto two sessions: Mechanical SolutionsDivision (MSD) and Infrastructure SolutionsDivision (ISD). The last one was led by

Director ISD Northern Europe Frank Ostyn,who talked about the success of Civil 3D asbeing ‘one of the most rapidly adoptedproducts in company history during 2005’. Aremarkable fact since only now there seemsto be hardware available which is capable ofmeeting the demands of this type of soft-ware. Civil3D can be an aid in automatingworkflow, and probably won’t be a totalstranger to AutoCAD users since it is basedon this Autodesk product. Ostyn also intro-duced Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise, whichwill be discussed later on in this article.

Autodesk TopobaseSince the acquisition of C-Plan Autodesk hasbeen working hard on making AutodeskTopobase applicable to the vertical market.The main aim is not only to offer buildingstones but implementation as well. Ostynexplains that this software is the final step inthe Autodesk GeoSpatial Growth path.According to Ostyn specific solutions for utili-ties will be released later this year. “Raster data are getting more and more pop-ular”, said Ostyn. “Either paper drawings ormaps are digitized or satellite images andaerial photos fit in. This is why AutodeskRaster Design is quite popular. Version 2007offers interoperability with Autodesk Map 3D2007 and Autodesk Civil 3D 2007’s DEM sup-port. The software is also compatible withAutoCAD Electrical and supports ESRI GRIDfiles. There is a new JPEG2000 library andAutodesk Raster Design 2007 reads supportfor DTED format elevation data from thenational Imaging and Mapping Agency, orNIMA.”

Open SourceOpen source was another hot topic thisafternoon. However Autodesk felt the needto elaborate on this one month later in HotelChez Gerard, London. At least this helped toclear up obscurities around new or replacedproduct names and the name change fromthe MapServer Foundation to the OpenSource Geospatial Foundation(www.OSGeo.org).Officially the move towards Open Sourcestarted November last year when Autodeskreleased the code for MapServer Enterpriseas open source software. Three months later,to be more precise on February 4th, the

April/May 200622

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The AJAX Viewer delivers raster based maps to almost any browser, including Safari.This viewing option ensures that any user on any platform can access designs andmaps without requiring a specific browser.

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Open Source Geospatial Foundation(OSGEO), at that time called the MapServerFoundation, held its first meeting in Chicago.A board of Directors was formed which represented organisations like Mapbender(Germany), GeoServer/GeoTools (The OpenPlanning Project, USA), and MapGuide(Autodesk, USA). On March 06 the open source geospatialcommunity officially announced the formationof the Open Source Geospatial Foundation.As the official press release states the mis-sion of this not-for-profit organization is:‘support (financially, organizationally andlegally) and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologiesand data.’…. ‘It will also serve as anindependent legal entity to which communitymembers can contribute code, funding andother resources, secure in the knowledgethat their contributions will be maintainedfor public benefit’.

MapGuide Open SourceRoughly six months after the release of thecode for MapServer Enterprise we now haveMapGuide Open Source: free web mappingsoftware composed of a Linux/Windows serv-er, web extensions (for application develop-ment), Studio (for map authoring), viewers(both raster and vector) and a site adminis-trator. The product is licensed under the GNULesser General Public License (LGPL). Thisenables users to develop and distribute spa-tial and design data over the web and canreduce total cost of ownership for a webmapping solution. The software provides the option to auto-install and configure the Apache HTTP server,the PHP scripting language, and Tomcat, theApache servlet engine. It works with the lat-

ping definition, previewing the layout andstylization and managing data access. Userscan also integrate business logic written inPHP, ASP.NET or Java directly into the appli-cation and preview it within Studio.

AJAX ViewerAnd there is even more news: besides theDWF viewer an AJAX viewer is also available.Van der Pol told the select group of journal-ists present in London on April 5 that this isalso a free viewer that offers the same func-tionality as the DWF viewer (dynamicpan/zoom, scale-dependent detail etc). Thedifference is that the AJAX viewer is rasterbased and panning and zooming happen alot more smoothly. “Another advantage ofthe AJAX viewer is that it works both withInternet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.Development is simple: all you have to do iswriting your application logic within yourserver environment and it works with eitherviewer on any client.”There is one more new product to coverbefore lunch: the commercial CAD/GIS toolAutodesk Map3D 2007, available since thesecond week of April and equipped withfunctionality to publish data & stylization tothe MapGuide Server. This product is built onAutoCAD 2007 and developed for userswanting to integrate CAD and GIS datathroughout an organization. New in this ver-sion is the ability to directly access spatialdata like SDF. ESRI Shape, Oracle Spatial,ESRI ArcSDE, SQL Server, mySQL, OGC WMS,OGC WFS, DTED, ESRI GRID and GeoTIFF. It is

est PHP, .NET, and javatools. Furthermore theuser will find FeatureData Objects (FDO)providers for SDF andSHP in MapGuide OpenSource. FDO Providersfor ODBC, ArcSDE,MySQL, GDAL Raster,WMS, and WFS willbecome available mid2006. All this is or willbe open sourced. “Incontrary to AutoCAD orAutoCAD-related prod-ucts!”, stressed Van derPol at the meeting onApril 5. MapGuide OpenSource 1.0 (preview ver-sion, as well as docu-mentation and FAQ) can

be downloaded via https://mapguide.osgeo.org,and is in fact called ‘an Open SourceGeospatial Foundation project’ .

Autodesk MapGuide EnterpriseThen there is the commercial version ofOpen Source MapGuide: Autodesk MapGuideEnterprise. At the moment a beta version isbeing tested but the actual product will beput into the market mid 2006. Van der Pol:“Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise will be avail-able in several languages localized byAutodesk. Whether the open source versionwill be available in other languages dependson the open source community. The productwill contain everything avail-able in the Open Source ver-sion, plus additional FDOfunctionality (Oracle, SQLServer) and commercial-gradeprojection support fromMentor.” In contrary toMapGuide Open Source, thisversion will be thoroughlytested and certified. Currentlyavailable as a preview (viawww.autodesk.com/mapguidestudio) is AutodeskMapGuide Studio, a commer-cial authoring tool which canbe used both with MapGuideOpen Source and AutodeskMapGuide Enterprise. Besidesa developer-friendly authoringenvironment (modelled onpopular web developmenttools) the product offersstreamlined authoring. Userscan define rules for importingand converting data. Otherfeatures are thematic map-

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The DWF Viewer uses an ActiveX control to display vector-based maps onMicrosoft Windows systems running Internet Explorer or Firefox for viewing ofmaps, designs, and related data. Use of DWF technology provides printing andplotting, as well as support for a “disconnected mode” for taking spatial datainto the field.

Director ISD Northern Europe Frank Ostyn: “Instead of being a user the cus-tomer is turning into a developer. This is why open source is becomingincreasingly important.”

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also possible to import Civil 3D design dataand new vector, raster and 3D surfaceengines are provided as well. According toVan der Pol it will offer enhanced stylizationand advanced labelling: “just tell the soft-ware and labelling around the corner will bedone automatically for example.”

Why Open Source?Putting 60 man years of development intothe open is something we can at least call‘quite remarkable’. So what made Autodeskdecide to take this major step? During thepress meeting on March 2nd in RotterdamOstyn talked about ‘a shift from companies

selling a product to buy-ing a model of a productand finetuning it in-house’ and ‘instead ofbeing a user the cus-tomer is turning into adeveloper. This is whyopen source is becomingincreasingly important:companies want toexchange and use codesfrom other companies.’On April 5th in LondonOstyn’s colleague Vander Pol highlightedaspects like ‘following atrend set by companieslike Sun, IBM andRedhead’ (though theseorganisations are not

exactly similar to Autodesk), ‘improving thevisibility of Autodesk in the market’ and ‘theability to have quicker software releases’(twice instead of once a year).Autodesk already started building the newMapGuide architecture two years ago. Thediscussion and decision to go open source

was made halfway 2005.Van der Pol admits it isstill ‘a big experiment’.“What we do know isthat for example inFrance and Germanythere is a need for opensource software. We alsonotice that there were1368 Windows OpenSource downloads and1984 total Source Codedownloads betweenLinux and Windows with-in 18 days fromwww.OSGeo.org lastmonth. New developersare approachingAutodesk and are start-ing to build new applica-tions on our products.We also believe that

open source can be beneficial to educationand (local) government by offering lessexpensive alternatives. However only futurecan tell whether we made the right move.”

Sonja de Bruijn ([email protected]) iseditorial manager of GeoInformatics.

Autodesk MapGuide Studio can be used to produce attractive thematic maps andprovide spatial analysis and reporting functions – here, creating buffer zonesaround selected parcels.

Autodesk MapGuide Studio puts data and resources close at hand and is meantat making it easier to organize and manage maps and geospatial data. The ability to preview maps provides immediate feedback when authoring andstreamlines application development.

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Thierry Gregorius ([email protected])

is Programme Manager for Geomatics and

Information Management at Shell’s interna-

tional headquarters in the Netherlands, and

was previously Global GIS Coordinator. The

views in this column are entirely personal.

The Brave New World of Mapping

When those GPRS-enabled mobile phones came out a few years ago, Siemens

promoted one of their new models with a satirical advert entitled “Waste time

faster.” It promised that the phone would “accelerate the downloading of

superfluous emails and nonsense websites”, and concluded that productivity will

triple because “you’ll get three times as much nothing done in the same time.”

The phone was a big success, and the mar-keting people were having a good laugh.As this issue of GeoInformatics shows, themapping industry has fully embraced theweb and mobile markets. There are endlessopportunities to improve productivity orhelp us get lost more efficiently. But whatabout the good old paper map? Can it sur-vive the age of digital enlightment? So, inthe spirit of that Siemens advert, let’s havea look. But before we start, please notethat this column is entirely satirical anduntrue. Honestly.With a paper map, what you see is whatyou get – in full A0-size colour. With amobile device what you see is a map thesize of a peephole, pixelated like the faceof a criminal on TV. Yes, there is a zoombutton but the scale ratio resembles myphone number divided by the age of myneighbour’s cat. And since you need tocarry the Hubble telescope to read thescreen, it makes the device slightly lessportable than intended. Which is especiallyannoying when its battery dies half-way upthe mountain. You might as well havethrown it over the first cliff and saved your-self the trouble.The paper map just keeps going. Somehave lasted 4,000 years. That is three mil-lion times longer than the average battery.Granted, digital storage media don’t needpower, but can you still read a 20-year oldfloppy disk? A paper map still works afteryou have dropped it from the 20th floor,driven over it in a Jeep, or even checked itin as airport luggage.Paper also has unbreakable interoperabilityand scalability. You can collect as manypaper maps as you like, and use them forany purpose without format conversion.Okay, my Times Atlas weighs as much as aLinux server farm, but it is compatible withany table or cupboard, and does not stopworking when I upgrade the furniture. It’salso immune to viruses, so there is noneed to set off the alarm every time some-one else is having a look inside. The papermap is interoperable with any human mind,

and sometimes it even produces magic. InWorld War I a group of Hungarian soldiers,lost in a blizzard, saved their lives with amap of the Pyrenees even though theywere in Switzerland. GPS would probablyhave guided them into the next ravine.And what about romance? An in-car naviga-tion system might save your marriage forvarious reasons, but how boring is it neverto get lost in the woods anymore? Also asa gift to your lover, a stylishly framed map,for example to commemorate the locationof your first kiss, might produce furtherpassionate lat/long events. Not every loverenjoys maps but you must admit it beats aKML file by a mile.So, as a true explorer, buy yourself a papermap (it doesn’t even matter which one).Walk until you are beyond the reach of thecharged battery, and you’ll be able to enjoythe whole place in peace. Actually I justmade that up. Please remember everythingI just said is a joke.

P.S. As my previous column went to press,the organisers of AGI2006 changed thevenue from Chelsea FC to a non-footballlocation in London, and the date fromNovember to September. This also madethat column a joke but at least it helps aconsistent theme emerge.

Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com April/May 2006 25

The paper map just keeps going. Some have lasted 4,000 years. That is

three million times longer than the average battery.

Column

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Assessing Fitness for Purpose for Re- us‘The Industry Needs to Collaborate’Assessing Fitness for Purpose for Re- us

Data used on the web must be constantly monitored and rigorously tested to ensure

fitness for purpose. The user must be guaranteed accurate results from online queries.

This means the data used for analysis and decision-making must be accurate. This

article looks beyond the map and focuses on how web users might access spatial data

from multiple sources. The importance of data certification and spatial data quality

management will also be highlighted.

By Mike Sanderson and Steven Rammage

ValueIn 1999 The Paper Industry ResearchAssociation (PIRA) valued geographic datasetsassembled over the previous 10-15 years in thethen European Community at 36bn. It estimat-ed that it was double this value in the UnitedStates of America. Recent estimates indicatethe value has risen to 100bn in the E25 com-munity. Most of this geographic data was col-lected before GPS became ubiquitous. Not only that but this asset needs to be usedin support of sustainable policies and develop-ment across Europe. The ability to processthese data automatically in situations notenvisaged by the original collection pro-grammes (we will term it re-use) becomes anessential goal of delivering on the i2010 agen-da. Already spatial data quality problems areholding back the European initiatives. There is

evidence that the heavily fragmented geo-graphic community in Europe is failing to tackleinteroperability and spatial data aggregation.The 2006 eContent+ programme focussing onmaking digital content more accessible, usableand exploitable was only able to support 3 GIprojects with a value of 3.5m against a totalavailable budget of 50m. Something is holdingback a spatial contribution to the Europeanknowledge economy.

e-Government InitiativesThe demand for increasingly accurate data willbe driven by the need to automate spatialdata processing. In order to deliver on e-Government initiatives or joined-up decision-making if you prefer that term, data from dif-ferent sources need to be made availableacross the web and aggregated withouthuman intervention. Interoperability is the start

point. In order to carry out effective dataaggregation activities and tackle spatial dataquality issues the industry needs to collabo-rate. In 2003, Laser-Scan worked withAutodesk, Intergraph, MapInfo and Oracle onan industry initiative called Open SpatialEnterprise. This was a customer driven initia-tive based on customer requirements at theCity of Winnipeg and Thames Water. A real-world interoperable spatial data managementplatform started to emerge. While the applica-tions could all share data from the same cen-tral Oracle database, the initiative aimed tostandardise differences in the handling of car-tographic text or the orientation of pointsaround a given topological definition of objectgeometry. This resulted in an industry standardfor managing spatial, annotation, and attributeinformation. The resulting specifications arethe subject of an OGC standard and havebeen adopted as a table structure in OracleDatabase 10g. Subsequently other vendors likeBentley and Star Informatic joined the initia-tive.

Data Quality IssuesThe initiative mentioned above was data cen-tric as opposed to GIS centric. What does thismean? The mainstream IT industry has beentackling these issues for several years longerthan the GI community. According to OracleMagazine (March/April, 2005) US businesseslose $600 billion per annum on business dataquality issues. The smart way for the GI indus-try is to make use of these experiences.Han Wammes asked for the industry to revisitspatial data quality (Geoinformatics, March2006). It can be graphically illustrated. Readingup on the attack on the Chinese Embassy inBelgrade in 1999, it is apparent that the CIAhad access to maps of the area for 1992 and1997. The 1992 map showed the embassy in adifferent location in the city. On the 1997 mapan unlabelled building was selected as the tar-get by comparing parallel road street number-ing based on a visual inspection. Whilst theCIA was confident it had identified the SerbianMinistry of Supply, it was the Chinese Embassythat had re-located.

‘Certifying’The supply chain for spatial data re-use, startswith discovering data in registries across theweb. Data in these registries needs more than

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Figure 1: Data QualityImprovement Cycle.

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a statement about content and temporal valid-ity. Organisations should be ‘certifying’ theirspatial data quality to allow re-users of thedata to make a determination of its fitness forpurpose. The first phase of spatial data collec-tion was driven by the need for automatedmap production. The current phase of spatialdata usage needs to support the process ofmaking critical business decisions electronical-ly, with all the relevant and correct informationat our fingertips. We need to be sure that it isfit for our particular purpose: because it istested and certified to be so. This means iden-tifying patterns in spatial data and providingdata discovery tools to determine the rulesbehind those patterns. The next step is to check rule conformance.This process provides meaningful data certifi-cation where data conformance can beexpressed as a percentage of conforminginstances. This allows the supplying organisa-tion to quantify conformance and establishEQFM frameworks (www.eiqa.com/products/quality/model/index.asp) for investing in spatialdata. It also allows the supplying organisationand the re-use organisation to assess the fit-ness for purpose that the data can be put to.The re-using organisation may be seen as anaggregator. It will change data for its own pur-poses. It may report some of these changes tothe originating organisations, it may not. Thisdata improvement cycle can be visually repre-sented, see Figure 1.

