Aerial mapping company Bluesky is helping water industry professionals understand the potential of laser captured height models. Following a request from Mouchel – the international infrastructure and business service Group – Bluesky delivered their ‘What is LiDAR’ presentation at the Mouchel Urban Drainage Academy. Engaging with Mouchel staff, as well as key Water Company clients, Bluesky explained the principles of data capture, data deliverables and potential applications with a focus on urban drainage tailored to the audience’s professional interest.

Feedback from attendees at the Bluesky LiDAR training session included; ‘Really useful session, good to hear from a speaker with such a detailed knowledge of LiDAR’, ‘Good to understand the techniques of LiDAR data collection’ and ‘Great to hear about the potential future development of LiDAR technologies and how these could be of benefit to our industry’.

The Mouchel Urban Drainage Academy (MUDA) is the backbone of the Mouchel sewerage team’s continued learning and development process. The Academy offers a programme of training days covering all aspects of sewerage modelling and its relationship to wider design, operation and asset management. The programme uses lectures, such as the one delivered by Bluesky, hands on training with key software, as well as individual and group exercises. In addition to developing key technical skills within Mouchel, MUDA is an important part of the company’s effective client management with courses opened up to clients alongside Mouchel staff.

“The aim of MUDA is to ensure our staff become and remain technical leaders within the water industry,” commented Martin Osborne, Technical Director at Mouchel. “We achieve this by providing awareness, knowledge and in time ability and experience in all of the key competencies required for Wastewater Modellers working towards Chartership.”

“Presentations from outside organisations, such as Bluesky are an essential component of this on-going training,” continued Osborne. “They allow us to benefit from the very latest technological advancements and industry knowledge while sharing best practice with professionals with vast experience in specialist fields like LiDAR.”

Light Imaging Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) systems use aircraft mounted lasers to accurately determine the distance between the sensor and the ground or other targets such as buildings and vegetation. Applications within the water industry include Flood Risk Assessment/Planning, Urban Drainage, Infrastructure management and planning as well as 3D Visualisations, Viewshed Analysis and Vegetation mapping and management.

CONTACTS:

Reader enquiries to Bluesky on tel +44 (0)1530 518 518
www.bluesky-world.com

 Laser scanning as a method of storage of spatial information is used in various economic sectors. In this article, we will focus on laser scanning for industrial design, or more precisely on the execution of a 3D scan of the petrochemical complex for the production of synthetic rubber.

The goal was to create a three-dimensional digital model of the four plants for the production of isoprene (raw material for rubber). The TogliattiKauchuk  factory is located in Togliatti, Russia and is one of the largest petrochemical enterprises producing rubber.

The project was executed by company “Acropol-Geo” with a process inspection and support of 3DLS’s specialists.

For our clients, we have successfully restored the factory-built documentation, conducted a survey of industrial facilities, performed accurate measurements for the control of construction, created topographical plans and maps, calculated volumes of mining and storage of bulk products, performed architectural measurements of buildings, scanned and simulated emergency hydraulic power units, captured the linear objects of pipeline transportation, carried out a three-dimensional modeling of complex industrial structures, and performed other activities in order to meet the objective of 3D scanning.

At the present time, many progressive development organizations use modern computer technology design in three dimensions in order to carry out these types of projects. Modern 3D-capable technology is able to rigorously account for the actual geometry of the existing facilities. They are aimed at improving the quality of the final projects, at reducing the timing of the overall scanning process and at continuous support and supervision for the entire period of the object improvement project beyond scanning.

Enterprises increasingly use 3D solutions leading vendors such as Autodesk, AVEVA, Bentley, ESRI and Intergraph for the design, engineering and project management of industrial management. The leading enterprises that use these technologies are players primarily in the oil, gas and energy industries.

Using this new technology in the object survey phase of the project, a designer receives an accurate computer copy of the real object in the form of a three-dimensional model. And dozens of workers that were previously doing this work manually are easily replaced with only one instrument, operated by one operator. Moreover, all these measurements are performed without any contact between the operator and the object, so the process of measurement does not prevent the plant from continuing to conduct its business as usual. Such measurements at the TogliattiKauchuk plant was carried out by laser scanner FARO Laser Scanner Focus-3D and Leica ScanStation C10.

The field work of the scanning of the plant was carried out by a team of four specialists in 34 working days, and consisted of two parts:

Creation of the geodetic net Laser scanning of the object’s elements.

