GEO: connexion articles from May 2005

GEO: connexion archives from May 2005

Insular: a business issue; This edition of GEO:connexion contains many articles related to 3-D visualisation. There is a growing shift toward 3-D enabled solutions and products.
May 1, 2005... The representation of spatial information is communication--in visual form. Tibor G. Toth, the cartographer who created "The Earth's Moon" for National Geographic in 1969, shares some insights about visual communication, through mapping, from...

A new standard: Thales (Carquefou, France) introduces the MobileMapper Pro Package which adds sub-metre post processing as standard to MobileMapper.
May 1, 2005... Using the MobileMapper in the field it is possible to achieve 2-3 metre real-time accuracy, but back in the office, the data can now be differentially corrected to achieve 70cm accuracy on baselines up to 50 kilometres. As a complement to the...

Clean sweep at Autodesk.
May 1, 2005... Autodesk (California, USA) has released new versions of its software portfolio, some 25 products for 2D design, basic conceptual design, advanced 3D modelling, animation, visualisation, data management and collaboration. There has been an...

Trimble sets its sites on construction.
May 1, 2005... Trimble (California, USA) has launched the Trimble Site Positioning System which is designed to provide contractors with a state-of-the-art construction positioning solution. The system includes a new total station (SPS700), two new GPS...

Seven themes for seven countries.
May 1, 2005... EuroGeographics, the Association of Europe's National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies, has released EuroRegionalMap, its third European product. It is a multi-purpose, structured topographic dataset at a scale of 1:250,000; it contains seven...

Next gen from TatukGIS.
May 1, 2005... GIS Editor is the latest product from TatukGIS (Gdynia, Poland). Building on the company's free TatukGIS Viewer, the editor supports all the formats, features, and functionality of the free viewer, plus features to digitise/edit vector geometry...

Mix and match: GeoMedia Fusion is a new product from Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions (Alabama, USA). It can be used to automate and standardise geospatial data collection, integration and maintenance.
May 1, 2005... With the increased emphasis on data access and sharing and the immediate need for geospatial information, it has become common for organisations to compile multiple data sources in their enterprise-wide databases on a regular basis. Often this...

Royalty free mapping from Avenza.
May 1, 2005... Avenza Systems Inc. (Ontario, Canada) has released MAPdata World, a three part set of royalty-free GIS map data covering the world at 1:15 million scale. This detailed world vector dataset was initially created by Avenza's UK reseller, The XYZ...

The MapX factor.
May 1, 2005... MapInfo Corporation (New York, USA) has released the latest version of MapInfo MapX Mobile, its mapping application for Microsoft Windows Pocket PC software developers. With new functionality and support for the latest handheld devices and...

Rock and roll: Leica Geosystems AG (Heerbrugg, Switzerland) introduces a new machine navigation sensor for precise dynamic GPS guidance of vehicles.
May 1, 2005... The Leica MNS1200 is purpose built for machines and incorporates GPS positioning within a robust case with internal shock mounts. It provides centimetre level accuracy and uses SmartTrack technology for improved satellite acquisition and...

Digital nurses keep patients in check.
May 1, 2005... A digital device could provide improved post-operative and preventive medical care by offering two-way communication between the patient and a central server, sending useful information and reminders of when to take medication. Described as a...

Skytrax's the limit.
May 1, 2005... Fastrax Ltd. (Helsinki, Finland), a provider of OEM GPS Software Development Kit environments and programmable OEM GPS receivers, and Guardian Mobility Corporation (Ottawa, Canada), creator of location-aware wireless data communication...

Playing by the rules; With the latest release of STAR ELEC, STAR INFORMATIC (Liege, Belgium) has demonstrated its commitment to the Open Spatial Enterprise approach: the application supports native storage of data in Oracle Spatial and locator format for both Oracle 9i and 10g.
May 1, 2005... STAR ELEC now proposes a native interaction (without any middleware involved) with Oracle Spatial for the storage and management of vector, raster, attribute and text data. As a result databases created and maintained by the STAR ELEC suite can...