Spatial Data QualitySpatial data quality may be described as:• Data quality overview elements: compo-

nents of data quality which can only bedescribed subjectively such as purpose,

SWRLThere is much work still to be undertakenfor data re-users in Europe to take advan-tage of the valuable geographic datasetsalready created. Further development of thesemantic web rules language (SWRL) for usewith spatial data constructs is necessary. Re-users will still be faced with the problem ofsemantic interoperability, or the difficulty inaggregating data that were collected andtagged using different vocabularies and dif-ferent perspectives on the data. To achievesemantic interoperability, systems must beable to exchange data in such a way thatthe precise meaning of the data is readilyunderstandable and the data itself can beconverted or translated by any GIS or webmapping tool into a form that it under-stands. In addition for the re-users or aggre-gators there is a need to have access to aset of presentation standards. WebProcessing Service (WPS) is still immature. Itdescribes individual geoprocessing servicesaccessible via the Web.

MapGuide Open SourceThe recent open source announcement byAutodesk(http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=6153839) and the formaliza-tion of the MapGuide Open Source site,which is hosted by the Open SourceGeospatial Foundation, is an important initia-tive. It creates the opportunity to create acommunity. Is the value of public spatialdatasets in Europe not worth creating a com-munity that is focused on assessing the fit-ness for purpose for re-use? We believe it is.

Mike Sanderson is CEO of Laser-Scan, Steven

Rammage works as a Product and Marketing

Director for Laser-Scan. More information can be

found at www.laser-scan.com or by sending an email

to [email protected].

usage and lineage (that is: the history of adataset);

• data quality elements: components ofdata quality, which can be expressed inquantitative form (see below).

The following data quality elements aredefined in ISO 19113 – not all of these will beapplicable to every dataset:• completeness – “presence and absence of

features, their attributes and relation-ships”;

• logical consistency – “degree of adherenceto logical rules of data structure, attribu-tion and relationships”;

• positional accuracy – “accuracy of theposition of features”;

• temporal accuracy – “accuracy of the tem-poral attributes and temporal relationshipsof features”;

• thematic accuracy – “accuracy of quantita-tive attributes and the correctness of non-quantitative attributes and of the classifi-cations of features and their relationships”.

So we have the basis for making the assess-ments we need for re-use. What we neednow are:• A framework for making assessments;• Mechanisms for presenting data to the

assessment framework.

Laser-Scan has developed a framework formaking the assessments. It is called RadiusStudio, see Figure 2. This is based on a com-mon language interface and makes use ofmainstream standards: W3C, OWL, ISOTC/211, OGC – GML and WFS.

April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 27

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Re- use of High-Quality Spatial DatasetsRe- use of High-Quality Spatial Datasets

Figure 2: Radius Studio Architecture.

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April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 29

Online Information System BIPTUse of Intergraph Products Online Information System BIPT

As the Belgian regulatory body for postal services and telecommunication, the Belgian

Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications (BIPT), headquartered in Brussels,

Belgium, provides a pivotal service. According to the Royal Decree of the 10th of

August 2005, communication antennas must abide by radiation thresholds for

electromagnetic waves for frequencies between 10 MHz and 10 GHz. In addition,

operators have an obligation to share both the locations of communication antennas

as well as radiation reports with the general public.

By Allison Pullen

SpreadsheetPreviously, when other administrations wantedto know the location of communication anten-nas within their territory, one of the BIPT’s 250employees had to query the database andexport the results as an Excel spreadsheet.Analysis reports for the electromagnetic radia-tion then had to be added to the spreadsheet,and everything was then sent via e-mail or inhard copy. As one can imagine, this became avery time-consuming and daunting task.The BIPT sought to implement a Web-basedsystem that would enable the general publicto access both the location sites of communi-cation antennas in any given territory alongwith the corresponding radiation reports forantennas within the area.

User-FriendlyThe BIPT had specific require-ments in mind when searching forits Web-based system. First of all,the system had to be user-friendlyand intuitive, requiring minimalstaff training. Secondly, the sys-tem had to have a quick imple-mentation and turnaround time.The BIPT didn’t want to wastetime implementing a time-con-suming system when they couldbe up and running in approxi-mately one day.The BIPT sought a system thatwould provide quick and easyonline access to communicationantennae information and radia-tion reports, reduce work hours

spent answering communication antennaeinquiries, and improve business processes.

GeoMedia Suite of ProductsThe BIPT selected Intergraph to deliver anonline information system (www.sites.bipt.be)to enable the general public to access com-munication antenna data and radiationreports in a user-friendly environment.GeoMedia and GeoMedia WebMap were usedto manage approximately 7,000 individualdata records and GeoMedia WebMapPublisher to publish data to the Internet -without customization and programming. BIPTalso selected Intergraph technology for itsopen architecture, ease of use during imple-mentation, and ability to further expand the

system in the future. According to Peter VanHuffel, engineer BIPT, ‘The new Web-basedsystem has been of benefit to our organiza-tion with regard to reducing the manual laborinvolved in answering queries.’ ”The publiccan now simply access the online system andsearch for communication antennas using anumber of different criteria, such as searchingby municipality, street name, or postal code.The system was easy to implement, requiringno customization. We had the site up andrunning in less than a day.”

Future PlansThe BIPT plans to revise and improve its cor-porate Web site to include the new Web-basedsystem, while still maintaining the separatedomain address, enabling users to access theinformation from multiple locations. Future plans also include the augmentation ofpossibilities for making queries within the sys-tem. Additional functionalities of GeoMediaWebMap Publisher will be incorporated, includ-ing better zoom in/zoom out capability. Theprocess of updating the data will eventually beautomated. As it exists now, the data residesin Access databases. These databases will bereplaced by SQL server connections, in whichnew data will be generated on a daily basis.Allison M. Lowery Pullen

([email protected]) is Corporate

Communications Manager with Intergraph

Corporation. For more information on BIPT,

visit www.bipt.be. Intergraph Corporation can be

found at www.intergraph.com.

Specia l

Intergraph Corporation(www.intergraph.com) is a global providerof spatial information management (SIM)software. Security organizations, business-es and governments in more than 60countries rely on the company’s spatialtechnology and services to make betterand faster operational decisions.Intergraph’s customers organize vastamounts of complex data into understand-able visual representations, creating intelli-gent maps, managing assets, building andoperating better plants and ships and pro-tecting critical infrastructure and millionsof people around the world.

When the user double-clicks on a point, he receives attribute information about the antenna. One of the attributes can be a hyperlink to a report.

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Two Kinds of Open Come To geOpen Source and Open Standards in Geospatial Tech nolTwo Kinds of Open Come To ge

It is difficult to read an IT magazine, speak with a programmer or read a technical

blog these days and not run into the terms open source and open standards. And,

while many vendors and users advocate one, the other, or both, there have been few

explorations of the implications of these ideas for the geospatial community. This

article will do just that, and take a step further by revealing the power of uniting the

two to solve today's challenges related to using geospatial data and services.

By Adena Schutzberg

UnderstandingIt is worth noting at the outset the confusionin the community over the terms opensource software and open software stan-dards. The word ‘open’ is used extensively inarticles, marketing materials, email lists, andblogs. But what does this term really mean?The definitions vary, sometimes referring to asoftware product's interfaces (ApplicationProgramming Interfaces, APIs) and some-times to the source code.Open source refers to whether or not thesource code behind software is made avail-able, among other things. If it is made avail-able, and users can copy, modify and redis-tribute the source code without payingroyalties or fees, it is termed open source.(For the complete story, visit the OpenSource Initiative www.opensource.org/.) The

opposite of open source software is propri-etary software; that's when the source codeis not shared. In 2006 it is possible to identify many opensource geospatial software projects andpoint to the newly formed Open SourceGeospatial Foundation (OSGeo, www.osgeo.org) which aims to for-malize some of the efforts.

BlueprintBefore getting at open standards, let's takea step back to define standard. This is fromBob Sutor, the Vice President of Standardsand Open Source for the IBM Corporation:"A standard is like a blueprint. It providesguidance to someone when he or she actual-ly builds something." He goes on to notethat it is a blueprint upon which many peo-ple need to agree. The Open GeospatialConsortium (OGC, www.opengeospatial.org)develops consensus on "blueprints" for soft-ware APIs.An open standard can mean that a standardis open to anyone to use, even though ithas restrictive licensing or requires a fee. TheOGC goes a bit further and defines openstandards as being:• Freely and publicly available: free of

charge and unencumbered by patentsand other intellectual property;

• Non discriminatory: available to any one,any organization, any time, any wherewith no restrictions;

• No license fees: no charges any time fortheir use;

• Vendor neutral: in terms of their contentand implementation concept and do notfavor any vendor over another;

• Data neutral: the standards are indepen-dent of any data storage model or for-mat;

• Agreed to by a formal, member basedconsensus process: the standards aredefined, documented, and approved by aformal, member driven consensus pro-cess. The consensus group remains incharge of changes and no single entitycontrols the standard.

The key aspect of OGC open standards isthat they are freely available for anyone toaccess and implement at any time. Softwaredevelopers and development organizations,

April/May 200630

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Figure 1: Interface of GRASS 6.1. Recent releases include support for the OpenGIS Simple Features ImplementationSpecification.

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whether creating commercial or open sourcesoftware, decide if they want to implementspecific standards. It is important to realizethat software packages, whether open sourceor proprietary, can interoperate if they allimplement the same standard. There are more than a dozen approvedOpenGIS Specification open standardswww.opengeospatial.org/specs/?page=specs)implemented in hundreds of packages andproducts.

MOSS and GRASSThere is a rich history of open sourcegeospatial software beginning on the desk-top in the early 1980s and moving to theWeb in the 1990s. Two of the oldest andperhaps the most recognized names in opensource desktop software are the Map Overlayand Statistical System (MOSS) which datesback to 1977 and the Geographic ResourcesAnalysis Support System (GRASS, http://grass.itc.it/) which dates backto 1982, see Figure 1. Since both MOSS andGRASS pre-dated the Web as we know it, itsdevelopers and users did not have theadvantages today's open source geospatialcommunity enjoys such as wikis (editablewebsites), Internet Relay Chat (IRC, a multi-user online typed discussion tool) and one-click downloads of files. Other open sourcedesktop systems have grown up in GRASS'wake including QGIS, uDig, JUMP, OpenEVand others.Open source components also arrived early.Development began on BBN's OpenMap(http://openmap.bbn.com/) with U.S. govern-ment funding, in 1987, and cleared the wayfor proprietary developer components.OpenMap enabled some of the earliest Webmapping in 1995.These are just a few examples of projectsthat underlie today's active open sourcegeospatial efforts. They illustrate, both bytheir longevity, geospatial power, and flexibil-ity that the open source model works as wellin the geospatial marketplace as in others.The case studies that follow highlight just

three key characteristics: support for openstandards, ease of use and integration ofmultiple geospatial formats. The format sup-port was particularly important if the codewas to be used in a variety of disciplines,such as local government. How to begin? The team found a technologycore in GeoTools, an open source Java GISdevelopment platform launched in 2001.GeoTools (www.geotools.org) seemed likejust the base needed as a building block,but it did not include support for PostGIS,the open source database solution for opensource database PostGreSQL. That was soimportant, and the tools so good, that TOPPstaff spent time implementing the neededcode in GeoTools. "At first," says Holmes,"we felt like we were putting in all this workand getting nothing back, but in the end wehad access to all sorts of format support viacode developed by others."

WFSAs GeoTools began to take shape, the teamdetermined the value of implementing theOpenGIS Web Feature ServiceImplementation Specification (WFS), thespecification for sharing vector data. TOPP

three of the many open source geospatialprojects that have embraced open standards,either from the start, or after several years ofuse, based on user needs. There are perhapsseveral dozen other similar stories to betold.

GeoServerGeoServer has a long history using openstandards. First developed to help leveragegeographic data to enable urban planningtools such as traffic modeling, the projecthas become a sort of poster child for boththe open source and open standards in thegeospatial arena. The Open Planning Project(TOPP), a non-profit organization, felt that astandards-based server of geospatial datawas a key piece in pulling together theframework for complex traffic modeling andother needs.That platform, developers Rob Hranac andChris Holmes determined, needed to include

April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 31

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To gether Tech nologiesTo gether

Figure 2: Surface Ozone concentration map created by GeoServer using data delivered via OpenGIS® Web CoverageService Implementation Specification (WCS) delivered to QuickWMS viewer via OpenGIS® Web Map ServiceImplementation Specification (WMS). Image Courtesy Fire Chemistry Unit, Rocky Mountain Research Station,Missoula, MT.

The word ‘open’ is used extensively in articles,

marketing materials, email lists, and blogs. But what does

this term really mean?

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had already built a WFS implementation ofits own. Still, the team saw the benefit ofbringing that experience to the table to workcollaboratively on WFS for GeoTools. Atabout the same time, OGC was looking foran open source reference implementation forWFS as part of its Compliance &Interoperability Test & Evaluation Initiative(CITE). TOPP was selected to provide the ref-erence implementation and received fundingto insure full compliance of GeoServer withthe specification. Web Map Service (WMS) support was addedto GeoServer as well, based on work byGeoTools users in Britain, but ultimatelycompleted by Gabriel Roldan, an Argentineprogrammer working for a Spanish client,see Figure 2. Other GeoServer users neededsupport for the OpenGIS Web CoverageService Implementation Specification (WCS),the specification for sharing gridded data viathe Web. Simone Giannecchini and AlessioFabiani, consulting for the NATO UnderseaResearch Centre (www.nurc.nato.int), staff at

the USDA Fire Service and a researcher inNew Caledonia (South Pacific) workedtogether on that effort, making the resultavailable for every other GeoServer user.

Solid Starting PointWhy are open standards important in opensource? Holmes notes OGC's open standardsare a solid starting point. "Otherwise, youhave to sit around and argue about what afeature is. OGC has already had a lot ofsmart people do that work and come upwith a good answer. So, we start there. Ourdata store for GeoServer/GeoTools is basedon the data access model of the WFS specifi-cation." But it is a two way street. He con-tinues: "Open source implementations ofopen standards give back to the standardscommunity by providing a free, 'open tolook at' working implementation. It is fareasier for programmers to explore and evalu-ate a specification for use with an opensource project than simply seeing the resultsin a proprietary one."

MapServerSo, then why is GeoServer perhaps not aswell known as another open source Webmap server, MapServer? Holmes is quick topoint out that WFS is just coming intowidespread use, while WMS, whichMapServer supports, came on the scene ear-lier. WFS needs a fairly robust client (thereturned vector data must be "understood"and rendered on the client) while WMS "pic-ture maps" can be seen in a browser. "WithGeography Markup Language [GML] maturingand more desktop WFS clients includingopen source uDig and MapBender and pro-prietary ones from companies like Cadcorpand ESRI, WFS and thus GeoServer will havea larger role in the Spatial Web," Holmespredicts.Holmes and his colleagues are excited aboutthe newest additions to GeoServer, whichinclude tools to manage changes to geospa-tial databases. While OGC's WFS-T (T fortransactional) offers the blueprints foradding, editing and deleting features, formaluse of such tools requires software to roll-back changes and/or limit who can commitchanges. These new tools, combined withothers to ensure that added or changed fea-tures meet specific requirements (Are they

April/May 200632

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long enough? Do they connect to other fea-tures? etc.) will lead to a whole new kind ofSpatial Web offering. It will allow a "geowiki"sort of collaboration where many membersof a community can participate in buildingand maintaining a shared spatial databasevia the Web.

uDig and Open StandardsOpen source desktop GIS projects have gotten a bit of a jumpstart in the recentyears. While GRASS was the forerunner ofthese, today's user interface practices havesubstantially changed the look and feel, andenhanced ease of use. The offering with perhaps the biggest commitment to openstandards is the user-friendly DesktopInternet GIS (uDig). uDig stemmed from agrant from GeoConnections Canada to createa software tool to "help ordinary computerusers view, edit, and print data accessiblethrough the Canadian Geospatial DataInfrastructure (CGDI) and local data sources."Because GeoConnections had previously chosen to implement its spatial data infras-tructure on OpenGIS Standards, the newclient would need to support them as well.Paul Ramsey, president of RefractionsResearch, notes that while the funding wascontingent on supporting standards, he andhis team also ‘wanted to fill a hole in theOGC world of a true integrated client, wheresearching, seeing, querying, using, OGC services was a transparent part of the userinterface (drag 'n 'drop search results into

uDig is widely used to test Web MapServers. "I want the same thing with WFS. I want the same thing with Catalogue(OpenGIS Catalogue Service ImplementationSpecification)…" says Ramsey of the otherspecifications the products supports, seeFigure 3. He is quick to point out the valueof standards as a design baseline from adevelopment standpoint. But with thatcomes "good news and bad news." The badnews is that "because the OGC specs tendto be more general than most implementa-tions of GIS design, the implementationoverhead we incur building the infrastructurenecessary to handle them is very high." Thegood news is that "once we have sufferedthrough the implementation hell we have aframework which is flexible enough to handle very odd cases, cases which causedevelopers with less generic models to graftonto the sides of their systems."