The technology allows to perform these two processes in parallel. 

Pict1. Working meeting

The work was carried out on an area of 5 hectares. However, multi-level interlocking of cables and tubes of different diameters, hundreds of technology setup areas, equipment, facilities, tanks and furnaces increased the technological complexity of the object and its scanning. Shooting conditions were close to extreme: functioning harmful production process, vibration, noise, high temperature piping, the presence of high-pressure steam, harmful chemical emissions, etc. 

Pict2. Laser scanner positioning

All elements of the object were subject to scanning, including each flange. Scanning was done from a total of 8,158 positions to achieve the maximum coverage of the elements of the measurement object. The total number of single measurements (in the point cloud) exceeded 12.5 billion. In order to reduce the time, in which this field phase of work was completed, the technology approach of “total scan” was used. The use of a standard survey methods (the use of the order of 7 spheres or marks on each scan) and merge of such a large amount of data would have required 5-6 times more time. Additionally, the use of propriatary software allowed to solve successfully the problem of compensation for fluctuations and vibrations.

The postprocessing phase consisted of the following:

Pretreatment of scans using FARO Scene software

Alignment of the scans in InnovMetric PolyWorks software

Registration of scans in the coordinate system of the plant

Build and control of scan alignment performed in Leica Cyclone software

Creating 3D models in Bentley MicroStation software

Conversion of 3D model into PDMSmac format.

We used software Leica Cyclone 7.3.3 64-bit for final merging of aligned scans. The advantage of Leica Cyclone version 64-bit is to use all available RAM (we had RAM 128Gb). Unlike analogous software Leica Cyclone works faster and more correctly with huge point clouds: visualize, registration quality control, merge point clouds, cut clouds by parts to pass it to modelers.

It should be noted that the final cloud of points contains not only the structure of the scan but also the transformations of the scans that have taken place during the alignment process in Leica Cyclone. If necessary, this alignment can be re-registered and transformed into a different coordinate system, where new elements of related objects can be added (for example in the case of continuing reconstruction work at the factory).

The final 3D scan included every single one of the 12.5 billion real measurements that were captured during the scanning process. The customer got thin point clouds too to load it to AVEVA LFM for control. That data are in correct PTX format.

Pict3. Point clouds in Leica Cyclone

And now a few words about quality control of matching and modeling. Quality control is performed by visual analysis of cross-linked sections of the cloud of points in the software environment Leica Cyclone. Horizontal and vertical cross sections of the aligned point models have been built in order to assess the accuracy of the models. The points in these cross sections were highlighted in different colors that correspond to the various scanning stations. The quality control inspection results were positive: the maximum difference between the points of scans from different stations amounted to 12 mm compared with the desired tolerance of up to 15 mm in the assignment specification.

The high density of the cloud of points and the adequate coverage of the element measurements enabled the successful deciphering and modeling of the details of the object according to the required specifications. 3D modeling was performed by different softwares: Bentley MicroStation, Autodesk AutoCAD and Leica Cyclone. This process consisted of inserting vector geometric basics into the appropriate segmented point clouds. The final collecting and checking of 3D models was done in Bentley MicroStation.

The modeling was carried out under continuous monitoring of the results. The final step was the quality control process to determine the quality of the output results. Together, this provided for an exact match between the executed model and the real measurements of the object.

Thanks to complex and flexible tools of MicroStation it was done as a 3D modeling as collecting of 3D models from other softwares. Powerful tool of 3D visualizing and rendering created the final 3D model more demonstrable and realistic.

Pict4. Workshops 3D models for reengineering

Output of 3D modeling was converted to AVEVA PDMSmac format and passed to Customer for following executing of design and work documentation for reengineering of plant.

Pict5. Matching of 3D models and point clouds in AVEVA

The entire project was completed within 102 working days. As a result, the project management organization received a database in Leica Cyclone IMP-format, containing the normalized cloud of points along with credible 3D models of the plant in CAD and PDMS format within the coordinate system of the plant.

The project for the modernization of the plant will be implemented with the highest quality!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MDcIK37CJk&feature=youtu.be

info@3DLS.ru

acropolGEO@gmail.com

You can work with maps in the field using Esri’s Collector for ArcGIS app on your iPhone or Android smartphone.

You can also use maps to capture spatial and tabular data with the phone’s GPS or by tapping on the map, edit and update map features, plan routes, and upload photographs and videos.