A step up for spatial analysis.
May 1, 2005... Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions (Alabama, USA) is now shipping version 5.2 of GeoMedia Grid 5.2, an integrated grid analysis toolkit for GeoMedia. Providing seamless integration of vector and grid data formats for viewing and...

ER Mapper made easy for education.
May 1, 2005... Educational institutions now have unlimited access to ER Mapper's (Perth, Australia) geospatial imagery technology under a new site licence programme. The programme provides unlimited access to ER Mapper technologies, in and out of the...

TomTom and AND.
May 1, 2005... AND Automotive Navigation Data (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) is providing detailed digital maps of Central and Eastern Europe to TomTom (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) for use in TomTom GO, TomTom's car navigation solution. AND supplies a complete...

Call for Space 2005.
May 1, 2005... The European Commission has published a new call for proposals for 'Space 2005' under the Sixth Framework Programme's aeronautics and space activity. The first area covered by this call is global monitoring for environment and security (GMES),...

Former rivals form alliance: former GIS competitors GGP Systems (London, UK) and Survey Supplies (Liverpool, UK) have formed an alliance to promote each other's products to local government in the UK.
May 1, 2005... Survey Supplies will provide solutions that integrate with GGP's PC-based GIS, whilst continuing development of its own FastMap software as a field data collection solution. GGP Systems will now be able to offer customers field surveying...

Infotech acquires Indian arm of Tele Atlas.
May 1, 2005... Infotech Enterprises Ltd (NV Hyderabad, India) has acquired Tele Atlas India Private Ltd (TAIND, Noida, India), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tele Atlas (Ghent, Belgium). Infotech also announced that it has entered into a long-term services...

Sri Lanka surveys the damage.
May 1, 2005... In the immediate aftermath of the tsunami that hit southern Asia at the end of last year, Ordnance Survey (Southampton, UK) was quick to offer its support to surveyors as they began the task of assessing damage and rebuilding the country. One...

A dangerous world.
May 1, 2005... The Munich Reinsurance Company (Munich Re. Germany) is to provide an online global database of natural events and catastrophes for use in the insurance industry. The database, called the NATural Hazards Assessment Network (NATHAN), uses ESRI's...

Leica donates to ISPRS.
May 1, 2005... Dr Hans Hess, CEO and executive director of Leica Geosystems (Heerbrugg, Switzerland), has announced a [euro]19,400 donation to the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Foundation. The Board of Trustees has...

Looking to the past: BlueSky (Leicestershire, UK) has created a series of contour maps, terrain models and perspective views from archived black and white aerial photography to aid site and infrastructure development for an export quarry and crushing works in fiskefjord, a remote site in west Greenland.
May 1, 2005... The project to extract Olivine, a mineral used mainly in the steel industry, is being led by Crew Gold Corporation and commercial extraction is due to start in 2006. The remote area is covered in snow for much of the year and subject to...

Caris to calm Caspian conflict.
May 1, 2005... The Government of Turkmenistan has selected CARIS's (New Brunswick, Canada) Law of the Sea (LOTS) Limits and Boundaries software to delineate its various maritime boundaries in the Caspian Sea as part of an effort to resolve ongoing disputes...

Reuter joins Trimble.
May 1, 2005... Trimble's (Raunheim, Germany) mapping and GIS division has appointed Christian Reuter to the role of support service & training manager for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. The appointment, based at Trimble's facility in Raunheim,...

MPA Kartografija moves to Mercator.
May 1, 2005... STAR INFORMATIC (Liege, Belgium) has been selected by the Mapping Production Association "Kartografija" (MPA Kartografija) from the Russian Federation to implement Mercator in its cartographic production process. MPA Kartografija creates and...

Scotland's sea level: Norwich Union insurance (Norwich, UK) has acquired Intermap's (Denver, USA) 3D terrain map of Scotland in order to extend its flood mapping project across great britain.
May 1, 2005... The Norwich Union Flood Map uses Intermap's DTM to provide detailed and accurate information on the height of land in river catchments. According to researchers at Dundee University, it is estimated that the risk of flooding in some parts of...

