GEO: connexion articles from June 2003

GEO: connexion archives from June 2003

On your trolley!(upfront)
June 1, 2003... If, like me, you tend to lose all sense of direction in the supermarket when looking for oven chips or spaghetti bolognese, you will welcome the brainchild of TV executive-turned-inventor, Murray Laidlaw. Soon, his GPS-enabled shopping trolley...

ECW goes to Hollywood.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... Hollywood could soon be using Earth Resource Mapping's Enhanced Compression Wavelet (ECW) technology to render its animated masterpieces. In a world 'first' for the animation industry, software developer Terratracer is exploiting ECW...

OS targets set.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... Tony McNulty MP, Minister responsible for the Ordnance Survey (Southampton, England) has given the Agency six targets for this financial year. These include a trading surplus of [pounds sterling]4.7M (around 5% of turnover), an efficiency gain...

Strong GI representation on Crown Copyright Panel.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... Professor Susskind (London & Strathclyde Universities) has been appointed first Chair of the Advisory Panel on Crown Copyright. This new non-departmental public body is charged with advising Ministers strategically on how to open up...

India's tech policies 'stupid': Dangermond.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... Jack Dangermond, founder and President of ESRI (Redlands, California) described India's technology policies as "stupid" and said that they have "crippled and hurt" Indian development. On a visit to Delhi during April he said that India is...

Chkcartoplus for e-government.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... All UK local authorites have a requirement to meet e-government obligations including the provision of information on the web in a 'clear and friendly format'. Cook Hammond & Kell (London, England) has developed CHKcartoplus to assist...

Acacia takes root.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... The Acacia Programme Executive Board (PEB) has initiated a pilot programme to test technical and organisational aspects of the Acacia Programme. The latter involves Ordnance Survey, Land Registry, Registers of Scotland and the Valuation Office...

Global seeps on line.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... Many of the largest oilfields were discovered by geologists observing naturally occurring oil seeps on the Earth's surface. Infoterra's (Famborough, England) Global Seeps programme now enables offshore exploration by monitoring oil slicks at...

APIC-Shift gets Councils Moving.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... East Devon District, Woking Borough and Waverley Councils have all purchased APIC-Shift from APIC (Bishops Stortford, England), to handle the changes to Ordnance Survey LandLine[TM] data as a result of the OS Positional Accuracy Improvement...

Saxony puts geodata on line.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... Saxony has provided digital maps and aerial photographs via its Landesweb internal network since 1st April this year. The police, emergency services and disaster protection agencies in addition to regional planning and environmental authorities...

RapidEye and Intermap forge alliance.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... Intermap Technologies Corporation (Denver, Colorado) and RapidEye AG (Munich, Bavaria) have entered a "Strategic Relationship Agreement" that will explore corporate business goals and opportunities for mutual benefit of both companies. In...

Transport of delight.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... Laser-Scan's (Cambridge, England) Radius Topology was used in four demonstrations at the commercial trials of Ordnance Survey's OS MasterMap Integrated Transport NetworkT (ITNT) Layer. Laser-Scan's own demonstration showed how to structure the...

OGC call for sponsors.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... The Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (Wayland, Massachusetts) is calling for sponsors for a Planning Activity that may support future development of an OGC Property and Land Information (PLI) Initiative. OGC needs sponsors to provide input on...

ESA selects GAF for GMES.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... GAF AG (Munich, Bavaria) has secured a contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) to set up and consolidate a GMES (Global Monitoring on Environment and Security) Service Element for forest monitoring. Work began in February 2003 and will be...

Autodesk now shipping Envision 8 & supporting MrSID.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... Autodesk (San Rafael, California) is now shipping its Envision 8 software, formerly Autodesk Onsite Desktop, an easy-to-use GIS and design tool for mapping, engineering and land-use professionals. Envision 8 enables users to visualise, analyse,...

Danish multi-utility goes G/Electric.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions (Huntsville, Alabama) has signed a contract to implement a geofacilities information management system based on Intergraph's G/Electric software at North-West Sealand Energy Supply Company (NVE...

Finns trial ForestPad for field survey work.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... Finnish forestry centres have chosen the map-based field surveying application ForestPad[TM] by GISnet Solutions Finland Oy (Helsinki, Finland) to collect and store forest data. A pilot project will evaluate the benefits of the new technology...

Earthdata acquires ISTAR Americas--official.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... As rumoured in GEO:connexion May issue, EarthData Holdings (Washington, DC) has purchased ISTAR Americas, Inc., from its parent company ISTAR of France. ISTAR Americas developed a mapping process that rapidly generates a digital surface model...