To learn about Collector for ArcGIS, tune in to the free, live training seminar Smartphone GIS: Capturing Data with Collector for ArcGIS on May 30, 2013.

The presenters will demonstrate how to create, publish, and share maps with employees in the field. They also will show you how to incorporate edits made in the field into your enterprise GIS workflows.

After viewing this seminar, you will understand how to do the following:

• Use the Collector for ArcGIS app on your smartphone
• Make maps and share them with employees in the field
• Open maps from ArcGIS Online or Portal for ArcGIS and use them in field workflows

This live training seminar will be helpful to GIS managers and staff interested in using smartphones to work with maps and GIS data in the field. An understanding of ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS for Desktop, and smartphones is recommended but not required.

You will need a broadband Internet connection and an Esri Global Account to watch the live training seminar. Creating an Esri Global Account is easy and free.

The second flight of ESA’s newest launch vehicle has been completed from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Two Earth observation satellites, ESA’s Proba-V and Vietnam’s VNREDSat‑1A, were released into different orbits, demonstrating the rocket’s versatility. Estonia’s first satellite, the ESTCube‑1 technology demonstrator, was also released into orbit.

Vega lifted off at 02:06 GMT on 7 May (23:06 local time 6 May; 04:06 CEST 7 May) on a complex mission requiring five upper-stage boosts and lasting about twice as long as its first launch, in February 2012.

The three solid-propellant stages performed flawlessly and, after two burns of the liquid-propellant upper stage, Proba‑V was released into a circular orbit at an altitude of 820 km, over the western coast of Australia, some 55 minutes into flight.

The satellite is now being controlled by ESA’s centre in Redu, Belgium, where it is undergoing a health check and testing before the operational phase starts to monitor the vegetation coverage on Planet Earth.

After releasing Proba-V, the upper stage performed a third burn and the top half of the egg-shaped Vega Secondary Payload Adapter was ejected. After a fourth burn to circularise the orbit at an altitude of 704 km, VNREDSat-1A was released 1 hour 57 minutes into flight. ESTCube‑1 was ejected from its dispenser three minutes later.

A fifth and last burn will now place the spent upper stage on a trajectory that ensures a safe reentry that complies with new debris mitigation regulations.

“It is another great day for ESA, for its Member States and for Europe. Thanks to decisions taken by Member States, ESA and European industry are demonstrating once again their capabilities of innovation. Among the Member States, special mention goes to Italy which has led the Vega Programme, Belgium which has led the Proba projects at ESA, and France which has led the development and maintenance of the European spaceport here in Kourou. We are also proud to have made possible the launch of the first satellite from Estonia. ,” said Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of ESA.

The flight was conducted under the Vega Research and Technology Accompaniment programme (VERTA) that aims at demonstrating the versatility of the launch system. It also marked the start of the transition from ESA to Arianespace as launch operator. Arianespace provided flight analysis, preparation and operations, and the marketing that secured VNREDSat‑1A as Vega’s first commercial payload.

This second mission demonstrated Vega’s capability to launch multiple satellite stacks with the new VESPA multiple launch adapter, as well as its overall flexibility.

It also introduced new flight software developed by contractor ELV and a new tracking station in the northwest of French Guiana that ensures telemetry links during some phases of the flight when they could be affected by the plume from the solid propellants.

“Vega has confirmed that it is ready to deliver a high-quality service for small payloads to low Earth orbit,” said Antonio Fabrizi, ESA’s Director of Launchers. “Europe now has the capability to serve both the government and commercial market in this growing market segment.

“Since the qualification flight one year ago, the marketplace has warmly embraced the arrival of Vega, and today we launched the first commercial satellite.”

The Proba‑V primary payload is a 138,2 kg satellite built by Qinetiq Space Belgium.

“With the launch of this third Proba satellite, ESA’s small satellite series has come of age,” notes Franco Ongaro, ESA Director of Technical and Quality Management.

“This flight affirms ESA’s capacity to provide concepts and flexible mission designs that address specific needs in a short time. Proba‑V will be an operational satellite as soon as it is commissioned, supplying data to an eagerly waiting community.

“In addition, it continues the tradition of being a technology demonstrator for innovative technology that will benefit the wider European space community for years to come.”

Proba‑V is based on the platform flown on two previous ESA missions and carries the Vegetation imager to map global vegetation cover every two days, as a follow-on to the first generation of Vegetation imagers on France’s Spot-4 and -5 satellites.