Strength in numbers.
May 1, 2005... Celartem Technology Inc. (Washington, USA) has announced the merger of its three US companies, Extensis, Inc., LizardTech, Inc. and Celartem, Inc. Both Extensis and LizardTech will retain their employees, offices and corporate brand but will...

Fewa opts for ArcFM UT.
May 1, 2005... The Federal Electricity and Water Authority (FEWA) of the United Arab Emirates has opted to implement its enterprise GIS application based on AED-SICAD's (Bonn/Munich, Germany) ArcFM UT product suite and ESRI's (California, USA) ArcGIS product...

With design in mind.
May 1, 2005... The Magellan RoadMate 700, a portable vehicle navigation system from Thales (California, USA), has been awarded an iF Product Design Award. The unit was designed with BMW Group DesignworksUSA and features a touch screen and voice-prompted voice...

See how we surf.
May 1, 2005... This map from GfK MACON (Waghausel, Germany) shows internet use in Europe, based on an EU survey of the EU15 countries. According to the results, 50 per cent of the 16 to 74 year old population went online regularly, i.e. at least once a week,...

Czech mate: the national authority for surveying and cadastre in the Czech Republic has awarded a contract for the establishment of a nationwide network of GPS reference stations.
May 1, 2005... The authority issued a tender in April 2004 and it has been announced that Geofos (Prague, Czech Republic), local representative of Leica Geosystems AG (Heerbrugg, Switzerland), has won the bid. The network, CZEPOS, will be set up using Leica...

Powell joins Survey Supplies.
May 1, 2005... Survey Supplies (Liverpool, UK) has appointed Colin Powell to its survey division as the new technical sales representative for Trimble GPS, Trimble robotic total stations and survey processing software in the Midlands and East of England....

Generalisation in Germany.
May 1, 2005... Laser-Scan (Cambridge, UK) has been involved in one of the largest European generalisation projects to improve business efficiencies at several state mapping agencies in Germany. Aided significantly by the involvement of a German partner...

Capturing coal on camera.
May 1, 2005... The Aerophotogrammetry and Remote Sensing Bureau of China Coal (ARSC) has purchased Intergraph's (Alabama, USA) Z/I Imaging Digital Mapping Camera (DMC). Using the DMC, ARSC will transform its photogrammetry production to a fully digital...

Stock watch: a short summary of recent stock market events and emerging GI related business information.
May 1, 2005... Autodesk Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK) today announced financial results for its fourth fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2005. For the fourth quarter, Autodesk reported net revenues of [euro]268 million, a 21 percent increase over [euro]222 million...

Away with daylight robbery: among the nooks and crannies into which the competition authorities have recently shone their torch is the world of business rates.
May 1, 2005... What they have found is a land tax which appears to confer an unlawful State aid on BT and Kingston Communications. The European Commission has decided to intervene. The rating system is an ancient English tax dating back to the hearth tax and...

Wavelet space--the new imagery workbench: Karen Morley explains how 'geospatial workflows evolve with GeoExpress'.
May 1, 2005... Wavelet imaging for Geospatial applications has been on the market for many years now in the form of MrSID, first introduced into the geospatial market in 1995. Historically the format enabled viewing of massive images within applications that,...

From sandbox to cartographic artist: Tibor G. Toth reflects on his journey in cartography, from the basic techniques to the magnificent maps in National Geographic--a personal pursuit of cartography around the world.
May 1, 2005... Fifty years--half a century... That is how long I have been involved in cartography as a student, cartographic draftsman, and cartographic artist. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] One first has to learn to stand and walk before attempting to...