The Road AheadThere is clearly much more to come from themarriage of open source and open standardsin geospatial technologies. The demand forinteroperability, flexibility and widespreaddistribution of products has and will continueto push these efforts. New programmers,working with new building blocks createdaround consensus-built standards are likelyto be a key step in building national andglobal data infrastructures that not onlyreach to the far corners of the earth but areusable by their inhabitants regardless ofbudget or underlying technology.

Adena Schutzberg ([email protected]) is principal of ABS Consulting Group, Inc, based outside Boston,Massachusetts, and consultant to OGC.

map window to see them, etc).’Ramsey and his company are already knownfor their work in developing PostGIS and feltstrongly that an open source project wouldbest serve the citizens of Canada.GeoConnections is the name of the geospa-tial program in Canada. According to thisprogram, the ‘free open-source product willprovide a data access and maintenance toolthat governments and the private sector canuse regardless of budgets. Users of uDig willbe able to access the CGDI without buyingexpensive proprietary desktop GIS licensessimply to view CGDI data. Consequently,uDig will make CGDI data accessible to amuch wider potential audience.’

uDig Map WindowuDig supports WMS and the more complicat-ed WFS. The "user friendly" part of thename shines through since users can simplydrop URLs (Web addresses) of Web servicesonto the uDig map window and have themadded to the map. Refractions takes greatpride in its product's role in OGC WebServices Initiative Phase 3. Says Ramsey, "Ithink I am most impressed by the differentusability of the different clients in the finaldemonstration; simply compare the amountof interaction required to display airportsusing a feature portrayal service. uDig[required] one drag and drop every thingelse was automated others required up tothree catalog lookups, and cut-and-pasteURLs."

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Figure 3: uDig serves as a client to a Web Feature Server (WFS) and Web Map Server (WMS) built on MapServer &PostGIS. The desktop client is part of prototype biogeography server here showing Central America.

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April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 35

Bentley Web Mapping allAbout SpeedProviding Information Based on Predictions

Bentley Web Mapping allAbout Speed

Bentley’s Geospatial focus has always been and still is: creating, managing and

sharing of geospatial data as efficient and quickly as possible. Web mapping, or

publishing, is a logical step in this respect. Viewing, redlining, printing and plotting

via the web are all possibilities, except for editing. Director Geospatial Center of

Excellence Matty Lakerveld explains why.

By Sonja de Bruijn

Intranet WebmappingWeb publishing is not new or ‘hot’ to Bentley:ISIS, a Dutch company that was incorporatedby Bentley two years ago, started developingthis technology six years ago. At that time theapplication was called Flexiweb. This was anenvironment for the management and publica-tion of all kinds of geographic informationwithin an organisation, making use of Internettechnology. Speed was essential: being able touse, view, analyse, print and plot hi-resolutionvector and raster data, images, multi-mediaand multiple databases as fast as possible inone integrated environment, key issue withBentley. Database information, documents,geospatial information, all of these data are

configurable from the server. Instead of havingto implement technology, all data are directlyaccessible from a configurable database. In avery short time the user has a complete GISenvironment on the web available. This is themain difference with other web mapping prod-ucts in the market.

Four TypesBentley offers four options in the field of webmapping. One of them is making all informa-tion available via web technology (intranet),the second being the integration of geospatialdata in an enterprise system. Making dataavailable via the Internet for several purposesis the third option within Bentley’s web map-

ping technology. Tuning maps according towhat the end user wants is the fourth option,and can be combined with the third possibility.According to Lakerveld there are essentiallytwo types of web mapping: embedded webmapping and an application specifically meantfor the end user. The Director of the GeospatialCenter of Excellence explains what he meansby the latest: “I am talking about providinginformation based on predictions on what theend user wants to know. Accordingly only therequested information is offered which isretrieved from a content management system.Offering information this way implies not onlycontent managers working behind the screens,but also a communications specialist.”

Making PredictionsHe continues: “Many organisations think offer-ing a huge amount of information is priority.Bentley’s opinion is that it is much better tofirst think about what a user wants to knowbefore putting all the information on a portalfor example. A visitor should be able to find,retrieve and make use of the information he islooking for in a very short time, without hav-ing to search or being bothered by GIS tech-nology.”Lakerveld sees Web Mapping as the first mod-est step for organisations to a ServiceOriented Architecture (SOA). Web Mapping isnot a purpose in itself.

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Matty Lakerveld, Director Geospatial Center of

Excellence Bentley Benelux.

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He regards web mapping as part of an inte-grated system. “This so-called system integration started about six years ago and Iam convinced it is still strongly evolving. Justlook at Oracle with their SOA implementation,which facilitates the development of modularbusiness services that can be integrated andreused, for an adaptable IT infrastructure. He regards web mapping takes place outsidethe traditional boundaries of the CAD and GISenvironment and with that makes geospatialcontent available for multiple purposes innumerous workprocesses.”

Source InformationIntranet and Internet Bentley web applicationswork with diffeent databases. Source informa-tion can be retrieved on-the-fly. In order tomaintain security there is a second databasebehind the firewall. Several systems and datastores are compatible with the Bentley webmapping solutions. Lakerveld: “With Bentley’sWeb Publishing technology it is possible topublish Oracle Spatial live, as well as DGN innative form. The same goes for WMS, both server andclient. I think it is quite remarkable that alsoSAP and ESRI data can be fully integrated. Forinstance, Bentley Geospatial Enterprise server

supports user-initiated orevent-driven interoperabili-ty with the ESRI ArcSDEGeodatabase. TheConnector for ArcGIS sup-ports an intelligent extractand post paradigm.Bentley users can retrieveGeodatabase data for usein AEC and mapping work-flows, and later post theappropriate information foruse by ESRI users.”

Customers(Local) authorities are themain customers in the field

of web mapping, but telecoms and water areemerging markets. Lakerveld: “Amongst otherthings pipeline networks, but also electric,coax, copper and fiber networks, can be pub-lished and managed with our software. “Bentley just delivered a huge implementationat the Dutch Ministry of Finance, where Flashbased Web Mapping technology is applied tointegrate geospatial data (both raster andVector) related to 2 € million parcels insidethe SAP environment.Another customer is the Municipality ofEindhoven, who in the year 2000 did researchto determine the need for geo-related informa-tion for all workstation seats. This study, per-formed by ISIS, now Bentley Benelux, showedthat there was a tremendous interest amongstthe employees. However the average user wasnot always able to get the right informationeasily. Therefore the Municipality of Eindhovendecided to focus not only on core technology,but also to develop an interface that could‘seduce’ its users. This means: raise interestand let the user himself determine how toreach his goals with professional support.

Compiling InformationRob Tros works as an information managerwith the Municipality of Eindhoven. He says:

“The Intranet Webmappingenvironment that was createdhas been specifically developedfor our own professionals. Theyare very capable of finding andcompiling the information fortheir own needs, and find itvery useful. This is why we alsowant to present it to our cus-tomers, other governmentalbodies, or interested outsiders”.He continues: “In 2004 we feltthe need to provide informationon the Internet to every enduser in a simple, fast and safeway. No off-the-shelf products

were available with the quality level we wereused to. Therefore we worked together withBentley to define a presentation tool withinteractive functionality”. Within three months this service became oper-ational. According to Tros it is greatly valuedby customers and now operational in publicissues regarding ‘zoning maps, ‘sense of thecity’, and the public relations project ‘city oflight’.The web product shows information that isretrieved from the professional data generatedin the back-office. However the Internet audi-ence only needs a small subset of this opera-tional data. Bentley’s Web-publishing solutionretrieves this subset from the Oracle Spatialdatabase –which means no conversions andno additional technical requirements.Here seduction works too: for the first timethe professional receives compliments for thework he performs and is encouraged to delivereven more quality. Tros comments: “Ourmunicipality is currently positioning this toolas a very important means of communicationwith the inhabitants and interest groups in ourcity. We are convinced we can achieve this byhaving faith in our own quality and stimulatingthe use of our information.”

No Web EditingEssentially web mapping is meant to provideinformation that is as unambiguous as possi-ble. As for the Bentley web mapping software,viewing, redlining, making descriptions, print-ing and plotting are all applicable, in contraryto editing. Surely editing and more interactionare already possible, and Lakerveld is con-vinced several applications in this area willbecome available in near future. But Bentley isnot going to follow this path, because it is notadvisable from an organizational point of view.Lakerveld: “Geospatial data has to be createdand managed as a service to other users ofthat data in several work processes (createonce, use many). To be able to implementweb editing, you have to implement a secure,multi-user transaction based environment. Thebrowser is simply not suitable to support thiscompletely. High resolution editing thereforeshould take place on the desktop, makingmaximum use of the rich functionality anddedicated access to Internet Services. likeWMS and WFS servers.”

Sonja de Bruijn ([email protected]) is

editorial manager of GeoInformatics. Of particular

interest are the white papers on www.bentley.com,

to be found under the ‘vertical’ section, left-hand

side of the homepage.

April/May 2006

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Intranet GIS on the Internet, Municipality of Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

36

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Articque: From StatisticalMapping to Web MappingCartography for Everyone

Articque: From StatisticalMapping to Web Mapping

Since 1989, Articque has been betting on the Internet to promote statistical mapping.

And for a few years now, several organizations have leaped on this opportunity to

develop web solutions or have web solutions developed for them by Articque. The

CEO of this French company, Georges Antoine Strauch, explains the lengths he had to

travel to come to that point.

By Georges Antoine Strauch

Ch@ppe d’OrOn January 26, 2006, the French chapter of theInternet Society, ISOC France, Adminet, theCawa and partner honoured personalities ofthe Internet in the areas of politics, sciences,arts, business and civil society, at the Museumof “Arts et Métiers” in Paris. Jean-MichelBillaut, from the BNP-Paribas workshop,rewarded Strauch with the “Ch@ppe d’Or”.Since 1991, Strauch has been convinced thatcartography should not be reduced to the sim-ple illustration, location and displaying of dis-tribution networks. He thought that instead ofan Excel-like representation, the data wouldhave much to gain from its representation inmaps, and that this illustration should comple-ment and enhance a purely mathematical anal-

ysis. One should then be able to go back inthe process, using these more illustrative tech-niques to make changes and build layer uponlayer. It was by taking this idea one step fur-ther that the organigram, see Figure 1, wasborn. Strauch wanted to propose cartographyon the France Telecom Numeris network withdata and maps, respectively provided by theNational Institute of Statistics and EconomicStudies (INSEE) and the National GeographyInstitute (IGN). From 1992 through 1994, hetried to convince these companies to coopera-tively launch an interactive service of statisticalmapping. He encountered some difficultieswith the IGN, since at that time the outlines ofFrench municipalities were available for the“modest” price of € 11.500 ($ 13,800).

When presenting the project for financing,ANVAR, the French National Bureau forResearch, thought it was too ambitious andpersuaded him to settle for the mapping soft-ware he first had in mind. The bureau thenagreed to finance the remaining developmentsup to € 175.000 ($ 210,000).

International StandardsWhat emerges is a software package calledCartes & Données (meaning Maps & Data)with which the user can produce maps,endorsed by a statistical report and expertcounselling provided upon request. The mapsproduced comply with international standardsand the software has been validated by theGIP RECLUS, the principal European network ofgeographers. Ultimately, this software wasenthusiastically welcomed and rapidly settledin the sphere of Education and Research.However, Articque kept its first conception ofthe software as a set of items usable in acomponents library. The work done throughCartes & Données materialized itself in theorganigram, the real skeleton behind a futurecustomer-server application or Intranet. Themain idea was to use the work and knowl-edge of an experienced analyst, and make itavailable to the other users. This was the gen-esis of the integrating tool, CartoExtension,which was still under development when, in1997, the European Community financed aproject requiring this technology.

One Day UsersSince the end of 1998, “Cartes & Données OnLine”, soon to become MakeYourMap.net, hasbeen available on the web. Through this ser-vice, Articque targets the “one day users”,such as the executive ending off a report, theCEO preparing the presentation of his compa-ny’s results on a global scale, or the salesmanager willing to analyse the accuracy of hiscommercial sectors. The application can beused in Education and Research, Distributionand Franchise, Transport, Local Communities,to name a few examples.The user chooses a map, then one or twotypes of data, either from his own computer orfrom the data available on the server. Whenasked, he defines the type of statistical treat-

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Figure 1: Thanks to the organigram (on the left corner of the screen), it is possible to display the samedata with several statisticalrepresentations in one singleprocess.

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ment he wants to apply and selects a carto-graphical displaying. Once these variables areentered, he just executes the process toobtain a map he will save to include with hisdocuments later.

Participative MappingOn June 13, 1999, Articque puts the first car-tography of the European elections online,with a constant update of the results. Oneyear later, the company launchesFranceElectorale.com, which becomes the firstdigital electoral board to display the Frenchelectoral map, as well as election results. FranceElectorale.com is dedicated to the elec-tions, to elected officials and to electoral fore-casting, and offers all candidates the possibili-ty to freely and easily register theircampaigning. They enrich an electoral map dis-playing the current elected officials by filling inan online form. Candidates of future electionsare then able to broadcast the first newsabout their electoral campaign on a websitetotally independent from political parties.During the municipal elections of 2001,www.FranceElectorale.com achieved 500,000visitors within a month.

Atlantic SeashoreAnother major event took place in December1999, when the sinking of the oil tanker Erikaon the French coast stirred up strong emotion.Articque put online a map of the Atlanticseashore and proposed the constitution of acivilian network, the Coast Watches. Their rolewas to collect data to be centralized and dif-fused through interactive maps on the web,representing the coastal municipalities affectedby the disaster and their distance to thewreckage, while also attending to their needs

taneous users, Articque relied on Linux,Apache, Java, MySQL and its mapping engineawarded by the European Community and theANVAR.

Best CoverageIn 2004 Articque was contacted by the MedicalServices of the SNCF who needed to developan Intranet solution. Its function was to ensurethe best and most thorough coverage possibleof the French territory, in order to guarantee afair and equal quality of service to each andevery single SNCF employee, with respect tohealth services. The solution developed byArticque is conceived for regional administra-tor, enabling them to:• Attribute each municipality to one medical

sector and to one general practitioner (GP)in particular;

• Improve the number and the location ofthe chartered GPs with respect to theSNCF personnel.

The use of mapping allows the administratorsto carry out their investigations for the cover-ing of national territory by chartered GPs ableto respond to SNCF personnel needs. It alsoallows them to quickly construct decision-mak-ing files. One of the main assets of the appli-cation is its ability to display the municipalitieswhere a GP is affected, consequently allowingthe administrators to extract the ones whichneed an allocation.

Georges Antoine Strauch ([email protected])

is CEO of Articque. To get more information:

www.articque.com, www.cartomatique.com,

www.cartesetdonnees.com, and

www.mapanddata.info.

and taking into account their availableresources. The data on the evolution of the oilslick and its impact on these shores wereimmediately collected on the map without theneed for Articque to manipulate them, allowinga real-time update on thehttp://erika.articque.com website. At that time,this initiative was relayed by television (withthe French channel TF1) and newspapers suchas Le Point, La Tribune, and Les Echos.

Mapping ObservatoryIn 2000, the CFE CGC, the French ExecutiveTrade Union, comes into action and asksArticque to build a custom-made application. Itis the first trade union to equip itself with aMapping Observatory of the companies. Thisapplication is a geostatistical tool conceivedby Articque for the elections to come, andfacilitates the decentralized entering of data bylocal representatives of the Union. It allows theconstant update of a file containing very pre-cise information about their militants.All this information is displayed on maps cal-culated in real time. Only decentralized entriescan enable such a big organization to maintainfiles up to the minute. Yet it is in a centralizedway and with geographical criteria that thesedata are consulting, taking into account thecountry as a whole, as well as regions, munici-palities, towns and so on. Each level of con-sultation corresponds to a synthetic view ofthe Trade Union, such as number of compa-nies, and number of elected people. TheExecutive Trade Union acts on a local basisbut pilots the project on a national level,which allows the Confederation to makestrategic decisions based on synthetic andhierarchical data.To support the connection of nearly 150 simul-

April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 39

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Scheme representing the functioning of the tool developed for the Daedalus project presented for INFO 2000.

Disaster management: cooperative application to save and restore the Atlantic seacoasts - Participative web mapping supporting the citizen.

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Review Live Local and Intervie w ‘Providing Live Connections to People, Information and PasReview Live Local and Intervie w

This article provides an overview of Live Local as well as some of the author’s

experiences with the application. Interviews with Tom Bailey, the Director of Marketing

for Live Local, and Ashley Johnson of Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, the Windows Live

Local PR team for Microsoft, are also included. Bailey was able to answer several

questions directed specifically at current and future plans for MS Live Local in the

European community.