Proba-V is flying in the same orbit as Spot-5 in order to take over from the ageing satellite on its retirement next year. Vegetation is a high-technology optical imager designed to provide 350 m-resolution imagery in four visible and infrared bands with an impressive 2250 km swath width that will allow daily coverage of all areas within 35–75ºN and 35–56ºS. These data will be processed and provided to a wide community of international users, including the European Commission.

In addition to this primary payload, Proba also hosts a series of technology payloads such as  a receiver to detect aircraft in flight around the globe,  a communications amplifier based on the latest gallium nitride technology, a novel pair of radiation monitors and a photonics experiment testing fibre optics for space.

More information on Proba can be found at:http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Technology/Proba_Missions

VNREDSat-1A (Vietnam Natural Resources, Environment, Disaster Satellite) is a 115,3 kg commercial remote sensing satellite built by Astrium for Vietnam’s Academy of Sciences and Technologies. Its launch was contracted through Arianespace in January.

ESTCube-1 is Estonia’s first satellite. This 1.3 kg CubeSat was designed and built by students from the University of Tartu with a contribution from the Finnish Meteorological Institute. It will deploy a 10 m-long tether to demonstrate electrostatic manoeuvring through the plasma flow, which could lead to electrostatic solar sails for propellantless interplanetary travel.

About Vega

As technology advances allow satellites to shrink, demand is increasing for smaller satellites, in particular for scientific and Earth observation missions. As an affordable response to European institutional needs and to maintain its competitiveness in the world’s launch services market, Europe has developed the Vega launch system.

Vega is able to inject payloads of up to 1.5 tonne into low polar orbits at altitudes of 300–1500 km. With a length of 30 m and a diameter of 3 m, it has three solid-propellant stages (P80, Zefiro-23 and Zefiro-9) and a liquid-propellant stage (AVUM: Attitude and Vernier Upper Module). Unlike most small launchers, it is able to place multiple payloads in orbit.

The VERTA programme covers a batch of five missions to demonstrate the flexibility of the system, promoting the smooth introduction of the vehicle for commercial exploitation.

Seven ESA Member States (Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden) are contributing to the Vega programme. The industrial prime contractor is ELV SpA, 70% of which is owned by Avio SpA and 30% by Italy’s ASI space agency.

The flight manifest for Vega is currently: Kazakhstan’s DZZ-HR high-resolution remote sensing satellite (2014), the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle reentry demonstrator (2014), the LISA Pathfinder mission to demonstrate the technologies for the future Laser Interferometer Space Antenna gravity-wave detection mission (2015), and the Aeolus satellite to map Earth’s wind profiles (2015).

More information on Vega at:http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Launchers/Launch_vehicles/Vega

About the European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space.

ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.

ESA has 20 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, of whom 18 are Member States of the EU.

ESA has Cooperation Agreements with eight other Member States of the EU and is discussing an Agreement with the one remaining (Bulgaria). Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.

ESA is also working with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes.

By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country.

ESA develops the launchers, spacecraft and ground facilities needed to keep Europe at the forefront of global space activities.

Today, it launches satellites for Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and astronomy, sends probes to the far reaches of the Solar System and cooperates in the human exploration of space.

Learn more at www.esa.int

                                             The decline of Alaska’s Columbia Glacier is one

                                                                      of the Earthchanges featured in the new Google

                                                                           imagery based on the Landsat data archive.

                                                                                     › More on Columbia Glacier

NASA Associate Administrator for Communications David Weaver issued the following statement about the Google announcement:

“The Landsat data record — humanity’s longest continuous record of our planet from space — has been an invaluable tool for scientists and decision-makers in many fields, from natural resources to agricultural productivity and climate change. The release today on Google’s Earth Engine of new Landsat time-lapse data animations shows key changes across our planet and helps share this remarkable U.S. resource with the public in an engaging new way.

“The Obama administration is committed to keeping this freely accessible archive of continuous global land observations growing for years to come. That’s why the president’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget includes funding to have NASA take the lead on the design of a new spaceborne system that will continue the acquisition of Landsat-quality measurements.

“NASA launched the newest Landsat satellite in February. Later this month, we will be handing over operations of this mission to our long-time partners at the U.S. Geological Survey. NASA is looking forward to beginning the work to extending this critically important national resource.”