Africa: mapping the infrastructure of Namibia; Roy Popiolek and Dagmar Honsbein discuss how spatial data relating to the infrastructure of Namibia was integrated together and is now accessible on the Internet for the first time.
May 1, 2005... Namibia is a large country situated in south-western Africa, bordered in the west by the Atlantic Ocean, in the east by Botswana and Zimbabwe, in the south by South Africa and in the north by Angola. With a population of 1.8 million...

Geo-communication the modern way: Lars Brodersen explains why the communication of geoinformation involves much more than a map alone.
May 1, 2005... The word map was in the old days, which means before the World Wide Web, easily understood, although several definitions existed, e.g. 'Maps are a graphic representation of the milieu'. Nevertheless, most people had almost the same idea of what...

Take a 3D view: 3D landscape visualisation is here to stay and gaining ground in a number of specialist areas, William Allbrook and Nigel Lorriman find out how and why.
May 1, 2005... The clay and polystyrene models that were used to create 3D models have made way in recent times for computer-generated virtual tours with fog and lighting effects to bedazzle the viewer. As visualisation technology has improved, so too has the...

Dangling segment: private and public; Bob Barr points to an impediment that hinders Britain's knowledge-based economy and wonders if it is strictly necessary.
May 1, 2005... The British, unlike many of their continental counterparts, are renowned for their obsession with home ownership. Their enthusiasm has been exploited by both of the nation's major political parties at various times, with electoral feelings of...

London--Hounslow Contaminated Land study: environmental law in England and Wales makes it a statutory duty to investigate lands for contamination.
May 1, 2005... Since the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (Part 11A), came into force in 2000 and in compliance with the Act, councils have begun the task of investigating all the land within their respective boroughs. The London Borough of Hounslow is one...

3D GIS archaeology in South Africa: archeologists working along the South African southern coast use multidimensional GIS applications to model Pleistocene caves and paleo-environments reconstructing the landscape CA. 420,000 to 30,000 BP.
May 1, 2005... Although archaeology is a discipline traditionally associated with shovels, screens, and bags of artifacts, archaeologists are making more effective use of GIS to create precise maps of both small and large-scale landscape features thus...

Be meeting Prague 2005: a Geospatial Summit; "GEO is part of DNA"--Stefano Morisi, Bentley.
May 1, 2005... Bentley Systems, Incorporated held a 'Geospatial Summit' in the city of Prague February 28-March 2. Attended by nearly 350 geospatial professionals in the AEC sector, this 3-day event represented a return to a European conference format for the...

Coastal conservation in the Levant: Sabina Carnemolla outlines how geoinformation has been exploited in a multi-national project to address coastal erosion and land degradation in Lebanon and Syria.
May 1, 2005... The project in question--'Improving Coastal Land Degradation Monitoring in Lebanon and Syria' (hereinafter referred to as Project CoLD)--was successfully accomplished between 2002 and the end of last year. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Its...

Open-source visualisation: Virtual Terrain Project; Interactive visualisation of geospatial data is becoming more mainstream. For many years, visualisation occurred only in very small niches, isolated research projects, or in rudimentary form in the disparate fields of CAD, GIS, VIS-SIM, and remote sensing.
May 1, 2005... These fields are now moving toward each other, recognizing their overlap and converging in dramatic and interesting ways. For the past five years, the Virtual Terrain Project (VTP) has been tracking and aiding this convergence with a website, a...

Checking quality control? If one asks, how is quality control doing within the community of GIS, web-services based on GEO-information, GI etc.?
May 1, 2005... The answer seems fairly simple at first glance. The answer would probably be: 'Quality control is doing better and better'. One of the reasons for that opinion might be that ISO has released a standard on quality control. Another reason might...

From strength to strength: INTERGEO East, little sister to the near-legendary annual German gathering, met this year in the city of Zagreb, tucked away in north-east Croatia. Rosie Waddicor was on hand to capture the sights and the sounds of the three day event.
May 1, 2005... The day before I arrived in Croatia some 300mm of snow fell, leaving the city glittering and fresh for the opening of INTERGEO East on 7 March. The congress began in a flurry of excitement on Monday, with the two-day trade fair starting the...