New boundaries for Landmark.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... English Nature has awarded Landmark Government (Exeter, England) a contract to digitise the boundaries of statutory designated wildlife sites and related features in England. Using EN's existing digital boundaries, which were captured from...

EU Agricultural monitoring workshop.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... The EU's Joint Research Centre (Ispra, Italy) hosted a workshop on 7/8th April intended to help Member States and Candidate/Accession Countries understand Internet or Remote Access issues related to the Integrated Administration and Control...

OGC Europe to create Resource Pool.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... The Open GIS Consortium (Europe) Limited (OGCE--Munich, Bavaria) has announced the creation of the European Virtual Resource Pool (EVPool), and the availability of an Invitation to Qualify (ITQ). Participants in EVPool will undertake critical...

IDRISI climbs high with V14.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... Clark Labs (Worcester, Massachusetts) has released IDRISI Kilimanjaro, the 14th version of its geo-analytic and image processing system. This latest version is claimed to extend analysis capabilities and provides major enhancements to...

Slovaks find their way with ESRI.(LBS News in Brief)
June 1, 2003... Orange Slovensko, the largest Slovakian telecommunication operator, recently launched a suite of mass-market text and WAP location-based service applications based on ESRI's (Redlands, California) GIS technology with Cell ID positioning. ...

Pay-as-you-go tracking from Verilocation.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... Overview Mapping (Northampton, England) has launched an automatic location service using mobile phone signals from any of the UK's network operators. A registered mobile's location can be pinpointed through the new Verilocation service via a...

AEGIS has its eye on car thieves.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... AEGIS Engineering Systems (Barnsley, England), supplier of train tracking technology to many UK rail operators, has launched RoadEye, a new vehicle tracking device that operates directly to any mobile phone. The RoadEye unit, currently being...

Telcontar teams with Criticom.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... Telcontar (San Jose, California) and Criticom International Corporation (Minneapolis, Minnesota) have announced a strategic alliance to jointly develop and market mobile safety, security and convenience (MSSC) applications. Telcontar will...

Europe's presence in space sector threatened--Busquin.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... Speaking at a recent gathering of the European Parliament's Sky & Space Intergroup in Brussels. Philippe Busquin (EC Commissioner for Research) warned that Europe's presence in the space sector is threatened in the short term, due partly to...

PriceWatch.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... PriceWatch* stock price change Autodesk 14.26 -0.36 Intergraph 18.53 +1.16 MapInfo 5.37 +2.48 Trimble Navigation 20.77 +1.52 * Share price (converted to euros) as at close...

Russo-German alliance.(GEO:news)
June 1, 2003... Definiens Imaging GmbH, Munich, Germany, has entered into an agreement whereby its eCognition remote sensing image analysis/feature detection software is to be distributed in Russia and the CIS by Moscow-based DATA+ ...

Garmin Ltd.(RESULTS)
June 1, 2003... Record revenues and earnings were announced by GPS receiver manufacturer Garmin Ltd for its first 2003 fiscal quarter. Revenues were [euro]107.7 million (up 23 per cent on the same quarter in 2002) and net income climbed to E36.1 million (up...

Intergraph Corporation.(RESULTS)
June 1, 2003... Intergraph Corporation reported an operating income of [euro]3.6 million and net income of [euro]7 million on revenues of [euro]105 million for its first quarter ended March 31. Revenues dipped slightly from the preceding quarter but income...

MapInfo.(RESULTS)
June 1, 2003... Revenues announced by MapInfo for its Q2 fiscal 2003 were [euro]23.6 million compared to [euro]18.2 million in the previous quarter and [euro]20.4 million for the same period last year. Net loss was [euro]646,000 compared to a net loss of...

Trimble.(RESULTS)
June 1, 2003... Results from Trimble for its first quarter ended April 4, 2003 showed climbing to [euro]111 million (up from [euro]90.5 million in the corresponding quarter of 2002). Earnings per share stood at [euro]0.16, including amortization and...

Dubai at the crossroads.(GEO:middle east)
June 1, 2003... Dubai Municipality's Roads Department has chosen Intergraph Middle East LLC (IMEL), and Intergraph Team GeoMedia Registered Solutions Provider GCWare, spol. s.r.o., to supply and implement a location-based system. This will be used to create a...

Maps that matter.(GEO:middle east)
June 1, 2003... For all the wonders of high technology satellite imagery and GPS corrected topographic maps that depict terrain, military bases, towns and cities, there are probably only two themes that are needed to explain the ongoing problems of Iraq. These...