Related Links

› More information about the new Google images
› NASA Landsat website
› USGS Landsat website

Steve Cole
NASA Headquarters

Although the ultimate goal of the PhoneSat mission was to determine whether a consumer-grade smartphone can be used as the main flight avionics for a satellite in space, the three miniature satellites (named Alexander, Graham and Bell) also took pictures of Earth and transmitted these “image-data packets” to multiple ground stations on Earth. Above photo was taken by the PhoneSat-1 (Bell) nanosatellite and reconstructed by the Ames Phonesat Team and multiple amateur radio operators around the world. Image credit: NASA Ames

For about one week, engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and amateur radio operators around the world collaborated to reconstruct an image of Earth sent to them from three smartphones in orbit. The joint effort was part of NASA’s nanosatellite mission, called PhoneSat, which launched on Sunday, April 21, 2013 aboard the Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia.

Although the ultimate goal of the PhoneSat mission was to determine whether a consumer-grade smartphone can be used as the main flight avionics for a satellite in space, the three miniature satellites used their smartphone cameras to take pictures of Earth and transmitted these “image-data packets” to multiple ground stations. Every packet held a small piece of “the big picture.” As the data became available, the PhoneSat Team and multiple amateur ham radio operators, who call themselves “hams,” pieced together a high-resolution photograph from the tiny data packets.

“During the short time the spacecraft were in orbit, we were able to demonstrate the smartphones’ ability to act as satellites in the space environment,” said Bruce Yost, the program manager for NASA’s Small Satellite Technology Program. “The PhoneSat project also provided an opportunity for NASA to collaborate with its space enthusiasts. Amateur radio operators from every continent but Antarctica contributed in capturing the data packets we needed to piece together the smartphones’ image of Earth from space.”

As part of their preparation for space, the smartphones were outfitted with a low-powered transmitter operating in the amateur radio band. They sent the image information to awaiting hams who worked with the Ames engineers to stitch together multiple, tiny images to restore the complete Earth view.

Piecing together the photo was a very successful collaboration between NASA’s PhoneSat team and volunteer amateur ham radio operators around the world. NASA researchers and hams working together was an excellent example of Citizen Science, or crowd-sourced science, which is scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur or nonprofessional scientists. On the second day of the mission, the Ames team had received over 200 packets from amateur radio operators.

“Three days into the mission we already had received more than 300 data packets,” said Alberto Guillen Salas, an engineer at Ames and a member of the PhoneSat team. “About 200 of the data packets were contributed by the global community and the remaining packets were received from members of our team with the help of the Ames Amateur Radio Club station, NA6MF.”

The mission successfully ended Saturday, April 27, 2013, after predicted atmospheric drag caused the PhoneSats to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up.

“The NASA PhoneSat Team would like to acknowledge how grateful we are to the amateur radio community for contributing to the success of this mission,” said Oriol Tintore, an engineer and a member of the PhoneSat Team at Ames who participated in the picture data processing.

The PhoneSat project is a technology demonstration mission funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters and the Engineering Directorate at NASA Ames Research Center. The project started in summer 2009 as a student-led collaborative project between Ames and the International Space University, Strasbourg.

These results will encourage further research into applying low-cost terrestrial technologies to space applications and also may open space to a whole new generation of commercial, academic and citizen-space users, according to Yost. For more information about the PhoneSat mission and the participation of the radio amateur:

For more about information about NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology Program and the PhoneSat mission, visit:

NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate is innovating, developing, testing and flying hardware for use in future science and exploration missions. NASA’s technology investments provide cutting-edge solutions for our nation’s future. For more information about NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/spacetech 

Ruth Dasso Marlaire
650-604-4789
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

PERTH, Australia, May 6, 2013 — (PRNewswire) —  Mike Cunneen today announces EggMaps HD 1.05, an update to his popular #1-ranked navigation app for iPad that provides Google Maps at full-screen high resolution. Version 1.05 adds a choice of miles or kilometres when directions are provided, in response to requests from UK and North American customers.

Indie Developer Mike Cunneen today is proud to announce the release of EggMaps HD 1.05, his iPad app that provides an easy interface to Google Maps at full resolution. Until EggMaps HD, iPad users had resorted to using the website or iPhone versions of Google Maps (the latter at low-resolution, sometimes known as “pixel doubling” or “2x”).

“An iPad has five times the display resolution of an iPhone. When you run an iPhone-only app on your iPad, such as the official Google Maps app, the picture is blocky, lacks detail, and does not quite fill the available screen area. Apps that are designed specifically for iPad look much better,” said Mike Cunneen, the developer.

