vol 3 num 1


from VizMAP – letting you see where you stand…

Volume 3- Number 1
Contents

About VizMAP

VizMAP Pty Ltd, is a leading supplier of terrain Visualisation and related services to the defence, GIS, environmental, mapping, mining and exploration industries, engineering and construction firms, developers and planners, as well as government administration departments dealing with land, transportation and the environment.

VizMAP’s products are designed to be run on reasonably to highly configured graphics computers (PC, Linux and Unix) for public display, group training, mission rehearsal, environmental monitoring, etc. and to enhance management decision making. 

VizMAP is headquartered on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast (Australia) with affiliation in Asia, Europe, Africa and the USA and thereby provides support and services to customers worldwide. 

If you need to visualise anything geographic, e-mail VizMAP here with the details. 

For more information about VizMAP visit the VizMAP Web site at http://www.vizmap.com.au.

VirtualGeography
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A Moment’s Notice
"Everyone else is envisioning a future of 32-bit deep bump-mapped lizard-skin scrollbars that adapt to the users mood by imperceptibly alpha-blending through a range of chromatic combinations not repeating in 3^18 years.  Needs hardware acceleration, anaglyptic glasses, and 2 aspirin." — Phil EhrensThis is funny too ;-)

VirtualGeography – the newsletter

G’Day… and Welcome to VirtualGeography
from here
Welcome to another free VirtualGeography from VizMAP Pty Ltd. 

Better late than never, and from now on in a printer friendly format…

VirtualGeography is a collection of interesting snippets from all over the shop, dealing with industry issues concerning the computer based visualisation of geography and a few other associated (or otherwise) interesting bits and pieces. You are receiving this either because you subscribed to VirtualGeography or you have had recent dealings with VizMAP Pty Ltd. If you do not wish to receive further instalments of VirtualGeography, just click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this e-mail. 

It is planned that a new VirtualGeography is pushed out every now and then when I’ve collated enough interesting bits and pieces, which shouldn’t be too big a drain on your mailbox if you’re not already subscribed (of course it won’t be a drain on your mailbox if you ARE subscribed, either This is funny ;-)). The regularity of the distribution may vary depending on what else is going on at VizMAP at the time. If you know of anyone who might like to get VirtualGeography, feel free to forward this to them and ask them to subscribe. By the way, subscription and unsubscription details are at the bottom (click here).

So, g’day to all you enthusiasts requiring to visualise and simulate both urban and rural geographic information (GIS), cartography, photogrammetry, remote sensing, digital elevation modelling (DEM) and general mapping.

By the spelling of "Visualisation" you may have already guessed that we’re not US based – that’s a good thing, or at least not a bad thing. This comes to you from Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia, where it’s beautiful one day and perfect the next.

The link between visualisation and mapping may seem a little esoteric if this is your first encounter with this sort of stuff, but let me tell you, the bond is significant… but enough of that: on with the show… I hope you like it. Any feedback you might have is highly appreciated. E-mail me here to make your comments.

Enjoy…

Graeme Brooke
VizMAP Pty Ltd
 

P.S. You’ll need an active internet connection to view any images that are in the content. We’ve done it this way to keep the size of the e-mail to a minimum.

 
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The Industry’s Two Cents Worth…

TerraSim Awarded Phase II SBIR to develop DEM Fusion Technology 
from TerraSim
TerraSim, Inc. has been awarded a Phase II SBIR entitled "Automated Fusion of Digital Elevation Models" by the U.S. Army, to develop and commercialize technology allowing users of digital elevation models (DEMs) to merge multiple disparate sources of elevation data into consistent large area terrain models suitable for visualization, flood management planning, mission rehearsal and training, and large area mapping.

"We’re quite pleased and excited to have been selected for a Phase II award," said Dr. Chris McGlone, Director of Mapping and Civil Applications. "We believe that DEM fusion represents an important and challenging topic, given the need to accommodate DEMs derived from a wide variety of sources. Airborne LIDAR, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), scanned maps, and photogrammetrically derived contours and grids all represent increasingly popular elevation data sources, and there is a strong government and commercial need for tools that
can merge arbitrary DEMs in a principled manner to generate DEM products with improved accuracy and precision."

"This award makes possible the development and commercialization of fast and robust DEM fusion tools, based on our Phase I efforts," remarked Dr. Jefferey A. Shufelt, principal investigator on the SBIR project. "We are pleased to continue our work with the U.S. Army Engineer and Research Development Center (ERDC-TEC) at Fort Belvoir, whose technical members have helped to focus our efforts."

Read that full story here
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Hardcore Stuff (hardware bits)…

Boeing Slects Quantum3D Independence for Republic of Korea F-15K Distributed Mission Training System
from Quantum3D
Quantum3D Independence IG Solutions Provides Open-Architecture, High-Fidelity, Multi-Channel Realtime Visual Computing Solution for Boeing F-15K DMT System

SAN JOSE, CALIF. – March 10, 2004 – Quantum3D®, Inc., a leading provider of open architecture, realtime 3D visual computing solutions for the Visual Simulation and Training (VST) and Embedded Visual Computing (EVC) markets, announced today that the Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) has selected Quantum3D Independence™ as the image generator (IG) solution for the F-15K Training System, which consists of a F-15K Weapon Systems Trainer (WST) and a Cockpit Procedures Trainer (CPT). The Training System is part of a contract recently awarded to Boeing by the Republic of Korea (ROK), in which the ROK will purchase 40 F-15K aircraft and associated equipment. 