Developing GIS skills in French agriculture: Pierre Bazile shares some insights on staff learning in GI--from executives to line staff.
May 1, 2005... The rapid developments in the use of geographical-information methods and tools have been acknowledged by the French Ministry of Agriculture and have resulted in the setting up of a comprehensive mechanism that includes the integration of GIS...

Oce's winter wonderland: Teutonic efficiency and Bavarian hospitality guaranteed a highly successful outing for Oce's 2005 openhouse, an annual gathering at which the Netherlands-based print giant updates customers, prospects and partners on its business performance and invites them to sample its latest fare.
May 1, 2005... This year's five-day event--the 12th to date--was staged in late February at Poing near Munich, one of six Oce Competence Centers in Germany (pictured above). And despite sub-zero temperatures and thick snow, it was under clear blue skies that...

Diary & events.(Calendar)
May 1, 2005... IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE YOUR EVENT INCLUDED ON THIS PAGE PLEASE EMAIL THE DETAILS TO rosiewaddicor@geoconnexion.com May 2005 8-11, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. International Conference on Advance Remote Sensing. Details:...

Avenza Systems Inc.(BUSINESS)
May 1, 2005... Avenza Systems Inc. (Ontario, Canada) has announced that the new MAPublisher online knowledge base is now active on its website. The Knowledge Base is an initiative between Avenza and Dutch reseller, eXQte (Zoetermeer, The Netherlands), who...

Bentley Systems, Inc.(BUSINESS)
May 1, 2005... Bentley Systems, Inc. (Pennsylvania, USA) has announced that Dutch municipalities Deventer, Hengelo, Haarlem, and Spijkenisse, and civil engineering firms Koop Tjuchem and Temid, have joined its Enterprise Training Subscription programme. Under...

The EU's online bookshop has announced the availability of a CDROM of the European Soil Database at a scale of 1:1,000,000.(BUSINESS)
May 1, 2005... The EU's online bookshop has announced the availability of a CDROM of the European Soil Database at a scale of 1:1,000,000. The database, which categorises soils across the continent, was co-ordinated by the European Soil Bureau based at the...

Business Objects.(BUSINESS)
May 1, 2005... Business Objects (USA/France) has presented ESRI (California, USA) with its OEM Partner of the Year Award for 2005. The award is one of Business Objects' Americas Partner Excellence Awards that acknowledge partners for their significant...

Clark Labs and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.(BUSINESS)
May 1, 2005... Clark Labs and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service have signed a further co-operative agreement to continue their analysis of hyperspectral imagery for indications of Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) infestation in Michigan and Ohio,...

ESRI Press.(BUSINESS)
May 1, 2005... GIS Worlds: Creating Spatial Data Infrastructures, is a new book from ESRI Press (California, USA). It provides an overview of the developments in spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) over the last 10 to 15 years. The author, Ian Masser,...

Glgateway.(BUSINESS)
May 1, 2005... The Glgateway (UK) information services team is working with the Ordnance Survey (Southampton, UK), under NISMA contract, to establish a services operating plan for the coming financial year. Once finalised, the plan will be made available...

Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors.(BUSINESS)
May 1, 2005... The Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors (ICES) has re-launched its website with a new image, in response to the increasing popularity of members searching for news and information on the website. With a simple navigation system, the new...

IDELIX Software Inc.(BUSINESS)
May 1, 2005... Christopher P. Haakon has been appointed to the IDELIX Software Inc. (Vancouver, Canada) Advisory Board. Haakon is a member of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's Transformation Advisory Group and former CEO and general manager of...

Lucent Technologies.(BUSINESS)
May 1, 2005... Lucent Technologies (New Jersey, USA) has signed an agreement with Telcontar (California, USA) to collaborate on an integrated location-based services for mobile operators. Lucent Worldwide Services will integrate key components of Lucent's...

Multimap.(BUSINESS)
May 1, 2005... The Multimap (London, UK) website has been voted the UK's number one website by readers of the online publication, www.netimperative.com. Several hundred sites were submitted for the awards, a shortlist was drawn up and from this votes gathered...