Regarding the latest update, Mr Cunneen explained, “I’ve been inundated with requests from UK customers and Americans travelling overseas. They want to view distances in miles rather than kilometres. Until now, there was no way to override the units of distance. Now, you can choose whichever system you are comfortable with.”

“EggMaps has been ranked #1 in 25 countries including the UK, Australia andCanada. I really hope the latest release will put it back at the top of the UK App Store rankings.”

“To be honest, it’s mainly UK customers who are affected by this release,” Mr Cunneen continued. “Apart from UK customers, only a few Americans have requested miles when they are travelling outside the USA. The rest of the world uses kilometres, so this feature won’t make much difference to them. But they will appreciate the bug fixes in this release.”

“Today I received an email from a customer thanking me for the fast turnaround time on fixing a bug he’d reported a few hours earlier. I didn’t want to tell him that I submitted the fix 6 days ago due to another customer’s report. If this guy thinks I’m some sort of genius, why should I set him straight?” The bug in question prevented addresses from being displayed upon tapping a marker, and is fixed in this latest release.

Unlike the iPhone version of Google Maps, EggMaps HD takes advantage of the larger iPad screen at native resolution. Being a native app, EggMaps HD also has the advantage of being faster and more responsive than a website.

“Google’s maps app for iPhone is great. But they seem to have forgotten about iPad users,” said Mr Cunneen. “Installing Google’s official iPhone app is awkward for most people. Even if you manage to get it onto your iPad, it runs at iPhone resolution and doesn’t provide much visual detail.”

EggMaps HD supports the following features, with data provided by Google:

• Street View
• Public transit
• Live traffic
• Marker placement
• Directions
• Auto-complete of place names
• Location tracking (when GPS is enabled)

Device Requirements:

• Requires iPad with iOS 5.0 or later
• 1.5 MB

Pricing and Availability:
EggMaps HD 1.05 is only $0.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Navigation category.

Mike Cunneen is an independent developer based in Perth, Western Australia. Copyright (C) 2013 Mike Cunneen. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Summary:
Mike Cunneen today announces EggMaps HD 1.05, an update to his popular #1-ranked navigation app for iPad that provides Google Maps at full-screen high resolution. Version 1.05 adds a choice of miles or kilometres when directions are provided, in response to requests from UK customers and Americans travelling abroad.

Resources:

• EggMaps HD website: http://www.eggmaps.com/

RICHMOND HILL, Ontario, Canada, May 03, 2013 – PCI Geomatics, a world-leading developer of remote sensing and photogrammetric software and systems, announced today that it now supports KOMPSAT-3 imagery within its software suite.

KOMPSAT-3, a new satellite built and operated by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) was launched on May 12^th, 2012 from the Tanegashima Space Center of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan. KOMPSAT-3 is an optical imaging satellite capable of imaging the Earth with a resolution of 0.70 m Panchromatic and 2.8 m Multispectral (Blue, Green, Red, Near-IR). KOMPSAT-3 includes the Advanced Earth Imaging Sensor System (AEISS), which is a high-resolution imager (Pan and MS). This prime instrument of the mission was developed by KARI.

“We are very pleased with the great effort of PCI Geomatics,” said Dr. TaeByeong CHAE, Head of the Satellite information Proliferation Team at KARI. “With this new and improved solution, KOMPSAT-3 images will be more easily accessible and useful to the public and commercial users around the globe,” he added.

“We have worked closely with KARI to validate our software’s support for KOMPSAT-3 imagery,” said Dr. Philip Cheng, Senior Scientist at PCI Geomatics. “Our software includes support for the new Single Pass Stereo Mode, which will be capable of extracting high-resolution DEMs. Users of our software will also have the ability to pansharpen KOMPSAT-3 imagery.”

PCI has performed quality control on the imagery to determine the achievable accuracy, and found the correction of the KOMPSAT-3 imagery to be very accurate using the Rational Polynomial Coefficients (RPC) provided.  The support for KOMPSAT-3 will be available in a future service pack for Geomatica 2013 and can be deployed now in PCI’s enterprise-level production systems.

PCI’s support for KOMPSAT-3 will include RPC model creation and the Toutin Model (allowing for very accurate corrections using the satellite orbital ephemeris data) as well as rapid and high-quality pansharpening capability. KOMPSAT-3 images have been provided by Satrec Initiative, which holds the exclusive right for global distribution right for the KOMPSAT series of satellites.