Jeddah cleans up with datafactory.(GEO:middle east)
June 1, 2003... datafactory AG (Leipzig, Saxony) has contracted with the municipal government of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to supply a telematic system for the environmental and waste disposal department. The project aims to provide GPS supported optimisation for...

Middle east mosaic for media.(GEO:middle east)
June 1, 2003... i-cubed (Fort Collins, Colorado) has developed a satellite image mosaic of the Middle East, including Iraq. Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria, Jordan, Israel and The West Bank with portions of Lebanon. The Gaza Strip, and Egypt. Designed for a variety of...

3D QuickBird for ABC.(GEO:middle east)
June 1, 2003... DigitalGlobe's (Longmont, Colorado) QuickBird[TM] imagery and 3D visualisation technology from Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation have been used by ABC News for the network's coverage of the war in Iraq. This combination gives viewers a...

Image of the month.(GEO:africa)
June 1, 2003... This satellite image, acquired by Landsat 7's Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) sensor, reveals complex patterns in shallow water off the coast of Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. The swirls and eddies are created by silt desposited by the Geba...

Enabling business improvement through GI: find out how at the AGI 2003 Conference.(GEO:connect)
June 1, 2003... The 15th annual AGI 2003 Conference, held in association with the GeoSolutions event is here again. This year the conference will take a look at the role Geographic Information (GI) plays in enabling business improvement, especially within the...

Laser-Scan User and Partner Conference: 17-18 July 2003, Cambridge, England.(GEO:connect)
June 1, 2003... Laser-Scan's 2003 conference has been re-shaped, not least by giving delegates the opportunity to quiz industry experts from around the world on current and future developments. This approach will be typified by panel discussions on the topic...

Coruna hosts 9th EC-GI & GIS workshop.(GEO:connect)
June 1, 2003... Following-on from discussions commenced in Dublin last year, the 9th EC-GI & GIS Workshop convenes at the Palacio de Congresos in Coruna, Spain, later this month (June 25-27). Its focus--"Serving the User"--reflects the fact that the need...

Location 2003: opportunity knocks in Leeds.(GEO:connect)
June 1, 2003... The first roadshow event staged by ESRI (UK) under its Location 2003 banner was held at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, 29-30 April. Those with time to look at arms and armour were few and far between; the programme was, to say the least,...

Russians make tracks for Vienna.(GEO:connect)
June 1, 2003... As this issue went to press, final arrangements were underway at the Hotel De France in Vienna to host GEOINFOCAD 2003, an Austrian-Russian conference devoted to remote sensing and GIS in real estate and environmental applications (20-21 May)....

AGI view: agenda 2003 progress report.(GEO:community)
June 1, 2003... The first three months of 2003 saw the AGI active in pursuing its agenda on a number fronts: Modernising the AGI The AGI's year-long Structural Review began by gathering comments from all those involved in the operational workings of...

GeoForum Norway: Nordisk Organisasjon for Geografisk; Informasjon Norwegian Association for Geographic Information.(EUROGI Update)
June 1, 2003... Date of foundation: 1969 Status: Non-profit umbrella association President and Chairman of the Board: Michael Pande-Rolfsen (since 2000) Secretary General: Torbjorn Paule (since 2002) Languages: Norwegian, English, German and...

Tadpole-Cartesia sales in North America.(GEO:people)
June 1, 2003... Susan Park has been appointed executive sales manager for North American operations for Tadpole-Cartesia (Carlsbad, California). She will report to Jason Linley, operations director, and will lead the a business drive into the utilities,...

Leica Geosystems names new VPs for North America.(GEO:people)
June 1, 2003... Leica Geosystems (Heerbrugg, Switzerland) has appointed Jim Naismith vice president of sales for the South Central region, and Rod Eckels as vice president of sales for the Southwest region. Naismith joined Leica Geosystems in 2001 and has been...

Spencer sells Sarantel to Europe.(GEO:people)
June 1, 2003... Alan Spencer has joined UK miniature antenna manufacturer Sarantel (Wellingborough, England) as European sales manager, a role that will involve developing new opportunities for the company's range of advanced ceramic helical antennas for GPS...

GIS Director at Dando Institute.(GEO:people)
June 1, 2003... UCL (London, England) has appointed Spencer Chainey as the new Director of Geographical Information Science at the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science. Chainey comes from InfoTech Enterprises Europe where he led the Consultancy Services team...

Duo for ICES geo committee.(GEO:people)
June 1, 2003... Britain's Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors (ICES) has appointed Richard Maltby MInstCES and David Rodgers FInstCES as members of its specialist Geospatial Engineering Practices Committee (GEPC) committee. Maltby is a practising...