By Greg Baca

OverviewLive Local is completely web based - noplug-ins or downloads are necessary, seeFigure 1. The application has all the typicalfeatures of a web based mapping service:search, routing, and more. In this overviewthe unique features will be described.The interface provides interaction throughsearch, from a menu or context sensitivecommands (right click), and offers keyboardshortcuts to assist with navigation of themap. The search features a “What” and a“Where” in area. In the “What” area theuser may enter a specific topic such asmuseum, or cuisine. In the “Where” area anaddress can be entered. Or it is possible tosearch from the “What” and have the“Where” be set as “use the current mapview”. The application delivers on the“What” content as illustrated in a search ofBrewpubs in the Fort Collins Colorado areamap, see Figure 1.

Menu CommandsMoving from left to right across the menuthere is: ‘Welcome’, ‘Scratch Pad’, ‘Locate Me’,‘Permalink’, ‘Add Pushpin’, ‘Directions’,‘Settings’, ‘Community’, ‘Help’ and ‘About’.The ‘Welcome’ screen is displayed to the leftof the main map area. It displays news andinformation about MS Live Local. The ‘ScratchPad’ allows the user to store a search result,or he can click a spot on the map, and savethat spot on the map to the ‘Scratch Pad’. The‘Scratch Pad’ remembers where you have beenand makes returning a click away. It is alsopossible to mail and/or blog your ‘ScratchPad’. The ‘Locate Me’ link activates a WindowsLive Local application (Location Finder) thatattempts to determine your present locationand launch a Windows Live Local map of thatlocation. There are two techniques used by the‘Locate Me’ feature: 1. If the user is on a computer with a Wi-Ficard, Wi-Fi signal strength from nearby wirelessaccess points can be used to determine loca-tion. This is generally accurate to between 50

April/May 200640

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Microsoft’s description of Live Local:Windows Live Local uses location as theway in which people interact with theInternet so that they can more easily find,discover and plan activities relevant tothat location. It takes information con-sumers want (weather, traffic, hotels,restaurants, entertainment, photos) andbrings it together in ways that enable peo-ple to answer the question "What's it likethere?"

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

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and 200 feet;2. If the computer does not have a Wi-Fi card,the Internet protocol (IP) address of the com-puter is used to determine an approximatelocation of the user. (IP-based location is gen-erally accurate to the city or county level.In either case, if a location can be determined,the map is updated to reflect this location anda Pushpin is drawn on the map centered onthe consumer’s location.

Rest of the MenuA ‘Permalink’ is a permanent URL whichencapsulates the current state of the VirtualEarth browser window, including the mapview, the map style, zoom level, open search-es, and Scratch Pad contents. Creating a

‘Permalink’ is a way to save and share yourWindows Live Local experience with others;Pushpins are a way to add a custom Pushpin to a map much like one might have donein the past with a pin on a paper map. Thepushpin allows you to name it and also add200 characters of text in a note describingthe Pushpin. The Pushpin can also be e-mailed to someone else;‘Directions’ provide turn by turn directionswith route highlights and maneuvers integrat-ed into the map whether in road or aerialview with printing and email options avail-able. To and from directions can be createdby clicking anywhere on the map, or by tradi-tional methods such as search results andentering and address. More on directionslater in this article.‘Settings’ provide a way to set a limited setof behaviors as to what is saved on exit,map navigation, and searching options;The ‘Community’ Link provides interactionwith others in the community through: • A hyperlink to blogs and threaded

discussions boards about Virtual Earth;• The ability to vote on simple Virtual

Earth polls;• Provide free text feedback regarding

Virtual Earth.‘Help’ provides a rich content of help for theLive Local tool. ‘About’ offers backgroundinto the technologies applied in Live Local,and credits all the data and technologyproviders.

April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 41

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vie w with Microsoftand Passions They Care About’vie w with Microsoft Interview with Ashley Johnson

Please tell me about Live Local.

Windows Live Local was launched onThursday, December 8, 2005. It is a freeonline local search and mapping servicethat combines maps, unique bird's eyeimagery for many US cities, advanced driv-ing directions, Yellow Pages and other localsearch tools, enabling people to learn, dis-cover and explore a specific location. Windows Live Local is powered by VirtualEarth, delivering a core set of functionalitythat combines maps and directions, immer-sive Bird's Eye and aerial imagery and localsearch. Our product roadmap includes acommunity approach where people can cre-ate their own location-specific view andshare it with others.

Why the name change from VirtualEarth?

This name change was part of the broaderWindows Live strategy change launched onNovember 1, 2005. The vision for WindowsLive is that it will help people have richerlives by providing live connections to peo-ple, information and passions they careabout. Windows Live Local helps to deliveron this by combining immersive aerialimagery, customizable map annotations,innovative driving directions and the abilityto share local search results with others.Windows Live Local falls under theInformation Services tech pillar of WindowsLive. The other pillars are CommunicationServices, Safety and Protection, as well asStorage and Roaming.

How is Live Local different from TerraServer?

Today the aerial imagery in the Virtual Earthplatform comes from Microsoft's TerraServerproject (terraserver.microsoft.com).TerraServer has been digitizing publiclyavailable aerial images taken by U.S.Geological Survey's National AerialPhotography Program (NAPP) for use on theWeb. The frequency in which these imagesare updated varies.

What applications or web services doyou see as the major competition?

Windows Live Local is part of a broaderstrategy to deliver such rich and innovativeexperiences to our users whether that istwo or two million people together acrossPCs, devices and the web. We are confident

Figure 3.

Figure 4.

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gated with a center pivot irrigation system.Some other interesting things to point outwith this image; look at the mileage andtime for the route. The routing algorithmsobviously account for speed by road type.Also notice all the acknowledgements in thesouth east corner of the map.

Bird’s Eye ViewsBird’s Eye views are likely the most interestingand unique feature of the Live Local service.Bird’s Eye allows us to change from road or

• Auto-Refreshed Search Results: as theuser moves around the map, the searchresults refresh dynamically to always givethe user the most relevant informationthat pertains to the selected map view;

• Yellow Page directories: these directorieshave been incorporated into theWindows Live Local index so that userscan query the information in rich, flexibleways;

• Multiple Searches: give users the abilityto conduct multiple local searches andhave all of the relevant information showup on the map alongside one another.

One of the features I liked best is the abilityto click on a place on a map, right click andset that point as a start or an end point to adestination and get directions to that desti-nation without the need to enter an addressfor either location. One can then reverse thedirections from B to A as illustrated in figures2 and 3 in an area in London. The reversedirections feature is quite handy when deal-ing with one-way streets; many one-waystreets in the area depicted in Figures 2 and3 looked like a difficult place for the applica-tion to choose a route.

LiteralIt is interesting how literal routing softwarecan be; point A to point B along any road. Iselected a route between Moffat and SilverCliff Colorado, see Figure 4. I don’t believethis route is passable by anything short of ahigh ground clearance vehicle, and then onlyin the summer. Note that the peaks relistedin the map are all above 14,000 feet. This figure illustrates the high quality of theimages; even at this scale landforms are eas-ily distinguishable. Did you notice the geo-metric circles in the southwest of the image?On first sight these appear to be some sortof problem with the image, but the circlesare actually accurate renderings of crops irri-

April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 43

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in knowing that if we do a good job of exe-cuting our Live initiative across all of non -US markets, then our competitive positionwill take care of itself. We don't intend toreact to our competition; we are going torespond to our customers access to stae-of-the-art' needs. That's what will define ourcompetitive position.

I see from the website information thatORBIMAGE is a contributor - will therebe full coverage of the earth availableat the resolution of IKONOS imagery?

Microsoft and ORBIMAGE have entered intoa five year exclusive deal in which Microsoftwill be the sole online distributor of worldwide satellite imagery from ORBIMAGE. Thepartnership between Microsoft and ORBIMAGEwill enable Microsoft's mapping and loca-tion assets to offer rich satellite imagery toboth consumer and business customers out-side of the United States and will accelerateour ability to offer this imagery in non-USmarkets. Moreover, ORBIMAGE plans tolaunch a new satellite within the next 18-24months which will give Microsoft and itscustomer’s access to state-of-the-art satelliteimagery.

Are there plans to incorporateEuropean cities for address matching?

We are continually updating Virtual Earthwith new imagery provided by our partners.Ensuring our customers have the best possi-ble information from this new service is criti-cal to us. Not only are we regularly updatingthe existing aerial Imagery, we are alsoadding new data such as bird’s eye andglobal satellite imagery at 15 meters. We have announced agreements withPictometry Intl Corp to do low-level 45degree or bird's bye imagery and withORBIMAGE and Harris to provide internation-al aerial satellite photos from around theworld taken at 15meter proximity. With AerialPhoto with Labels: refers to the imagery, weare planning to cover 80 percent of the USpopulation within the next two years, withEuropean data available later this calendaryear. Live Local now includes imagery fromthe USGS, Harris, Pictomery (for Bird's Eyeviews), and others.

Questions and answers fromTom Bailey

Can you tell me what the VirtualEarth/Live Local relationship is?

The Virtual Earth brand is the platform uponwhich the consumer destination site is built.You will see in the Header of the WindowsLive Local website “Powered by VirtualEarth”. The reason that this is important isthat we have a business to businessfocused service which we call the VirtualEarth Platform. This is a service we sell tomany commercial and government entitiesthat wish to integrate mapping and locationbased services into their Internet andintranet solution offerings. That’s where therelationship is; all of the mapping and loca-tion services that drive the various experi-ences are built on the Virtual Earth Platform.

What is the street source data usedfor routing within Live Local?

We use NAVTEQ as the underlying mappingdata for about 75 percent of the maps.NAVTEQ creates the digital maps and mapcontent that power navigation and location-based services solutions.

Other Features

• Aerial Photo with labels: refers to thenavigation feature that displays the aerial images with an overlay of roadnetworks and points of interest that iscorrectly geo-referenced on the image;

Figure 5.

iaries.

E

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clickable and a large feature/small featurescale zoom, as well as a compass to rotatethe view North, South, East or West. Take alook at the Bird’s Eye View of Niagara Fallslocated on The US Canadian border orientedfrom the North, see Figure 5, and South, seeFigure 6.

Greg Baca ([email protected]) is a freelance

writer for GeoInformatics. Windows Live Local can be

found at http://local.live.com.

aerial view to a Bird’s Eye (45 degree) viewof the map. Currently, this feature includesabout twenty-five percent the United Statesincluding major cities such as New York, LA,San Francisco, and Boston (a list of Bird’sEye locations are provided in ‘Help’). The ser-vice brings up a text box notifying us thatthere is Bird’s Eye imagery available whenwe are located in an area with Bird’s Eyeimagery. We navigate the Birds Eye view thesame as the map or image view, in additionwe have a group of thumbnails that are

April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 45

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What Geocoding Engine does LiveLocal use?

We have our own Geocoding service whichwe have built and refined over the yearsand we are also beginning to integrate bestof breed geocoders alongside the home-grown geocoders. As we broaden out tonew languages and new services beyondwhat we serve today - which is mostlyNorth America and Western Europe. We arelooking at other geocoders to augmentother countries, such as Eastern Europe,Japan and China.

What are the plans to add content forthe European community?

The MapPoint 06 product that will be outthis summer, it will have expanded EasternEuropean coverage. We are making hugeinvestments in Europe and very soon wewill be able to zoom in to much greaterdetail with Live Local in many countriesaround Europe.Europe obviously is very important to us,and we have a long history of CD productsas well as the MSN Maps and Directionsservice which is the precursor to WindowsLive Local. We are heavily investing toexpand the Windows Live Local experienceto many European countries, and obviouslythat will roll out over time. Many of theEuropean countries will get a Windows LiveLocal experience this calendar year.

Are there plans to integrate MapPointor Streets and Trips into Live Local?

Streets and Trips and MapPoint are tobecome more integrated with the WindowsLive Local consumer destination on theweb. In the 2006 version there is the capa-bility to show any of your streets and tripsviews in Live Local, by simply right clickingon the map - it will say “show in WindowsLive Local” and it will open (in the US) ascreen in Live Local which you will be ableto evaluate and with which you can do thesame thing as in Windows Live Local; suchas view the aerial imagery, and Birds EyeViews to help enhance your trip planningexperience. This is the first of many integra-tion points of what can be done betweenthe offline rich win32 client application andthe online service.

Is there a way to set units for to anything other than feet and miles?

Units will be localized when we launch inEurope.

Be sure to take Live Local and other loca-tion services for a test drive and judge foryourself which you like the best. There area number of web basedmapping/location/routing services; someare listed below:Mapquest - www.mapquest.comYahoo Maps – www.maps.yahoo.comGoogle Local - www.google.com/lochp

Very Interesting Historical maps -www.davidrumsey.com/index.htmlEuropean Sites:http://rp.rac.co.uk/rp/routeplannerwww.multimap.com/http://mappoint.msn.com

Developers will also want to check out:• Virtual Earth Developer APIs:

Free versions for both commercial andnon-commercial use: Virtual Earth APIseasy-to-use JScript Map control

• MapPoint Developer Center on MSDN(http://msdn.microsoft.com/mappoint/)

• The Virtual Earth developer blog(http://blogs.msdn.com/virtualearth/) fornews and other information about theVirtual Earth APIs.

• Via Virtual Earth(www.viavirtualearth.com), is a third-party

web site sponsored by Microsoft anddedicated to Virtual Earth development.There you will find code samples, agallery of existing Virtual Earth poweredapplications, and other information tohelp start creating applications that incor-porate a Windows Live Local-like experi-ence by utilizing the Virtual Earth APIs.

Other Virtual Earth links can be found in thearticle on Microsoft's Proposed Take-Over ofVexcel, page 6 of this issue ofGeoInformatics.

Live Local credits the following companiesas providing content for Windows Live Local:NAVTEQ, TeleAtlas, USGS, NASA, Pictometry,Harris ImageLinks, OrbImage and EarthData.

www.navteq.comwww.teleatlas.comhttp://terraserver-usa.comhttp://seamless.usgs.govhttp://earthobservatory.nasa.govwww.pictometry.comwww.harris.comwww.es-geo.com/www.orbimage.comwww.earthdata.com

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‘Our Product Focus Has Always Be enPacific Crest Corporation Active in High-Precision Positioni ng ‘Our Product Focus Has Always Be en

With a worldwide distribution network it is obvious that Pacific Crest Corporation has

quite a lot of customers in the field of wireless communication. In this interview

several managers from the organisation share their views concerning the market,

competition and the future in wireless communication.

By Sonja de Bruijn

What is the goal of Pacific Crest? Hasthis changed over the years? What isdone to reach this goal?

John Cameron, General Manager: “At PacificCrest, we deliver rugged communicationssolutions to our customers. We have evolvedour kits and products over the last twelveyears in an effort to provide the best solu-tion for our customers. As we have grown,we have been able to develop and type-approve radios for countries all over theworld.”Rick Gosalvez, Product Marketing Manager:“Our goal is to be an industry leader of wire-less technologies in the high-precision posi-tioning market. To help us reach this, the fol-lowing things are currently being done at ahigh level: frequent customer contact,advanced R&D, the construction of marketsolutions, service and support.”

What can you say about competition?What makes Pacific Crest different fromits competitors?

Rick Gosalvez: “We believe Pacific Crest’s differentiating characteristics are: service,support, and reliability in the field.Compatibility is another major differentiatorsince our radios are already compatible withmost systems out in the field.”

In which markets or segments is PacificCrest mainly active? Which new seg-ments would you like to reach and why?

Ron Iyemura, Sales Manager – Asia: “PacificCrest is mainly active in the GPS surveyingmarket by providing data links for precisiondifferential signal transmission.” Rick Gosalvez: “The high-precision position-ing market is Pacific Crest’s main market.This market’s main trend leans towards con-

venience-oriented solutions. Customers wantlonger range, more flexibility, more reliability,and easier setup. Machine control and off-shore markets are growing market segmentsfor Pacific Crest.”

Who are your partners and which products are developed in cooperationwith these partners? What about futurepartnerships?

Cameron: “Pacific Crest continues to workwith major OEMs and dealers alike in anattempt to provide them with what the market needs. We have developed internalradios at the pcb level for our major OEMcustomers as well as complete solutions atthe box and accessory level for our deal-ers.”

Which trends do you see in wirelessdata communication? What does thefuture look like?

Iyemura: “In general, we see the need for programmable products that maximize thevalue for the customer.” Cameron: “Wireless communications are themost successful when the product is com-pletely transparent to the user; meaning thatthe product works and does not require regu-lar maintenance. We believe that we developproducts in anticipation of customers needsbefore they know that they need it.”Rick Gosalvez: “Current trends in the variouswireless data communication industries are:product-integration, standard-based products– movement towards increased range, flexibility,

April/May 200646

Interv iew

Pacific Crest Corporation (www.pacific-crest.com) gets its name from the beauti-ful and majestic trail located in the SierraNevada Mountains. The Pacific Crest head-quarters and primary facilities are locatedin Santa Clara, California. These officesprovide design, quality assurance, sales,shipping, and customer support. PacificCrest maintains a sales office in Europe, aswell as a worldwide network of reselleragencies to serve customers around theworld. Service and support is available atPacific Crest service centres in Europe,Asia, and North America.