Trimble.(BUSINESS)
May 1, 2005... Trimble (California, USA) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Apache Technologies, Inc. (Ohio, USA) in an all-cash transaction. Apache designs, manufactures, and distributes professional laser products for...

Optech Incorporated.(BUSINESS)
May 1, 2005... Optech Incorporated (Toronto, Canada) has announced the reorganisation of its sales team. Wayne Szameitat has accepted the position of sales manager of the marine survey division. David Collison, regional sales manager, Asia, will extend his...

Ordnance Survey.(BUSINESS)
May 1, 2005... In anticipation of the upcoming general election in the UK, Ordnance Survey (Southampton, UK) has updated its website to include mapping of every constituency and administrative area. It features an interactive tool which shows all general and...

SolidWorks Corporation.(BUSINESS)
May 1, 2005... SolidWorks Corporation (Massachusetts, USA) has received orders for its SolidWorks application from eight universities in the Baltic region. The Kaunas University of Technology and Vilnius Gediminas Technical University in Lithuania, along with...

Fastrax Ltd.(HARDWARE)
May 1, 2005... Fastrax Ltd. (Helsinki, Finland), a provider of open and portable OEM GPS Software Development Kit environments has announced that Fastrax will add support for selected Sony GPS chipsets to the iSuite 3 Software Development Kit (SDK), and that...

Fujitsu Siemens.(HARDWARE)
May 1, 2005... Fujitsu Siemens (Munich, Germany) is set to launch a workstation laptop, the Celsius H230, designed primarily for professional graphics applications, such as GIS, CAD and visualisation. It features professional standard graphics and...

Gizmondo Europe Ltd.(HARDWARE)
May 1, 2005... Gizmondo Europe Ltd (Farnborough, UK) has launched its "multi-entertainment device", Gizmondo, in the UK with the opening of a flagship store in London. The Win-CE based unit combines a 400MHz processor, 64MB of memory and a graphics card with...

Intelliscan Ltd.(HARDWARE)
May 1, 2005... Intelliscan Ltd (Aberdeen, UK) and Destiny (Surrey, UK) have joined forces to bring a digital pen and paper (DP & P) solution to the UK market. The DP & P solution includes a digital pen which contains an infrared camera, image processor and...

MD Robotics.(HARDWARE)
May 1, 2005... MD Robotics (Ontario, Canada) has developed instant Scene Modeler (iSM), an "artificial vision system" to scan crime scenes, explore hazardous environments and to autonomously service satellites on orbit. The system creates 3D, photrealistic...

Sequoia Technology.(HARDWARE)
May 1, 2005... A single-chip A-GPS solution which allows the addition of location-based functionality to mobile devices, has been announced by Sequoia Technology (Reading, UK). The SiRF GSC3 and GSC3f save board space by combining the functions of several...

Trimble.(HARDWARE)
May 1, 2005... Trimble (California, USA) has launched the LM80 Layout Manager for use with servo and robotic total stations for construction layout. The pocket-sized unit provides concrete and general construction contractors the ability to carry site...

ESRI.(SOFTWARE)
May 1, 2005... ESRI (California, USA) has announced that its PLTS for ArcGIS 9 Defense Solution is now shipping. "With Defense Solution, our users can achieve significant time savings when performing large-scale database production and maintenance projects...

Microsoft.(SOFTWARE)
May 1, 2005... Microsoft (Washington, USA) has released MapPoint Fleet Edition 2004, with licensing options for customers who locate, track and manage fleets with MapPoint 2004. Customers are only required to purchase a MapPoint Fleet licence for each...

Trimble Outdoors.(SOFTWARE)
May 1, 2005... Trimble Outdoors (California, USA), a service to provide mapping and geographic data for PCs and GPS-enabled mobile phones, has been built using ESRI's ArcWeb Services. The Trimble Outdoors service is based on blogging functionality, allowing...