Topology under the microscope: Jildou Louwsma, Theo Tijssen and Peter van Oosterom put Laser-Scan's Radius Toplogy vl to the test in comparing topologically structured and 'plain' spatial data.(FOCUS ON ...)
June 1, 2003... Radius Topology is an advanced spatial processing environment, which extends the Oracle9i database and provides dramatic improvements to the speed and consistency of spatial data handling. Well that's the claim. So how does it measure-up in...

Doing deals with venture capitalists: not everything that glitters may be gold cautions Andrew Blankfield.(GEO:legal)
June 1, 2003... Those seeking funds often enter into negotiation with venture capital investors from a position of weakness. Typically, this is because they have a particular investor in mind or because they have selected their preferred investor before all...

UK: less than INSPIREd? As the second round of consultation gets underway on a proposed European Spatial Data Infrastructure, Mark Probert reflects on Britain's preparedness for change.(GEO:strategies)
June 1, 2003... At the time of writing, Phase 2 of the INSPIRE public consultation process is underway. The INSPIRE initiative (http://inspire.jrc.it) works on the assumption that a European Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) will be the sum total of individual...

Celebrating a century of Swiss precision--Part 2: Wolfgang Steinborn concludes by putting his finger on what makes Switzerland 'tick' when it comes to geographic information.(central european eye)
June 1, 2003... Let's start by presenting some background on the questions raised in part 1 (April issue). Question 1: According to documents published by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, Switzerland defines its forests as areas exceeding a...

Mind where you drive: know where you're going today? So could everyone else if Bob Barr's worst nightmare comes true.(dangling segment)
June 1, 2003... The recent and apparently successful introduction of congestion charging in central London has led to a 17 per cent reduction in traffic volumes and more relaxed driving conditions. In a clever piece of political spin, its chief advocate,...

Web-wise with SICAD UT/GSP: Daniel Hernandez explores the latest addition to the SICAD UT family of utilities-oriented solutions.(utilities)
June 1, 2003... In the latest development from Munich-based SICAD Geomatics, Object-Oriented (O-O) technologies have been exploited to Web-enable its established UT family of network management products, now in service with more than 100 utility service...

ArcGIS[TM] extensions.
June 1, 2003... Specialized GIS Analysis ESRI[R] ArcGIS[TM] is a family of software products built on a common architecture that form a complete geographic information system (GIS). This architecture supports a series of extensions that dramatically...

Where every drop counts: as the government regulator puts the squeeze on the UK water industry, one company implements mobile GIS to ease the pressure ... and comes up smiling.(utilities)
June 1, 2003... Britain's deregulated water industry has rapidly discardedoutmoded working methods in favour of those that boost efficiency and productivity. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Even so, the downward squeeze on prices applied by Ofwat, the...

Data migration at Energie Steiermark: the ability to migrate, verify and integrate geodata is essential for any growing enterprise. Werner Samhaber explains how the right tools simplify the job for one of central Europe's leading multi-utilities.(utilities)
June 1, 2003... Implementing a GIS in a multi-utility company and integrating it into an existing IT infrastructure is essential for many different processes. The quality of existing data is therefore a key issue in attaining this goal. The Energie Steiermark...

Tooling-up for digital data capture: tools that streamline the costly and time-consuming task of data capture are worth their weight in gold. Chris Holcroft cites examples that prove the point.(data capture & conversion)
June 1, 2003... While it's true that the use of digital mapping and graphics-based geographic information systems (GIS) has expanded enormously over the past few years, there is still an awful lot of historical geographic information around that is either held...

Terabytes at your fingertips: fast, flexible access to massive raster datasets is high on the GIS 'wish list' Peter Baumann explains how rasdaman is up to the task.(spatial data bases)
June 1, 2003... There is rapidly growing demand for flexible, ubiquitous access to large archives of raster imagery. Those attempting to satisfy this demand must consider the diversity of material involved: grayscale and colour aerial photographs, multi and...

Finding Xavier Lopez: Blair Campbell tracks down the geographically-committed director of Oracle Spatial.(spatial data bases)
June 1, 2003... It's fitting that Xavier Lopez, director of Oracle's Location-Based Services, is rarely in one place for very long. When he's not in his office in Nashua, New Hampshire, he might be saltwater fishing, cross-country skiing, or hiking the state's...

The handy guide to laser rangefinders: whatever your field measurement needs--mapping, surveying or data collection--these essential tools will save on time and keep your valuable data ultra-accurate.
June 1, 2003... Horizontal Model Laser Class Range accuracy Laser Locator + Class I eyesafe. up to 4,000m at Distance IEC 60825-1...