From left to right: Werner Kozel, Mario Gosalvez, John Cameron, Ron Iyemura, and Rick Gosalvez.

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and compatibility. Future products will exhibitthe following qualities: increased power andflexibility, smaller, easier to use, and consuming less power.”

What are the advantages and disadvantages of radio frequency?

Iyemura: “The advantage of a stand-aloneradio link is that you can use it anywherewithout dependency on a pre-establishedinfrastructure. It also provides the most accu-rate solution. The disadvantage of UHF -themost popular RTK solution- is that it isprone to interference, especially in populatedareas.”Werner Kozel, Senior Manager overEngineering and Customer Service: “Anadvantage of narrow band radio frequencytechnologies is that these technologies offerlonger range with better propagation thanmost spread spectrum radios. However, alicense is required prior to operation of narrow-band systems.”Rick Gosalvez: “Radio frequency users arethe beneficiaries of many useful advantages,such as mobility (flexibility), range, lowerinstallation costs, and easier maintenance.Access to these advantages requires theright equipment and a continual powersource. All users must adhere to regionalregulatory compliance.”

ing economies. As these regions’ economiescontinue to grow, more infrastructure andsurveyors will be needed, which could meanan increase in radio sales. Basically, as theseareas grow; Pacific Crest grows. Our businessis inextricably tied to the growth of thesecountries. Pacific Crest is just one part of thesurveying solution and it is our goal to becompatible with many of these other solu-tions.”Mario Gosalvez, Sales Manager – Americas:“South America is beginning to open upmore for RTK solutions. The efficiencies thatRTK provides a North American user arebeginning to be recognized in SouthAmerica.”

Are your products Galileo compatible?

Rick Gosalvez: “Yes, because the radio willpass forward any information it is givenindependent of the corrections a device isreceiving. In order to accommodate the addi-tional bandwidth of Galileo satellite correc-tions, users have to use proper radio config-uration. Pacific Crest’s radios are compatiblewith anything that can be sent. You simplyhave to have two Pacific Crest radios proper-ly configured on either side, make sure theyare on the same frequency, and then you areready to go.”

Is there anything you would like to add,perhaps a message to our readers?

Rick Gosalvez: “The high-precision marketrequires the integration of technology. Thismarket is already exhibiting signs towardsproduct integration that simplifies systemcomplexity and improves user flexibility.Thanks to new and innovative products thatallow for much easier integration, systemintegrators now have much more flexibility tocustomize their systems according to theirfield requirements.”

Sonja de Bruijn ([email protected])

is editorial manager of GeoInformatics. Surf to

www.pacificcrest.com to find out more about the

company and its products.

In December 2004 Trimble acquiredPacific Crest. What influence did anddoes this have on Pacific Crest’s strategyand/or products?

Cameron: “Trimble purchased Pacific Crestfor its capabilities and accordingly hasencouraged us to continue with our businessmodel and plans.”Rick Gosalvez: “Pacific Crest’s incorporationinto the Trimble family is a positive thingand allows Pacific Crest to better serve themarket. The merger gave us access to addi-tional resources, financial support, andaccess to more industry experts.”

Initially planned in October 2005 butopened late Q1 2006 there now is anAuthorized Service Centre in China. Whateffect does this have on the customer?What can you say about the Asian market in general?

Iyemura: “The Asian customer base receivesfaster repair service and we believe thisdevelops satisfied customers. The Asian market place is growing very fast and we areaiming at supporting this.”Kozel: “The repair centre means quickerturnarounds on product repairs andincreased customer service for customers inthat region of the world. Generally, cus-tomers living in Asian countries are used toa higher standard of customer service thancan realistically be achieved by shippingeverything back to the United States, whichis counterproductive.”

Looking at America, Europe and Asia;what can you say about things likeadaptation of the technology you areoffering, the saturation of these marketsand which market means “boomingbusiness” to you?

Aldert Kluft, Sales Manager Europe: “Thereare many alternative technologies to RTK:spread spectrum, UHF, GSM/GPRS, and manyothers. Our goal is to be compatible withmany of these existing technologies in orderto satisfy the survey market. Pacific Crest isprimarily involved in the survey industry withnew regional markets in Europe, the MiddleEast, Asia, and Russia; which all have grow-

April/May 2006 47

Interv iew

Be en Compatibility and Ease of Use’tioni ng MarketBe en Compatibility and Ease of Use’

Pacific Crest's machine controlproduct, Sitecom, with twomounting options.

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Part 3: Error SourcesPractical Satellite Navigation

In the previous articles the position determination of GPS was discussed. The GPS

position, based on the C/A code, nowadays has a precision of approximately 5 – 20

meters. With the P code, more precise results can be achieved (1 - 5 meters). The

difference in precision between the C/A and P code is largely due to the length of the

code and the broadcasting of the P-code on two frequencies. There are however a

number of error sources that influence the precision of the GPS position and which can

degrade the position with meters. This article will give a brief overview of a number of

large error sources that can influence the position determination.

By Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk

Gravity FieldSatellites are equipped with very accurateatomic clocks, as was discussed in the previ-ous article. Nonetheless there are still smallerrors at work mainly due to variations in thegravity field of the earth. As a result of relativityrelated errors, the satellite clock can showsmall discrepancies when compared to themother clocks on earth. Furthermore smallchanges in the gravitational field of the earthwill cause small changes in the satellite orbits.It was already shown that ground stations areconstantly tracking the satellites. These controlstations determine the corrections for bothorbit and clock and transmit these to the satel-lites once a week. This implies that it is possi-ble to calculate satellite positions based on analmanac which is almost a week old and possi-bly incorrect. For GPS applications where accu-racy is of utmost importance, the correctalmanac is therefore applied afterwards to theraw satellite measurements (post-processing).

Selective AvailabilityShortly after the GPS system was completedtests showed that the system functioned bet-ter than expected. Instead of the predictedprecision of 50 –100 meters for the civil sig-nal (C/A code – Standard Positioning Service)the results were in the order of 10 – 20meters. Although these results were verypositive in a scientific sense, the Americangovernment felt these results were a threat.The main reason for this was that all userscould calculate positions with a precisionthat was almost equal to that of the militarysignal (P-code – Precise Positioning Service).It was thus decided in 1989 to introduceerrors in the C/A coded signals, bringing theprecision artificially back to 50 – 100 meters.This signal degradation was called SelectiveAvailability (SA) and has been in use for overa decade, with the exception of the first Gulfwar in 1991 when the American army did nothave enough military GPS receivers for their

own troops. On the first of May 2000, presi-dent Clinton declared that, as a result of thebroad use of GPS and DGPS, there was nofurther need to continue SA and it wasswitched off. This switch-off was howeverconditional with the reservation that it couldbe put back on in times of emergency. Untiltoday SA has been switched off, even afterthe events of September 11.

TroposphereThe earth atmosphere consists of a numberof layers, the troposphere being the firstlayer (up to a height of approximately 13kilometres) where the weather is formed.Since the GPS satellites are orbiting highabove the earth, their signals need to crossthe atmosphere before reaching our receiver.Factors like humidity influence the speed oflight, and as such delay the GPS signalsresulting in travel time errors in the order oftens of meters.

April/May 200648

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Figure 1: effect of satellite elevation on the path travelled.

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GPS receivers do employ an atmosphericmodel to correct for these delays. Localweather variations cannot be modelled how-ever and will result in errors of meters in thepseudorange measurement. The amount ofdelay depends on the time it takes the sig-nal to travel through the atmosphere, whichin turn depends on the satellite elevationabove the horizon, see Figure 1. Satellitesdirectly above the horizon will cause thesmallest error, and as a rule of thumb, keepthe elevation of the satellites used above 10°to 15° in order to reduce the potential erroras much as possible.Another method by which tropospheric errorcan be reduced is the use of a multi-frequen-cy receiver. It has been demonstrated thatthe amount of delay depends on the fre-quency of the radio signal. If we measurethe travel time for both the L1 and the L2frequency, we can estimate the troposphericerror to some degree. Most dual frequencyreceivers use the P-code for correcting theatmospheric error. Since this code is trans-mitted on both frequencies (L1 / L2) but hasan unknown starting point, it cannot beused for determination of the absolute traveltime. We can however take differential mea-surements since the code starts at the samepoint in time for both frequencies.

IonosphereThe ionosphere is the layer in the atmospherereaching from 50 to 500 kilometres. The sunionises the air in this layer, creating a chargedparticle layer. A striking example of this ionisa-tion is the polar light. The ionised particlesdelay the GPS signal, creating errors of up to30 meters in the daylight or 6 meters at night.Large sources of ionisation are the so-calledsunspots and related magnetic storms. Thesesunspots have an 11-year cycle with the nextpeak occurring in 2011 – 2012, see Figure 2.

MultipathJust as light is reflected by a shiny surface,radio signals can be reflected by things likethe water surface, tanks filled with oil andwater, but also by cars and ships or bridges.The reflected signals will interfere with the sig-nals that are received via a direct path, seeFigure 4. The receiver may start using thereflected signal, which has a longer traveltime, instead of the direct signal. As a resultthe position will be calculated incorrectly, withthe position shifting in the direction of themultipath source.Since multipath is hard to correct for, it is better to prevent it altogether. As the first rulein preventing multipath is to keep the antennaas far away as possible from reflectors.Enlarging the elevation mask of the receivercan be of some help as can changing theheight of the antenna. A multipath error willlast a couple of minutes and will disappear assoon as the signal is no longer reflectedtowards the antenna. Nowadays most professional GPS antennashave a built-in ground plate or choke ring, seeFigure 6, which prevents the reception ofreflected signals from under the antenna hori-zon.

User ErrorsThe main sources of error in GPS measure-ments are user errors or as they are usuallycalled, blunders. As a rule, blunders can beprevented by a consequent measurementstrategy using as many control options aspractically possible. Common blunders are:• Measuring too close to objects with either

multipath or shielding from the horizon as a result. This results in a degraded

At the moment we are approximately at theminimum of the solar cycle. This effect will also occur around the year inlocations with a large amount of exposition tothe sun (equator, around noon).With a small amount of ionisation the problemwill be measurement errors. When there is alot of activity, the GPS signal can be influenced in such a way that reception isimpossible, see Figure 3. When using DPGSsystems the effective range can, as a result of the solar activity, be reduced with a factor 2to 4. Ionospheric errors as a result ofsunspots cannot be predicted, but the regular ionisation of the atmosphere can bepredicted using an ionospheric model. Amulti-frequency receiver can resolve theseerrors in the same manner as with the tropospheric error.

April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 49

Art ic le

Figure 2: number of (predicted) sun spots for the current solar cycle. (source: www.taborsoft.com )

Figure 3: RTK GPS measurements in november 2001. The scale for both X,Y and Z is 0.25 meters. The Kp index isan indication of the radio environment in the ionosphere (red = bad). (source Kp index: http://www.sec.noaa.gov)

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position and a difficulty to detect. Largesteel structures such as cranes or mastswill shield the horizon just as a bridge ora tree, a fact that is not always appreciat-ed in the field;

• The use of height aiding without enteringthe correct antenna height above sealevel. As was discussed in the previousarticle, the use of height aiding shouldbe questioned these days since sufficientsatellites are available for a good posi-tioning fix under normal conditions;

• Incorrect initialisation position after acold start of the receiver. This will notresult in an incorrect position, but in noposition reading altogether;

• Incorrect geodetic settings. GPS calculatesall positions in WGS84 coordinates, butmost receivers have the option to trans-form these to any other coordinate sys-tem for presentation on the screen. Withmost receivers the output message willhowever contain WGS84 coordinates.Errors as a result of the selection of anincorrect geodetic datum can be as highas hundreds of meters, see Figure 5.

Quality ControlTo gain insight into the quality of a calculat-ed position there are a number of qualitycontrol parameters available in most GPSreceivers. The most important one probablyis the Dilution of Precision (DOP). The DOPdescribes the geometric strength of the satel-lite configuration, or in other words thespreading of the satellites around the hori-zon. When all satellites are on one side ofthe horizon, see Figure 7a, the receiver willcalculate a high DOP value. There are a num-ber of DOPs available, but with ordinary GPSpositioning the Horizontal DOP (HDOP) andgeometric DOP (GDOP) are possibly the mostimportant ones.Next to the DOP, some receivers have theability to calculate the so-called Line ofPosition Mean Error (LPME). This is an indica-tion of the precision of the position itself andwill factor in other parameters like the traveltime measurement.Some manufacturers present the user with aso-called quality figure that is said to indicatethe precision of the position determination.This quality figure is usually calculated from

parameters like the HDOP and LPME. As arule one should treat these figures with duecaution since the formula used to calculatethis is generally unknown to the user.

SummaryFrom this article it can be seen that there area large number of error sources influencingthe GPS position determination. We shouldtake these error sources rather serious whenperforming high quality GPS measurements.A number of the errors described in this arti-cle can be corrected using DGPS, which willbe described in the next article.

Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk

([email protected]) is a freelance

writer and trainer in the field of positioning and

hydrography.

April/May 200650

Figure 4: Through reflection of GPS signals a longer travel time is registered, resulting in position errors.

Figure 6: Position error through an incorrect choice of geodetic datum. In theexample we read ED50 positions (centre). The WGS84 positions from the GPSreceiver are 180 meters further in coordinates.

Figure 7: the Dilution of Precision is high (a) when all satellites are on one side of the antenna and low(b) when there is an even geometric spreading of the satellites.

Figure 5: antenna with choke ring to prevent multipath(source: www.ipgp.jussieu.fr).

Prod_GEO_3_2006 gtb-5.0 26-04-2006 12:36 Pagina 50

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Prof. Dr. Menno-Jan Kraak ([email protected]) is a

scientist at ITC, the International Institute of

Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation,

Department of Geo-Information Processing,

Enschede, the Netherlands.

About Maps and Beauty

Recently I visited an exhibition of historical maps. Here I observed two things: how

pleasant it was to take time to look at the maps and how beautiful these engraved

maps are. Probably that is why many people like maps anyhow.

Can I enjoy today’s maps as well? The answer is mixed.

If you look at maps on the Web, which Itend to do quite a bit, and not onlybecause I have to, I notice that I take lesstime to look at them. It looks as if thosemaps are more businesslike: they have –just as old maps by the way – a purpose,but you have to interact to reach yourgoal. You have to pan, zoom, switch layerson and off to get that (often small part) ofthe map on the screen that fulfils your pur-pose. These maps are very efficient for thatpurpose, and some of them are even verywell designed and can be classified as beau-tiful. And if you look from a technologyperspective the approach to the solutionsis very clever using the latest features of for instance Flash or SVG. Still,because these maps are so fast so to say,your appreciation is different when lookingat maps at an exhibition.

Today’s mapping technology is no longeran excuse not to create good graphic quality. However, it is also a matter ofdesign. Many of the early web maps wereinteresting in functionality but poor indesign. This was partly because the mapsproduced were just bitmaps, and partlybecause the producers were already happywith the fact that their technology worked.Nothing new you will say. Indeed, whenlooking back at the map production history,the introduction of new technology, beingit the introduction of lithography, or theplotter, the first results were always a stepbackwards before one could really benefitfrom new technology. In this respect it is interesting to pagethrough the ESRI map books from the lastdecade. These show quite an improvement.The only problem is the page size of themap book where beautiful designs of largemaps are reduced to ‘stamps’. So size is not just a Web problem. That iswhy some have started making on-line mapgalleries. It doesn’t solve the size problem,but allows interactivity. Here I would like todraw your attention to a recent initiative tostart a journal that focuses on maps as

such. The editor claims rightfully that intoday’s publishing world there are limits inthe use of colour, let alone if one wouldlike to publish map a size other then thejournal page. Have a look at the Journal ofMaps at www.journalofmaps.com and see ifyou can enjoy the maps published.

Another example where we can witnessimprovement and where the joy of mapsreturns are the web map services whichhelp you find location or get route infor-mation. MapQuest was one of the earlyplayers in this field. From a technologicalpoint of view is was quite something thatyou got a response within seconds forevery question asked. The result: millionsmore maps than ever are produced. The quality of the maps? It is poor,because virtually no attention was paid todesign. Today MapQuest hasn’t changedthat much, but there are new players. Let’spick one randomly: Google Maps.The maps one can produce with Google

Maps are automatically well designed, crispand clear at any zoom level. They are alsoan example of how the maps are fully integrated into the whole idea behind thesearch engine. The whole Internet is a linkto their maps, which in Europe are currentlylimited to Britain only. And interestinglyenough it is possible to create and buildyour own maps using the Google maps asa base map. Pleasant to see, yes, but considering the influence of the companyall maps will look like Google maps, and

Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com April/May 2006 51

Today’s mapping technology is

no longer an excuse not to create

good graphic quality. However,

it is also a matter of design.

