Jeffrey Johnson, David Riallant

We have a background of GIS and remote sensing. We were very excited when we had virtual globes as it gives us new opportunities to visualise our data. Neogeography is not so new, for a long time geographers have been using external technology to get the big picture, which is all neogeography is about.

When we look at the geoweb today we have 2 main sources of information, large scale base maps and site specific annotations from users. We notice that site specific base maps are missing. With PictEarth data becomes information as it’s captured in real time.

[Showing slide of two planes with N95 plane]

N95 has good camera, reasonable GPS, and we have a python script and could stream too. Downlinking video and telemetry from the phone. Also have a more advanced solution. Have softwae that takes down the video and telemetry and imports to google earth. Also thermal cameras, some windows software, platforms are autonomous capable. General aviation aircraft too. Also ultralites. Using lon/lat/altitude/bearing to work out the geoprint of the imagery. Can see it live from an aircraft. The height of the plane and focal length give the area covered by the camera, visualizing in google earth.

Software is for S60 phones, using N95. Showing some mosaics from imagery.

Usually you have to wait a long time for new imagery and it costs a lot, but you might just want a small amount of imagery. This is what we’re aiming for. Can overlay with other types of data too. Can also shoot images at the time that you want them to be shot. Showing example of pictures taken in the Mediterranean sea 15m below the water level. Shooting when you wants makes sure you can control the data. If you can see the data in real time you can make decisions in real time.

Last year in San Diego could take photos during the wild fires.

GIS and remote sensing guys so make sure the data can be used in regular GIS systems.

Example of N95 pictures, pretty good detail.

Another example of UAV over dense urban area. Great success, interesting to see how it could operate. Aim to create 3D modelling.

Burning man image.

Goal is that images are not just a nice background, they become a source of information. Just like any information, geo-aerial information has it’s value from its accuracy, freshness and flexibility.

A NeoGeographical Approach to Aerial Image Acquisition and Processing

Technorati tags: uav, pictearth, where, where2.0, where2008