For more information on PCI’s support for KOMPSAT-3 and processing capabilities that are available within Geomatica 2013, visit:www.pcigeomatics.com/products/geomatica-2013

About the Korea AeroSpace Research Institute (KARI)

Established in 1989, KARI is devoted to its role as the leading aerospace research and development institute in Korea. KOMPSAT-2 was successfully launched on July 28th 2006 and recently KOMPSAT-3, the latest satellite of KOMPSAT series, was launched on May 18th 2012. KARI is now developing KOMPSAT-3A and KOMPSAT-5 in an effort to expand Korea’s national space development program. The goal of KARI is to establish a 24-hour satellite observation system surrounding the Korean Peninsula through the KOMPSAT series. Find out more about KARI at www.kari.re.kr/eng/

About the Satrec Initiative  

Satrec Initiative (SI) is the leading solution provider for Earth observation missions, offering customers worldwide high performance, cost-effective turnkey satellite platforms, electro-optical instruments, ground systems and components. Focusing on the customers’ needs with innovative technologies, SI has delivered optimized high quality solutions to over 20 customers in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. Si has  exclusive sales right of Kompsat 2, 3 and 5. Find out more about Satrec Initiative at www.satreci.com/eng/

About PCI Geomatics

PCI Geomatics is a world-leading developer of software and systems for remote sensing, imagery processing, and photogrammetry.  With more than 30 years of experience in the geospatial industry, PCI is recognized globally for its excellence in providing software for accurately and rapidly processing both satellite and aerial imagery.  PCI has installed more than 30 thousand licenses, in over 150 countries worldwide. Find out more about PCI Geomatics atwww.pcigeomatics.com.

Time travel to the past or to the future has always been the dream of humanity. We have always imagined life in the past or the future, but what would it be like if we walked around in the city Paris of 2000 years ago though a simple click on Ipad.

In fact, it is no longer a dream, Dassault Systèmes, specialized in software; offers product developers the opportunity to experience their products digitally, before making them physically, developed a new 3D experience that allows accurate digital recreation of Paris: buildings, thermal baths and the Bastille.

The city of Paris has been digitized, now its 2000 years history can be discovered through iPad, or internet, which makes the distinction between reality and simulation almost impossible.

To reach such a result, specialists have been working for several years on digitizing and modeling historical data. Specialists have been able to model and texture architectural drawings, oil paintings and documents using 3DExperience software. Elements of the 3DExperience platform simulate weather effects, geographical, architectural environments, and realistic lighting while the company’s animation engine technology brings the models to life.

Concerning the buildings that no longer exist and that cannot be scanned, the team used the emerging 3D digital models to test and examine hypotheses and then make final decisions.

Paris 3D Saga

Showing a precise picture of the Bastille was an important element of the project, since the paintings of the Bastille show just a massive towering over the Paris and its revolutionary inhabitants. Whereas 3D modeling presents an accurate picture of the Bastille which is, by the way, smaller than what was imagined.

The Ipad app, Paris 3D Saga, gives the user the opportunity to compare the past and the present or the realty and the reality-like, 3D Paris of 2000 years ago. The app does also contain 3D films and a series of documentary films about digitized Paris, also developed by Dassault Systèmes.

Giza Plateau

Is another app similar the Paris 3D saga, developed by Dassault Systèmes and Harvard University, but this time the app takes you to ancient Egypt.

Giza, which is situated in the periphery of Cairo, is built by ancient Egyptians, who manifested their civilization, architecture, art and their conception of afterlife in the cities and monuments they built. The Giza 3D project is a manner of preserving this heritage and bringing to life the heritage which was already lost.

The biggest city in Africa, Giza was reconstructed and digitalized by Dassault Systèmes through the material that was available; diaries, drawings and documents, most of them were collected or developed by the American archeologist George Reisner, in order to reach the most accurate results.

Other than Paris and Giza apps, Dassault Systèmes is working with on major cities of the world.  Dassault Systèmes has created partnerships with water conservation, city planning, energy and waste management companies. The partnership is about Dassault Systèmes Company’s stimulation of the present situation which will generate the picture of city 30 years from now. Thanks to this technology, the world can see the impact of any decision on our planet. This technology can also show the effects of natural disasters and can assist in better planning which will bring betters results.  Nick Lerner says “Using 3D laser scanning and modelling techniques, archaeologists have been able to recreate buildings from ancient Paris and Egypt. But the technology can also be used in planning for the future”