Column

that again will limit our pleasure in viewing. This makes me think of the ESRImaps in our geo-community. One couldalways easily recognise them because ofthe typical legends they applied for line-features, like the zig-zag line for roads.

Developments in our geo-world have theirups and downs, but if you understand theenvironment in which our maps have toplay a role I guess we can recognize,appreciate and enjoy the beauty of maps.

Prod_GEO_3_2006 gtb-5.0 26-04-2006 12:36 Pagina 51

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Towards a Mobile Geographic EdWhy Location Matters in EducationTowards a Mobile Geographic Ed

With Galileo just around the corner and data transmitting technologies like RFID

available new spatial applications come into mind. One of the brand-new stinging

ideas is why we still can’t learn at the location where we actually are to get back-

ground information on our current experiences.

By Anja Kipfer

More FunAudio guides in museums already provideinformation exactly where you need it. Thisis more fun than teaching yourself inadvance or reading through some leaflets.More fun usually means better attention, butbesides the motivational aspects building aspatial and thereby visual or haptic connec-tion between a learning object and the learn-ing content stands for a better cognition andremembrance. This concept of adapting edu-cational content to the learners’ position iscalled Location-based Learning (LBL).Obviously, this requires cooperation betweenscientists and practitioners both from spatialinformation and pedagogy fields. The fol-lowing paragraphs are dedicated to findinga definition of LBL and describing its char-acteristics as well as some research pro-jects. Finally, a description of an LBL-enabling platform is given.

What is LBL?LBL does not necessarily imply beingmobile. The term location-based is not

really ‘location technology’-oriented butemphasizes the spatial and cognitive rela-tionship between a learning object and theappropriate content. Our museum scenarioalso works with fixed units in front of thelearning object to profit from the cognitiveadvantage of actually sensing the art workwhile getting the relevant information – nolocational technologies needed for that.Establishing a computer

system in front of the art work and creatingan easy-to-handle user-interface should do. But there is another side to it which promis-es to be more fun by taking mobility intoaccount. With more precise positional tech-nologies and more powerful mobile devicesavailable this concept can be extended tothe outdoor world. Possible scenarios areusers on the move in a nature reserve whilelearning on plants, land usages, climate andso on in combination with a game platform.Also, travel parties can experience a virtualguided tour in combination with some tutori-al support to get away from the passive lis-teners role. These user cases are a form ofmobile eLearning (Mobile Learning) which isdidactically related to situation learning withpositional information being part of the situ-ational context of the learner. At a firstglance, these scenarios sound very familiaralso to geographers’ ears and resembleLocation-based Service-applications.

April/May 200652

Educat ional Corner

Learning anywhere.

Classification of mobile Location-based Learning.

Collaborative learning with mLBL.

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Another Location-based Service?However mobile Location-based Learning(mLBL) is different from being a Location-based Service. Surely both put a focus onproviding information to the user related toher or his position and other context infor-mation. But mLBL is more aimed at what theuser actually does with the information. Youcould say it is a marriage betweenUbiquitous Computing and UbiquitousLearning. So, a technology which supportsmLBL requires a mobile workbench whichallows for cooperation with other learners,for solving tasks as well as collaborationtools to work on the same exercise and tuto-rial support. Of course, these requirementsare user-case specific since a school classhas other requirements on a learning plat-form than tourists do. But generally, learningmeans more than offering an informationplatform. However it is yet to be proven ifthis is an idea with a long-term perspective.

Research ProjectsIt is no use investing in positional technolo-gies and a different infrastructure for mLBLwhen the whole concept of positional learn-ing with mobile devices will not prove to bean educational success in the long run. Themain focus of mLBL is teaching and learning.There are already a few research projectsfocusing on didactic and technical implica-tions of location-related learning. These arelearning scenarios like making first-termersfamiliar with their campus environment orleading pupils through a nature reserve. Under the auspices of the Nesta Futurelab,Bristol, a research project was accomplishedwith the didactical focus of connectingmobile gaming with collaborative, self-con-trolled and experimental learning. MobileTechnologies should allow for learning sce-narios outside a class-room. A mobile gamingenvironment for 7th formers was establishedto study animal behaviour. The settings werevisualized by abstract PDA maps which wereenriched with specific game information. In aseparate control-room the game activitieswere presented on an interactive whiteboard.One of the results was that instabilities expe-rienced while using GPS often complicatedexecution of the game. But again, new tech-nologies like SIRF III-based systems can openup some new opportunities.

learning motivation like being obliged to learnwhat is important to pass a test. Learning bycollaboration is also considered to have posi-tive effects on memorizing learning contentsas well as on the development of socialbehaviour. Some of the first results point indeed to thefact that collaboration and gaming are alsovery attractive factors for learners whenexploring internal or external environments.So far, these projects have a clear researchfocus.

Nature ReservesAnother example for an mLBL-scenario whichcovers environmental learning would be touse infrastructure and educational contentthat are already available in nature reservesas well as in pedagogical expertise. A lot ofpeople learn about the environment by read-ing information on huge presentation boards.A survey untertaken in some nature reservesin Germany has proven that learning on envi-ronmental issues usually doesn’t take place inthis environment and therefore the positiveeffect of sensing a learning object while learn-ing is absent. Fixed computer systems areused in nature reserve centres and of coursethe good old presentation board is used,although some reserves have quite ambitiousprojects to get visitors acquainted with thenatural environment. In future learning scenarios RFID tags on natu-ral phenomena like special trees or geologicalfeatures could send information to the learn-er’s device that can accordingly be used forinstance to perform a problem-solving task orto add new data to a specific location. SinceRFID requires no visual connection betweenthe tag and the reading device, the learnercan even be guided to discover some phe-nomena on his own. Because the informationcan be sent to many devices at once, grouplearning is also feasible. Thereby, spatial infor-mation technology can really support didacti-cally sound learning.

VisualizingEnvironmental learning is a prominent candi-date for mLBL. Visualizing ecological process-es is crucial for understanding. Refiningmaps with own primary or secondary mea-suring data is a typical exercise for studentsof related disciplines. Combining those maps

Mobile Campus GameWithin the framework of the EU-research ini-tiative MobiLearn at the University of Zurich,the prototype MobileGame was developed.By constructing a mobile campus gamefirst-year students should get an easierentry into university life by performing dif-ferent tasks concerning important peopleand places or scheduled or ad-hoc events.Task-solving took place on specific locationswhich were passed on by the learners in acollaborative way within teams but competi-tively between teams. With an electronicorientation rally students were led over thecampus via digital outdoor and indoor uni-versity maps on a handheld PC. Testing the effects of collaborative Outdoor-Gaming on learning was the focus of theproject ‘Ambient Wood’ lead-managed bythe Interact Labs in Brighton. Target groupswere 11 and 12 year old school kids. In adigitally augmented environment they col-laboratively explored the natural setting inpairs. The pupils used probe tools to collectsome georeferenced measuring data. ViaGPS the position of the kids was deducedand location-specific tasks had to besolved.

Motivational EffectsThe projects mentioned above all have incommon that they focus on groups of pupilsor students with a homogenous age groupand put an emphasis on gaming and collabo-ration. Gaming is known to have strong moti-vational effects on learners with an extrinsic

April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 53

Educat ional Corner

hic Educational Systemhic Educational System

Components of an mGES.

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with real learning content to give back-ground information on the natural environ-ment to the student and allowing for explo-rative on-site learning might solve the gapoften experienced between theoretical knowl-edge from the library and field-trips.Especially, three aspects of the examplesdescribed above seem to make mLBL aninteresting playground for spatial informationscientists and practioners: 1) choosing theright positioning technology for specific learn-ing scenarios, 2) creating application-specificmaps which include learning content and 3)integrating didactic requirements into a geo-graphic platform. These requirements could becovered by a mobile Geographic EducationalSystem (mGES) which would serve as a baseto provide for mLBL-scenarios.

mGESTechnological requirements still pose majorchallenges of Location-based Learning envi-ronments. This means outside learning scenar-ios with an audio guide automatically adapt-ing to your position is still some steps ahead.But with innovation cycles ever so fast let’snot talk about hardware devices, but focus onfeatures you could expect from a platformthat integrates spatial information and educa-tional requirements.A mobile Geographic Educational System(mGES) like that would acquire a combinationof the known features of a learning platformas well as the components of a GIS. Whenexporting raster or vector maps and attribut-ing data to a mobile device, why not export-ing georeferenced learning content as well?Creating application-specific maps and han-dling large amounts of geodata would be onthe desk of a spatial information expert aswell as running spatial analysis tools and supporting mobile devices with various positioning technologies. The eLearning expert would be responsiblefor designing the layout of an mGES from adidactical point of view. This would amongothers cover defining tools for tutorial sup-port, collaboration, task-solving and evalua-tion. Before deciding on the functional scopeof a mGES and the relevant tool support it iscrucial to define the spectrum of applicationscenarios which can be covered by mLBL aswell as the appropriate target groups.There don’t seem to be clear requirements ordefinitions yet on how an integration of edu-cational and geographic content can beachieved. As well as from the functional ortool-oriented point of view, creating didactical-ly sound learning material adapted to theusers’ situational context requires cooperationbetween spatial information and pedagogicscientists and practitioners. Maybe it would

ing the positional data of the user. This sce-nario could be augmented by data pushed tothe users’ device while exploring the naturalenvironment. By offering analysis tools andtutorial support it can be assured that thenew knowledge is understood and worked onto allow for good educational results.

SummaryAs the preceding text has shown, a combina-tion of spatial information technologies andeducational applications can provide formobile Location-based Learning scenarios.Results of mLBL research projects already canbe used to find successful configurations for amobile Geographic Educational System, whichcould serve as a standard platform for mobilegeographic applications with an educationalfocus.

Anja Kipfer ([email protected]) is a

Geographer and has a Master in Educational Media.

She works as a Software Developer in the Spatial

Information Department of the EML GmbH,

Heidelberg.

be a good starting point to experiment withGoogle Earth as a base system for an mGES.

What’s Next?An interesting task would be to apply existingresearch results and integrate them into newapplication scenarios. Mobile Learning applica-tions have quite some history for mobileworkers or being a component in BlendedLearning scenarios which use mobile devicesas a supplement for existing face-to-facecourses. An extension of those projectstowards mLBL could provide for an additionalvalue. So, starting from our environmentallearning scenario one possible application set-ting would be an export solution from anmGES to a mobile device which is equippedwith positioning technology. First of all, it has to be decided who shouldlearn what. First formers simply need differentlearning material than sixth formers. Goingfrom there, necessary content has to be iden-tified and adapted to the specified learnersvia a target group analysis. Here, naturereserves are an excellent starting point sincethey often have a mission to educate andpossess excellent learning content. Then,media files like audio and video will have tobe generated which are connected to thelearning content. Appropriate learning exercis-es and evaluation mechanism have to beadded as well. Those ‘Knowledge Nuggets’can be exported to the mobile device. This isbusiness as usual but the geographical valuecomes with the fact that this knowledgewould be georeferenced and includes somemaps to visualize content and allow for show-

April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 55

Educat ional Corner

s

mLBL in a nature reserve.

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Page 43: geoinformatics 2006 vol03

Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com

Océ has launched a new family of multifunctional

black & white systems. The Océ VarioPrint 1055/

1065/1075 delivers 55, 62 and 72 pages per minute

(ppm) and the Océ VarioPrint 2062/2075 62 and 72

ppm to cover the speed range segments 4 and 5.

The new Océ systems offer:

• Fully integrated fingerprint-based printing via

Océ TouchTo Print — easy, direct job access

via the optional built-in sensor;

• Easy PDF document handling using any USB

memory stick — print from and scan to the

Océ Pocket Mailbox;

• Serverless follow-me printing with the Océ

SMART Mailbox — documents available at the

point of need, without any IT infrastructure

changes, securing an 99% uptime guarantee

for the print infrastructure;

• Océ IntuiGraph user interface with big buttons,

a scroll wheel and a wizard button.

They also come with a number of features that

enhance everyday work processes:

• Powerful job processing thanks to the

embedded Océ Genie or Genie Pro con-

troller ;

• Smart scan profiles for quick and integrat-

ed document digitisation workflows;

• Smart@email: scan to email with LDAP and

Microsoft Active Directory support;

• Océ PRISMA workflow software support to

optimise and integrate office document

operations with printroom and ERP opera-

tions.

The print engine and scan technology are

based on Océ Copy Press and Image Logic

technology, both of which have been further

fine-tuned and continue to be exponents of the

renowned Océ quality, reliability and productivity.

The new systems are backward-compatible with all

previous Océ VarioPrint models.

Source: Océ

Internet: www.oce.com

Océ Introduces Five Black & White Systems

April/May 2006 57

Product News

At the SPAR2006 conference in

Houston, Texas, Leica Geosystems

announced the immediate availability

of Leica CloudWorx 1.0 for PDMS. This

point cloud solution is designed for

PDMS users who want to take advan-

tage of accurate, laser scan as-built

data directly in PDMS.

Leica CloudWorx 1.0 for PDMS is the

latest addition to the Leica CloudWorx

suite of products that enable profes-

sionals to use rich, as-built point cloud

data directly in their native desktop

design and visualization platform.

PDMS is part of AVEVA’s VANTAGE

Plant Design family.

Key features and capabilities of Leica CloudWorx

1.0 for PDMS include:

• Measure – Using PDMS’ own measuring tools;

• Automated clash checking - Using PDMS’

built-in clash management and reporting tools;

• PDMS Design Point (D-Point) placement - At

‘pick point’ or ‘center-of-pipe’, D-Point place-

ment lets users create intelligent as-built

models directly in PDMS using catalog

components and objects;

• Easy point cloud management – By Scan,

‘Limit Box’, ‘Cutplane slices and sections’,

‘HideRegion’;

• Supports a variety of laser scanners –

Including native data formats from Leica

Geosystems scanners;

• CloudWorx toolbars – Access CloudWorx

operations;

• Visualize a new design concept directly in

context with reality.

Source: Leica Geosystems

Internet: www.leica-geosystems.com/hds

Release of Leica CloudWorx 1.0 for PDMS

Sokkia Introduces MONMOS Industrial Measuring System

Sokkia Europe extended

its industrial range with

the new MONMOS indus-

trial measuring system

existing of the new

NET1100M 3-D station

and 3 DIM-observer con-

troller/software package.

The new motorized MON-

MOS system features

Sokkia’s original Servo-

motor drive mechanism

and control algorithms

using angle information obtained directly from the

encoders. In addition the EDM has been improved;

it features the latest digital signal and sophisticat-

ed optical technologies. This results in an expand-

ed measuring range of 300m, the widest in the

MONMOS series ever. The NET1100M is able to

measure larger objects than before without moving

the instrument, which results in more accurate

measurements. The target illumination function pro-

vides the user with a better view in poor light situ-

ations even when doing these long range measure-

ments. The NET1100M features timesaving

semi-automatic control when used in conjunction

with 3-DIM Observer, the special controller package

developed by Germany based GLM (Sokkia’s indus-

trial partner). It realizes high precision 3D measure-

ments for deformation of landslides, tunnels, ships,

turbines, dams, buildings and road surfaces; tunnel

profiling, construction supervision, shape and

dimensional measurement of domes or train

bogies, large-scale part installation in factories and

more. The new MONMOS system is available now

through Sokkia’s exclusive dealer network.

Source: Sokkia Europe

Internet: www.sokkia.net

High density point cloud from phase-based Leica HDS4500 scanner in PDMS.

Leica Geosystems LaunchesBritain’s first CommercialRTK Network

Since mid January 2006

Leica Geosystems’

SmartNet service is live

and available as a broad-

cast correction service to

subscribers via GSM or

GPRS technology in Great

Britain. The service is a

partnership between

Leica Geosystems and

Ordnance Survey.

SmartNet is based on raw

data from the Ordnance

Survey network of GPS base stations. This network,

known as OS Net, comprises around 90 permanent

nationally deployed GPS reference stations. However

OS Net is commercially available only via partners.

Data from each of these base stations around the

country is received over the Internet at a highly

secure location in London Docklands. Here it is pro-

cessed using Leica SpiderNet, Leica Geosystems

advanced network calculation software, and made

available to users when they dial up or log in.