ACTIVE.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... Total Solution Mapping from ACTIVE (Basingstoke, England) has been installed at four more ambulance services--Hampshire, Wiltshire, East Anglia and Northern Ireland to bring the total number to thirteen. This planning system uses geographic...

Digital Globe and Vexcel.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... Digital Globe (Longmont, Colorado) and Vexcel (Boulder, Colorado) are co-operating to provide a 3D modelling service for any city in the world. The service will use the QuickBird satellite images and is aimed particularly at countries where...

DigitalGlobe.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... DigitalGlobe (Longmont, Colorado) has launched a new 1:4800 scale orthorectified image service aimed at central and local governments for map revision, city planning, property appraisal, emergency management, etc.. The product is a seamless,...

eMapSite.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... eMapSite (Eversley, England) has been awarded 'Platinum Partner' status by Ordnance Survey, reflecting its success in providing geo-information data through its web based operations and other value added services. EMapSite has recently...

The Game Conservancy Trust.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... The Game Conservancy Trust (Fordingbridge, England) is using a GIS to assess the impact of countryside management for country sports on the abundance, distribution and diversity of wildlife. A pilot has suggested that management of upland...

Warwick District Council.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... Warwick District Council is implementing the new GGP (Croydon, England) eGGP for the web enabling of a centralised digital map and information database. Planning and other information will be available on the council's intranet and to the...

Geospatial Information and Technology Association.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... The Geospatial Information and Technology Association (Aurora, Colorado) has published the Geospatial Technology Report with 91 pages of that analyse GI projects in 187 organisations. The report costs US$ 175 for non members from ...

Infotech.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... The Infotech (London England) co-sponsored 'LogicaCMG' yacht won the Round Britain Race on 1st May by crossing the finishing line near Southampton just ahead of 'Spirit of Southampton' after 1800 miles of racing. www.infotech-europe.com

Infoterra Ltd.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... Infoterra Ltd (Famborough, England), is continuing the acquisition of 3-D models of the UK's largest cities using the Optech 2033 lidar to capture one million individual elevation points per sq. km. These datasets are applicable to...

Salisbury District Council.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... Salisbury District Council has formalised its commitment to Innogistic's Cartology range of GIS software. The authority will be upgrading to the latest version of desktop Cartology, rolling this out corporately. It is are also implementing the...

Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions (Huntsville, Alabama) has announced a GeoMedia[R] Software Subscription Programme. This enables customers to buy one year subscriptions for single or multiple licences for products in the GeoMedia...

Laser-Scan.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... Laser-Scan (Cambridge, England) has joined the Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions Team GeoMedia Registered Solutions Centre (RSC) programme. This is aimed at GeoMedia users who require the advanced topological processing available from...

Maporama.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... Maporama (Paris, France) has implemented a new customer relationship management system from online CRM provider salesforce.com. The system is provided over the internet with no need to buy, install or maintain hardware or software, networks or...

NavCom Technology.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... NavCom Technology (Redondo Beach, California) has signed AD Navigation AS from Norway to its network of dealers. AD Navigation are now the authorised representative for NavCom in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. www.navcomtech.com

BAE Systems.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... BAE Systems has renewed its Strategic Membership of The Open GIS Consortium (Wayland, Massachusetts). Active membership of OGC is recognised by BAE Systems as an important part of its systems integrator expertise and means that a senior...

OGC.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... OGC has released the OpenGIS[R] Reference Model (ORM). ORM documents a framework of interoperability for geospatial processing from tightly coupled, real time systems on a single CPU to the "Spatial Web"--the open environment that enables...

PENTAX Corporation.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... PENTAX Corporation (Tokyo, Japan) has established a joint holding company in Hong Kong in collaboration with Taiwan Instrument Co., Ltd. (Taipei, Taiwan) and plans to establish a joint venture company in Shanghai. Pentax anticipates continued...

Photogrammetric Record.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... The Photogrammetric Record (Oxford, England) is now available four times a year in print and also on line. Now published by the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetric Society, this journal is independently refereed and anyone can receive a...

QSD.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... QSD (Alicante, Spain) selling properties in Costa Blanca, has recently purchased SIA's (London, England) dataMAP Web Browser. QSD's market is largely UK based and it required an intranet solution to map their UK database for locating seminars...

Teesdale District Council.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2003... Teesdale District Council have purchased dataMAP GIS corporately and Adur District Council have renewed their corporate licence. North Lanarkshire Local Education Authority have purchased dataMAP SMART. SIA's latest consultancy projects...