Source: Leica Geosystems

Internet: www.leica-geosystems.com

Industry News 3-2006-gtb 26-04-2006 13:27 Pagina 57

Page 44: geoinformatics 2006 vol03

April/May 200658

Product News

By means of a web conference and a press release just before this virtual gath-

ering halfway March Bentley wanted to draw attention to remarkable news

indeed: MicroStation has been connected to the Google Earth service. Joe

Croser, global marketing director, Bentley platform products, and Ray Bentley,

lead developer, explained that this means infrastructural projects can be viewed

in context. Adding models, 3D viewing, zooming in and out, turning off and on

local information and reference files, turning on levels like parking or roads, all

this is possible. The connection MicroStation- Google Earth means that CAD and

GIS data are combined (the user first having to register CAD files for Google

Earth to recognize them), which I think everybody agrees with is quite an inter-

esting aspect.

The MicroStation model content is available to users of the Google Earth ser-

vice. For example:

• All included levels available to the MicroStation user are persisted in the

KML file, so the Google Earth user can easily switch parts of the model on

and off as desired;

• Saved views in MicroStation are transferred to the KML file, so the Google

Earth user can easily move through pre-configured perspectives in the

model;

• Embedded links within a MicroStation file will be automatically published

as Google Earth Placemarks. This allows the Google Earth viewer to quickly

navigate to supporting project data;

• The geometries of MicroStation GeoGraphics users who have defined the

coordinate system for their designs will be automatically exported to the

correct locations in Google Earth;

• MicroStation raster imagery can be published to Google Earth to replace or

augment the Google Earth imagery.

Bentley also decided to publish some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on

www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/MicroStation/Google+Earth+Tools/FAQ.htm. Why

does Bentley want to make 3D modelling ‘cooler’ for a wider audience? What

impact does the acquisition of @Last by Google have on Bentley’s plans? These

are just some of the questions Bentley provides an answer to.

Bentley SELECT subscribers can download the new connection software now for

use with MicroStation V8 2004 Edition. The capability is delivered within

MicroStation V8 XM Edition.

To view an online demonstration of the MicroStation and Google Earth connec-

tion, view an eSeminar on how to publish DGN and DWG models to the Google

Earth environment, or to learn more, go to www.bentley.com/earthtools.

Bentley Connects MicroStation to Google Earth Service

Industry News 3-2006-gtb 26-04-2006 13:27 Pagina 58

Page 45: geoinformatics 2006 vol03

April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 59

Product News

Thales GPSDif ferentialModule

Thales introduced GPSDifferential Module, a software

extension for MobileMapper CE that seamlessly adds

the power of post processing to virtually any mobile

GIS/mapping software application. With the

GPSDifferential Module, sub-meter and up to sub-foot

mapping are also achievable where real-time correc-

tions are not available, or when used in difficult sig-

nal environments required by applications such as

forestry. GPSDifferential Module is a software exten-

sion that fully integrates into third-party mobile GIS

software applications. Behind the scenes and without

interrupting normal workflow, GPSDifferential Module

automatically logs the raw data that is required for

reliable sub-meter post-processed differential correc-

tions. In certain conditions and with an external

Thales GPS precision antenna, accuracy up to sub-

foot can be consistently achieved.

The Thales GPSDifferential Module is a business part-

ner and software integrator tool that includes

MobileMapper Office software for post-processing.

When GPSDifferential Module is integrated into a GIS

application, raw data collection functions can be

accessed that will store the data in a separate raw

data field that will be later recognized by

MobileMapper Office. This will affect neither real-time

data collection storage nor the structure of the real-

time data format. The raw data file stored by this

software extension can be post-processed using

MobileMapper Office. Post-processed data is exported

with attributes in industry standard formats. Software

Integrators find that GPSDifferential Module easily

merges with their own solutions without the need to

change the data structure to support post-processing

or create office-based post-processing software.

Source: Thales

Internet: www.thalesgroup.com/navigation

Smart GPS Timing Antenna Trimble

Trimble introduced the latest in a long line of GPS

timing receivers, the Acutime Gold GPS smart anten-

na. Slightly larger than a baseball and housed in a

rugged, environmentally sealed enclosure, the Acutime

Gold provides a pulse-per-second (PPS) output syn-

chronized to UTC within 15 nanoseconds

(one sigma). It is a solution for adding GPS

timing and synchronization into any applica-

tion where ease of installation and long-

term reliability are critical.

The new Acutime Gold GPS smart antenna

is directly compatible with applications built

around previous generation Acutime 2000

receivers. The antenna can be used for pre-

cise timing and network synchronization,

including broadband wireless

applications. It provides an independent

timing source, within the firewall, for any

application such as network fault detection

systems and synchronization of wireless net-

works.

Source: Trimble

Internet: www.trimble.com

New GNSS Technology Leica Geosystems

Leica Geosystems extended its GPS product portfolio

with the launch of the Leica GX1230 GG and Leica

ATX1230 GG sensors and the GRX1200 GG Pro sensor

for reference station networks. The new ultra precise

GNSS measurement engine now supports both GPS

L2C signals and GLONASS satellites. Users of these

Leica GNSS solutions now have up to 100 percent

more satellites available than GPS alone. Additionally,

these systems are designed to track future GNSS sig-

nals, such as GPS L5 and Galileo, guaranteeing

investments. Leica’s SmartTrack+ guarantees very low

signal noise, high sensitivity, fast re-acquisition and

tracks all available signals. Features of the GRX1200

GG Pro sensor include Internet-connectivity via

HTTPS, onboard generation of RINEX files and the

prompt FTP Push of high quality Raw and RINEX

Data. It is configurable using a Web interface or GPS

Spider affording full operations whether working

remotely or in the office. The lowest power consump-

tion in class reduces infrastructure requirements. The

new ATX1230 GG sensor is fully compatible with the

Leica TPS1200 total stations creating a GNSS

SmartStation.

Source: Leica Geosystems

Internet: www.leica-geosystems.com

Leica GeoMoS is a solution for multi-sensor struc-

tural monitoring using a range of high precision

geodetic instruments from Leica Geosystems and

third-party sensors. Version 2.0 of the software pro-

vides a step forward in secure data replication, syn-

chronization and post processing. The new Leica

GeoMoS Server, introduced in Leica GeoMoS 2.0, is

a tool for easy database replication and

synchronization between up to five

clients and one server. Easy configuration

and control of distributed monitoring sys-

tems from a single server, secure data

storage, centralized messaging and sys-

tem integrity monitoring are just some of

the benefits according to Leica

Geosystems. It is also stated that Leica

GeoMoS Office, new in Leica GeoMoS

2.0, allows fast and easy access to data

recorded by remote monitoring stations

by using automatic data distribution via

FTP. The office database is used as a

backup database for the measurement

stations and allows for offline analysis

and post processing. There are several

other enhancements to the limit checks and mes-

saging tools, updates to the online help and addi-

tional functionality concerning data editing and post

processing.

Source: Leica GeosystemsInternet: www.leica-geosystems.com

Leica Geosystems Launches Leica GeoMoS Version 2.0

Intergraph AnnouncesMAP2PDF for GeoMedia andDigital Cartographic Studio

MAP2PDF versions for Intergraph product lines,

GeoMedia and Digital Cartographic Studio (DCS) are

now generally available. GeoPDF embeds geospatial-

ly referenced data for map coordinate readouts, dis-

tances and bearing information in PDF format. The

new MAP2PDF will export geospatial data from

GeoMedia or DCS to a georegistered PDF with layers

and feature attributes. This GeoPDF can be easily

distributed and used in connected or disconnected

modes with TerraGo's free Adobe Reader software.

Users are able to view maps, turn layers on and off,

query attributes, display coordinates, GPS track and

create redlines and notes.

Source: Intergraph

Internet: www.intergraph.com

Industry News 3-2006-gtb 26-04-2006 13:27 Pagina 59

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April/May 200660

Product News

PCI Geomatics released Geomatica 10 for Linux and

Solaris users. This latest version emphasizes

automation, productivity, and support for more than

100 geospatial data formats. Geomatica 10 offers

solutions for various geomatics processing require-

ments, while maintaining interoperability with out-

side software packages. Geomatica 10 offers

enhanced charting and new atmospheric correction

algorithms for hyperspectral data. In particular

Geomatica 10 takes full advantage of Oracle 10g

and according to PCI Geomatics makes uploading

and downloading multiple-formatted and large

quantities of data effortless. Geomatica 10 for Linux

and Solaris is complete, featuring the latest version,

10.0.1.

Source: PCI GeomaticsInternet: www.pcigeomatics.com/g10

PCI Geomatics Of fers Geomatica 10 for Linux and Solaris Users

PCI Geomatics announces the development and

release of the SAR Polarimetry Workstation (SPW)

as part of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Earth

Observation Application Development Program

(EOADP). The SPW is available as an add-on mod-

ule to Geomatica 10. Polarimetric synthetic aperture

radar (POLSAR) data has greater information con-

tent than the more commonly available non-polari-

metric SAR data. There is solid experimental evi-

dence that this data can be exploited in a variety of

important tasks, including sea-ice detection and

classification, agricultural crop monitoring, and for-

est type and harvest mapping. In addition, POLSAR

data can be collected day or night and under atmo-

spheric conditions that prevent the collection of

optical data, such as clouds. The availability of POL-

SAR data, particularly from satellite-borne sensors,

will soon increase significantly, and there will be a

considerable interest in establishing truly opera-

tional applications of this data. The SPW is a tool

that will help make this happen. The SPW can

directly read data products from the AIRSAR, ENVIS-

AR ASAR, CV-580, and SIR-C systems. It is also able

to read synthetic RADARSAT-2 data products and

will be able to read the real data products once

they become available.

Source: PCI GeomaticsInternet: www.pcigeomatics.com/products/radar_data.html orwww.pcigeomatics.com/products/products_overview.html

PCI Geomatics Develops SARPolarimetry Workstation

NovAtel released its first production standard

Galileo-ready receiver and antenna. The new

L1L5E5a receiver offering 16 channel tracking of GPS

L1/L5, Galileo L1/E5a and SBAS signals in a Euro

form-factor card, is packaged in a EuroPak enclo-

sure. The complementary 704X passive antenna

offers access to multiple Global Navigation Satellite

Systems (GNSS) including GPS, Galileo and

GLONASS frequencies. Currently, the Galileo func-

tionality of the L1L5E5a receiver is available only to

customers authorized by the European Space

Agency (ESA), due to an intense test campaign that

ESA is conducting with GIOVE-A, the first Galileo

test satellite launched December 28, 2005.

According to Tony Murfin, NovAtel's VP Business

Development, the EuroPak-L1L5E5a receiver is ideal-

ly suited for customers, such as government agen-

cies and universities, who want early access to the

new GPS GEO L1 and L5 satellite signals and

Galileo L1 and E5a signals for research purposes.

The L1L5E5a receivers, which were initially devel-

oped under contract with the Canadian Space

Agency, were first demonstrated in May 2005 and

have undergone engineering testing.

Source: NovAtelInternet: www.novatel.com

Release NovAtel Galileo-ready Receiver & Antenna

Sokkia Series30R

Bluetooth wireless communication is now available for Sokkia’s Series30Rtotal

station line providing cable-free communication with data collectors. The

Sokkia Field-info Xpress (SFX) function, fitted as standard, enables data trans-

fer via the Internet using mobile phones. As Series30R’s Bluetooth wireless

communications module has a dial-up function, SFX can be used without

cables using a mobile phone with Bluetooth technology. This latest version of

Series30R is also equipped with enhanced surveying programs. The Sokkia

Series30Rtotal station line offers IP66 level of dust and water resistance, and

distance measuring capabilities of survey-grade accuracy +/-(3+2 ppm x D)mm

from 30 cm to 350 m (Class 3R models).

Source: Sokkia

Internet: www.sokkia.net

Boeing has released version 4.1 of its SoftPlotter

digital map production software, enabling users to

provide more accurate and efficiently produced digi-

tal mapping products to their defense and commer-

cial mapping customers. Digital Globe QuickBird

sensor support for panchromatic and multispectral

imagery offers SoftPlotter users full, rigorous sensor

model and triangulation support, while digital aerial

camera support for the Intergraph Z/I DMC, Vexcel

UltraCAM and Airborne Data Systems digital cam-

eras allow users to process imagery directly from

these devices. SoftPlotter's new multi-window capa-

bility allows all viewing tools to display multiple

stereo and monoscopic views of imagery, with

geosynchronous cursor movement in all views. New

AutoCAD, MicroStation and ESRI translators are

included, and Visual Basic workflow wizards provide

streamlined workflow setups for batch processes. Of

interest to KDMS users, SoftPlotter 4.1 provides a

COM interface callable from macros and a database

interface for collection of fully attributed vector map

data.

Source: BoeingInternet: http://sismissionsystems.boeing.com/products

Boeing's SoftPlotter 4.1 Software Release Enhances DigitalMap Production

Boeing has released version 4.1 of its SoftPlotter

digital map production software, enabling users to

provide more accurate and efficiently produced

digital mapping products to their defense and

commercial mapping customers. Digital Globe

QuickBird sensor support for panchromatic and

multispectral imagery offers SoftPlotter users full,

rigorous sensor model and triangulation support,

while digital aerial camera support for the

Intergraph Z/I DMC, Vexcel UltraCAM and Airborne

Data Systems digital cameras allow users to process

imagery directly from these devices. SoftPlotter's

new multi-window capability allows all viewing tools

to display multiple stereo and monoscopic views of

imagery, with geosynchronous cursor movement in

all views. New AutoCAD, MicroStation and ESRI

translators are included, and Visual Basic workflow

wizards provide streamlined workflow setups for

batch processes. Of interest to KDMS users,

SoftPlotter 4.1 provides a COM interface callable

from macros and a database interface for collection

of fully attributed vector map data.

Source: BoeingInternet: http://sismissionsystems.boeing.com/products

Matrox TripleHead2Go External Upgrade Of fers Support for3 Monitors at a Time

Industry News 3-2006-gtb 26-04-2006 13:28 Pagina 60

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April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 61

Product News

NavCom Technology introduced the newly enhanced

VueStar aerial survey solution. This combines its new

StarPac utility software that facilitates better integration

into pre-existing workflows. VueStar complete global navi-

gation system is configured specifically for all aerial sur-

vey applications. It utilizes the global satellite-based

StarFire Network to provide precise positioning worldwide

without the need for RTK base stations or GPS post pro-

cessing. This new system introduces three significant

enhancements: Improved GPS signal processing, StarPac

Mission software, and the optional Event Latch Interface.

The new 12-channel, dual-frequency GPS receiver com-

putes real-time positions at up to 25 times a second, re-

acquires GPS signals faster, and includes improved tropo-

sphere modeling which better compensates for changes

in altitude. Providing both pre-mission and post-mission

processing, the new StarPac mission software provides

critical tools for mission planning, as well as RINEX con-

version, datum conversion, trajectory plotting and output

of position data in a number of formats, along with a

quality/figure of merit for each position.

Source: NavCom Technology

Internet: www.navcomtech.com

NavCom Announces Enhanced VueStar Aerial Survey System Pictometry Viewer ActiveXControl

Pictometry Viewer ActiveX control enables third-party

software vendors and system integrators to embed

Pictometry's oblique imagery and analytical tools direct-

ly into end user applications. Using Pictometry's ActiveX

control, third-party software companies can now inte-

grate their own customized version of Pictometry's soft-

ware tools, similar to Pictometry's own Electronic Field

Study (EFS) software without having to leave their

native application environment. This gives users access

to Pictometry's software functionality in a third-party

application. The company has been working with sever-

al technologies and business partners to test, imple-

ment, and deploy its ActiveX control in other geospatial

related systems. One of the first set of solutions where

Pictometry has successfully integrated its ActiveX control

is in ESRI's suite of GIS products that include ArcIMS

and ArcGIS. Sample screen capture images of

Pictometry technology in ESRI and microDATA GIS solu-

tions can be viewed at www.pictometry.com/pressre-

lease/activex.asp. Companies that are interested in part-

nering with Pictometry and using its Active X control

can contact Pictometry Vice President Scott Sherwood.

Source: Pictometry

Internet: www.pictometry.com

New Spider and SpiderWEB software Leica Geosystems

Leica Geosystems introduces a new version of its GPS

Spider software and SpiderWEB V1.3, a web-based

solution for distribution of GPS reference data via the

Internet. Amongst software optimizations, such as fur-

ther improved data processing for network RTK, the

graphical user interface of the new Spider software

has been enhanced with consistent map views sup-

porting now loadable background maps and a graphi-

cal continous raw data status view. In view of GPS

Monitoring applications Leica GPS Spider

now supports the recently introduced Leica

GMX902 monitoring GPS receiver. A new

coordinate post-processing complements

the previously available real-time position-

ing, to support slow moving object moni-

toring. Both, real time positioning and post-

processing, support now data rates of up

to 20Hz, as can be provided by GMX902 or

GRX1200 series GPS receivers, for detection

of high frequency object motion. Leica

SpiderWEB V1.3 allows GPS Network

administrators to keep track of users, data

and downloads. GPS Network users can

download GPS RINEX observation data for

single or multiple stations with just a few

mouse clicks. Leica SpiderWEB comple-

ments the Leica Geosystems reference stations soft-

ware product portfolio consisting of Leica GPS Spider

and Leica GNSS QC. For demo user access login to

Leica’s demo sever at the following web address:

http://spiderweb.leica-geosystems.com

Source: Leica Geosystems

Internet: www.nrs.leica-geosystems.com and

www.leica-geosystems.com

Pentax introduces its new R-300NX Series Total

Station measuring up to 270m using the non-prism

function in the long measurement mode.

Non-prism measurement range and accuracy :

Measurement range.

Reflectorless : 1.5m

Normal range mode : 90m

Long range mode : 270m (NX models only)

Accuracy - Reflectorless.

R-322NX and R-323NX :

1.5 to 200m : (5 + 2ppm x D)mm

200 to 270m : (7 + 10ppm x D)mm

R-325NX, R-335NX and R-315NX :

1.5 to 200m : (5 + 3ppm x D)mm

200 to 270m : (7 + 10ppm x D)mm

Source: PentaxInternet: www.pentaxsurveying.com

Pentax Launches R-300NXTotal Station

Industry News 3-2006-gtb 26-04-2006 13:28 Pagina 61

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April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 63

Industry News

NTT DoCoMo Achieves 2.5Gbps PacketTransmission in 4G Field Experiment NTT DoCoMo, Inc. has achieved 2.5Gbps packet

transmission in the downlink while moving at

20km/h. The fourth-generation (4G) radio access

field experiment took place in Yokosuka, Kanagawa

Prefecture on December 14, 2005. DoCoMo

achieved a maximum 1Gbps speed in a similar field

experiment on May 9, 2005. This time, by increas-

ing the number of MIMO*1 transmission antennas

from four to six and by using 64-QAM*2, data vol-

ume per transmission was increased from four bits

to six bits. As a result, DoCoMo achieved a maxi-

mum speed of 2.5Gbps, which is faster than the

International Telecommunication Union

Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R)'s proposed

standard.

Frequency spectrum efficiency*3, which is

expressed as information bits per second per Hertz,

was also increased from 10 bits per second per

Hertz during the last experiment to 25 bits. This

figure is the maximum frequency spectrum efficiency

for 4G as defined by WINNER*4. Building on the

success of the field trials, DoCoMo will continue its

research and development in order to actively

contribute to the global standardization of 4G.

www.nttdocomo.com

ESA Joins Forces with Japan on New Infrared SkySurveyorA high-capability new infrared satellite, ASTRO-F,

was successfully launched on 21 February by the

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). In a

collaborative effort involving ESA and scientists

across Europe, the spacecraft is now being pre-

pared to start its mapping of the cosmos. Orbiting

the Earth, ASTRO-F (to be renamed Akari (light)

now that it is in orbit) will make an unprecedented

study of the sky in infrared light, to reveal the dis-

tant phenomena hidden from our eyes that tell the

story of the formation and evolution processes tak-

ing place in the universe.

ASTRO-F will be in polar orbit around the Earth at

an altitude of 745 kilometres. From there, after two

months of system check-outs and performance veri-

fication, it will survey the whole sky in about half a

year, with much better sensitivity, spatial resolution

and wider wavelength coverage than its only

infrared surveyor predecessor, the Anglo-Dutch-US

IRAS satellite (1983).

The all-sky survey will be followed by a ten-month

phase during which thousands of selected astro-

nomical targets will be observed in detail. This will

enable scientists to look at these individual objects

for a longer time, and thus with increased sensitivi-

ty, to conduct their spectral analysis. This second

phase will end with the depletion of the liquid heli-

um needed to cool down the spacecraft telescope

and its instruments to only a few degrees above

absolute zero. ASTRO-F will then start its third

operations phase and continue to make observa-

tions of selected celestial targets with its infrared

camera only, in a few specific infrared wavelengths.

www.esa.int

Irish Dept. of Agriculture & Food’s SPS UseseSpatial Spatial TechnologyeSpatial has announced that the Irish Dept. of

Agriculture & Food’s recent award winning Single

Payment System (SPS) uses spatial technology

based on eSpatial’s iSMART platform. The Dept. of

Agriculture & Food, whose range of customers

encompasses government departments and individu-

al citizens, deployed the SPS Application which

recently won the award for best project in

“Government to Business” category in the Irish

"Innovation Through Technology Awards". The win-

ning project reused the iMAP solution built by

eSpatial and Accenture, the international manage-

ment-consulting and technology services company,

integrates application-form processing data with

geospatial information enabling the department to

manage and process Single Farm Payment applica-

tions and payments in an integrated and web-based

environment. The spatial component of the system

is built on eSpatial’s iSMART technology, which

draws upon the spatial capability within Oracle 8.1.7

Database and Oracle9i Application Server.

www.espatial.com

Terralink International Adopts ER MapperTerralink International has selected the ER Mapper

image processing application to assist in the datum/

projection conversion of existing image catalogues.

Terralink will be converting its assets from NZMG49

to NZTM GD2000 and vice versa using the NTV2

grid transformation. Many of the datasets used by

Terralink are more than 30GB in size. Many of these

datasets will be split into 1:50k topographic sheets,

to facilitate management and tracking.

www.ermapper.com

ESRI Book ‘Remote Sensing For GIS Managers’Hundreds of illustrations and examples merge in

‘Remote Sensing for GIS Managers’, a new book from

ESRI Press that reveals the power of interpreting

information gathered from aerial photography, radar,

satellite, and other remote-sensing methods. Readers

will travel from the vast ocean depths to the far

reaches of outer space as they learn everything from

the basics of remote sensing to the challenges of

interpreting, managing, and storing the ever-increas-

ing range of remotely sensed data available today.

Designed for new and experienced users, Remote

Sensing for GIS Managers is written for GIS man-

agers, professionals, and students who want to

become more knowledgeable users of remote-sens-

ing services and manage the development of innova-

tive solutions suited to the needs and goals of their

organizations. The book’s case studies illustrate the

use of remote sensing in national security, urban and

regional planning, resource inventory and manage-

ment, and scientific disciplines ranging from forestry

and geology to archaeology and meteorology.

‘Remote Sensing for GIS Managers’ (ISBN 1-58948-

081-3, 524 pages, $69.95) is available in bookstores

and from online retailers worldwide or can be pur-

chased at www.esri.com/esripress or by calling 1-800-

447-9778. Outside the United States, contact a local

ESRI distributor; see www.esri.com/international for a

current distributor list. Books published by ESRI

Press are distributed by Independent Publishers

Group (tel.: 1-800-888-4741, Web:

www.ipgbook.com).

www.esri.com

Loy Surveys Replace Survey EquipmentLoy Surveys, Chartered Land Surveyors have placed

an order with Trimble dealer Survey Solutions to

replace their entire fleet of survey equipment. The

new Trimble S6 robotic/reflex total stations and

Trimble R8GNSS receivers together with the intro-

duction of a new standard Trimble TCS2 handheld

interface will provide real-time computing in the

field. Trimble R8 GNSS now supports both the next-

generation GPS L2C and L5 signals and GLONASS

L1/L2 signals.

www.loy.co.uk/

Online Multimedia Presentations OGCThe Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC)

announces the availability of two online multimedia

demonstrations documenting the milestones

achieved in the OGC Web Services Phase 3

Initiative, (OWS-3). The focus of the presentations

is to share the OWS-3 goals and to provide a

synopsis of the final demonstration. The

presentations are available as interactive Flash and

Web-streamed video and illustrate the use of a

variety of draft and approved OpenGIS standards in

an emergency response to a fictitious wildfire

threat in Southern California. The presentations are

available at www.opengeospatial.org/demo/ows3/

Landmark Building Added to Ordnance Survey'sData Mapping Assembled for SeneddThe Senedd - the National Assembly of Wales' new

debating chamber - now features on the nation's

most detailed maps. The outline of the Cardiff Bay

building is set out in fine detail in OS MasterMap.

The £67 million building, designed by Lord Richard

Rogers, hosted its first debate and First Minister's

questions last week, and was officially opened by the

Queen on St David's Day, 1 March 2006.

The Senedd - parliament or senate in Welsh - uses

natural wood and slate and is designed with

energy efficiency in mind. It has won praise for its

construction, winning the Building Research

Establishment's highest award for sustainable

construction.

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Geauga County, OH Awards RFP to Pictometry Pictometry International Corp. has won a Request

for Proposal (RFP) from Geauga County, OH to

provide oblique aerial imaging and software for

the county and its local municipalities.

Pictometry's county-wide licensing agreement

enables all municipalities in a participating county

to freely have access to the digital aerial photo-

graphy and GIS software. Located in the upper,

northeast region of Ohio, Geauga County encom-

passes 404 square miles and has a population of

over 94,000 residents. The county was founded in

1806 and has 16 townships. The company is host-

ing its first annual User Conference, Pictometry

FutureView 2006, from October 29 - November 1,

2006 in Orlando, FL.

www.pictometry.com.

PICAB New Topcon Dealer in North of Sweden Topcon Europe Positioning BV has a new partner

in the North of Sweden. In a new agreement with

the Swedish company PICAB, Topcon aims to pro-

vide its customers with a strong basis for further

expansion of its sales and support capabilities for

Survey and GPS positioning products (total sta-

tion and GPS+ sales) in this part of Sweden. It is

the new company PICAB Positioning, within the

PICAB Group, that will take care of positioning

solutions for construction, survey and GIS. PICAB

Positioning is managed by Börje Israelsson, prior

sales manager for Topcon Scandinavia in the

north of Sweden. PICAB Group is one of the lead-

ing companies in System Development (design

and development of activities and custom GIS

applications), GIS production (map production,

digitization, GIS analysis, GPS measurements etc),

and will now actively broaden its business in a

new field by supplying positioning solutions for

construction, survey and GIS fields.

www.topconeurope.com

Facts / Figures / Contracts

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Industry News 3-2006-gtb 26-04-2006 13:28 Pagina 63

Page 49: geoinformatics 2006 vol03

April/May 2006Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 65

Terra Digital Chooses Infoterra’s Pixel Factory

Infoterra France announces the delivery of its Pixel

Factory photogrammetric suite to Terra Digital, an

advanced geo-service provider in Germany. The

Pixel Factory, developed by ISTAR (now part of

Infoterra France) during the last 15 years, offers the

opportunity to rapidly generate a wide range of

cartographic end products such as Digital Surface

Models, Digital Terrain Models, Ortho and

TrueOrthoTM photos. According to Infoterra France

there is a high level of automation and multi-pro-

cessor architecture which help to produce vast

quantity of raw data in outstanding time.

www.infoterra-global.com

NGA Awards ClearView Contract to DigitalGlobeDigitalGlobe has been awarded a $12 million satel-

lite imagery capacity contract modification by the

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). This

ClearView contract enables the NGA to acquire

additional commercial imagery from DigitalGlobe's

QuickBird satellite - the world's highest resolution

commercial imaging satellite.

www.digitalglobe.com

Vianova Systems Delivers 10,000th Copy ofNovapoint Vianova Systems (Oslo, Norway) announced the

delivery of the 10,000th copy of Novapoint, the

company’s software solution for the design of

transportation infrastructures and the management

of infrastructure assets, to Grontmij NV

(www.grontmij.com), the Netherlands. With a team

made up of 320 people and 80% market share in

the Scandinavian countries, Vianova Systems has

recently extended its reach with business

operations in Spain, the UK/Ireland and France.

www.vianovasystems.co.ukwww.vianova-systems.fr

Vexcel Delivers End-To-End Aerial MappingSystem to COWICOWI A/S (Denmark) has purchased a complete

aerial mapping solution from Vexcel. The system

includes two Vexcel UltraCam (TM) large format dig-

ital aerial cameras and the Vexcel UltraMap(TM)

server turnkey hardware and software solution for

digital image archiving, cataloging and post-pro-

cessing. The procurement of these combined prod-

ucts provides COWI with Vexcel's fully digital

approach to photogrammetric operations.

www.vexcel.com

Ordnance Survey UK Highlights GI StrategyOrdnance Survey UK has published a free headline

summary of its strategy for providing geographic

information (GI) for Great Britain over the next two

years. The paper - available to download at

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/aboutus - outlines the

key elements involved in supporting the

widespread adoption and use of GI. It highlights

the continuing maintenance of the national georef-

erencing infrastructure on which the market in GI

can develop, plus Ordnance Survey's focus on cus-

tomers and collaborative work with government,

business and other stakeholders. The strategy

involves the goal of ensuring that Ordnance Survey

data remains a key enabler to support new

demands and requirements throughout the informa-

tion industry. A major component to support

joined-up information sharing is the ongoing devel-

opment of OS MasterMap as a seamless geograph-

ic database compatible with accepted web stan-

dards and ordered through an online interface.

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk

GeoEye to Supply European Commission withOrbView-3 ImageryGeoEye’s partner European Space Imaging (EUSI)

received an additional contract from the European

Commission to supply OrbView-3 high-resolution

map-accurate imagery. The contract was awarded

on April 5, 2006 and is valued at $2.15 million

(EUR 1.8 million) over the next four years. The

imagery will be collected by the company’s

OrbView-3 high-resolution earth-imaging satellite.

Together with its recently renewed three-year con-

tract to supply imagery from GeoEye’s IKONOS

high-resolution satellite, EUSI continues to be one

of the largest suppliers of commercial satellite

imagery to the European Commission. The imagery

will be processed and delivered to the European

Commission by EUSI located in Munich, Germany.

The contract requires GeoEye to begin imagery col-

lections over 24 specific European sites to support

the European Commission’s agricultural subsidy

controls. The European Union is using satellite

imagery as a tool to verify farmer’s declarations

and claims for subsidies. In addition, the European

Commission will use OrbView-3 imagery in support

of national security related projects.

www.geoeye.com

100 Thales ProMark3 Systems Ordered byBrazil’s Agrarian Reform Institute

Brazil’s cadastral

agency responsible

for land regulation,

sustainable develop-

ment of rural lands

and topographic

surveying of govern-

ment land (INCRA),

has purchased 100

Thales ProMark 3

GPS survey systems.

The INCRA choice of

the ProMark3 GPS survey system is the first time

the agency has selected Thales equipment to con-

duct its nationwide GPS surveying effort. INCRA

officials were impressed with the overall design of

the ProMark3, including its light weight and screen

capabilities. Headquartered in Brasilia, the Instituto

Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária employs

more than 4,000 nationwide. The mission of the

35-year-old public agency is to create development

opportunity for Brazil’s rural populations. It is

responsible for placing families in rural areas, land

use regulation, and topographic surveys of govern-

ment lands.

www.thalesgroup.com/navigation

Atlas New ESRI Software Distributor in IraqESRI announced that Atlas for GIS and Surveying

Systems Co. Ltd., a former user, is now its distribu-

tor for geographic information system (GIS) soft-

ware in Iraq. Since 1989, the Republic of Iraq, with

the help of Atlas for GIS and Surveying Systems,

has continued the arduous task of updating the

country's infrastructure maps while working toward

the establishment of national information and GIS

centers.

www.esri.com

New Petroleum Industry Solutions ManagerJoins ESRIBrian Boulmay has joined

ESRI as Petroleum

Industry Solutions manag-

er. With more than eight

years of experience in the

petroleum industry,

Boulmay comes to ESRI

from Shell in Houston,

Texas, where he was

team leader for geo-infor-

mation and GIS. To meet the diverse needs for geo-

graphic technology in this industry, ESRI is expand-

ing its petroleum team with highly qualified, GIS,

Petroleum professionals. During his time with Shell,

Boulmay served on the Petroleum User Group

(PUG) steering team assisting with the PUG confer-

ence as well as

leading the PUG 3D working group focusing on

gridding and contouring, and 3D capabilities of

ESRI software. With Shell, he led a team of spatial

professionals and managed local and global

projects, improving the company's use of spatial

technologies. A recent project was working to stan-

dardize the GIS IT architecture globally for Shell.

www.esri.com

GeoEye Names Paolo Colombi Vice President of International SalesGeoEye appointed Mr.

Paolo E. Colombi as vice

president of International

Sales. Mr. Colombi has

over 25 years of experi-

ence in sales, operations

and international manage-

ment in high-technology

and telecommunications

systems and services. He

will be directly responsible for all international

business development and sales, and serve as a

resource to more than a dozen Regional Affiliates

and Regional Distributors around the globe.

Laser-Scan User & Partner Conference 2006

Laser-Scan's 2006 User & Partner Conference will

be held from Tuesday 27th - Thursday 29th June.

The theme of this year's Conference is ‘Spatial Data

Supply Chain: Delivering ROI’. Organisations across

the world in many different market sectors, such as

government, defence and utilities have invested

significantly in departmental geospatial data

holdings over the last 10-15 years. Delegates can

register online at www.laser-scan.com/conference/index.htm.

People

Conferences & Meetings

Industry News

Industry News 3-2006-gtb 26-04-2006 13:28 Pagina 65