For each F-15K training system, Quantum3D will deliver two eleven-channel Independence IGs and spares to Boeing, which will be deployed to the ROK beginning in January 2005. The F-15K selection of Independence follows Boeing’s prior selection of Quantum3D IG Solutions for numerous flight and weapons system training programs including F-15E MTC, T-38 ATD, F-15 CTSS and F-15C DMT systems. For more information on the F-15K program, please visit http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2002/q2/nr_020419m.html. 

Read that full story here
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Softcore Stuff (software and data bits)…

About GeoVRML 
from GeoVRML
GeoVRML is an official Working Group of the Web3D Consortium. It was formed on 27 Feb 1998 with the goal of developing tools and recommended practice for the representation of geographical data using the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML). The desire is to enable geo-referenced data, such as maps and 3-D terrain models, to be viewed over the web by a user with a standard VRML plugin for their web browser. 

The GeoVRML Working Group has a mailing list where discussions and developments are posted. Currently, this list consists of over 200 members drawn from a wide gamut of backgrounds and nationalities, including members from industry, government, and academia; geographers, geologists, computer graphics developers, and of course interested hobbyists. 

The group has recently produced the GeoVRML 1.1 specification, providing a number of extensions to VRML for supporting geographic applications. There is also an accompanying Open Source Java sample implementation of these nodes. Finally, these nodes are part of Amendment 1 to the VRML97 ISO standard. 

Read that full story here
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A Recent Outing…

Brisbane Flood 
from VizMAP
VizMAP recently performed an exercise using Landsat imagery over the Brisbane region to show flood regions (shown in transparent red). TerraTools 2.0 from TerraSim was used to create the vis/sim database. The viewer used here was TerraSim’s new TSGFly version 3.0. New functionality added to TSGFly 3.0 is the incorporation of an overview map, a compass, a skydome complete with moving clouds and sun position with lens flare.

Sample still images from the completed dynamic visualisation database are displayed here. An active internet connection is required to be able to view these scenes.
 

Click on these small resampled images to view the full screen images on the VizMAP website. Bear in mind that these are just screen dumps from a dynamic, interactive, 3D "flythrough".
If you have a need to dynamically visualise your geographic data, let VizMAP know your requirements…
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OK, That’s Different…

FutureFlight Central Goes to Mars!
from NASA
A new Mars database using 3D images from the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) mission will be installed in FutureFlight Central in the near future. Digital stereo images now being transmitted from the rover Spirit will be processed by VIZ, a software tool developed by NASA Ames, and displayed in FutureFlight’s 360-degree projection environment. VIZ is the same visualization tool used at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to support the operational mission. 

FutureFlight will enable a unique 360-degree out-the-window visualization of Mars. The view will be based on the rover’s perspective but viewers can adopt other perspective and thus effectively move through the scene. This ability to smoothly navigate through the scene provides a three dimensional sense and an immediate visceral understanding of the remote environment.

The new database will be of higher fidelity than previously available from the Mars Pathfinder landing site; the stereo color images from the rover, Spirit, are of higher resolution and these images will be combined in the new database with high-resolution images from the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter.

The panoramic presentation of images acquired by the rover can provide mission scientists an improved situational and positional awareness of the rover in its remote environment. This is in contrast to what is provided now: an elongated hard copy print, stereo images viewed through red/green spectacles or a series of TV monitor presentations.

Read that full story here
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Whazzup Next – with 20/20 Foresight…

Stuff to look out for in March, April, May & June
 

Legend
Included in last issue…
Updated since last issue…
New since last issue…

This calendar of events has been collated from:

March 2004
March 1 – 2 Biotech Patenting Munich, Germany
March 1 – 4 Third European Geosynthetics Conference, EuroGeo 3: Geotechnical Engineering with Geosynthetics Munich, Germany
March 2 GITA (Regional Workshop) Auckland, NZ
March 2 – 5 SATELLITE 2004 Washington DC, USA 
March 3 6th Annual Southern African MapInfo User Conference Sandton, South Africa
March 3 – 5 Wisconsin Land Information Association Annual Conference Wisconsin Dells,Wisconsin, USA
March 3 – 5 INTERGEO-EAST Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
March 7 – 10 EARTH & SPACE 2004 – 9th Biennial International League City, Texas USA
March 9 – 10 UK Crime Mapping Conference London, United Kingdom
March 11 – 12 FME Training Course Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
March 13 – 18 EuroConference on Methods to Support Interaction in Geovisualisation Environments  Kolymbari, Crete, Greece
March 14 – 19 AAG Centennial Meeting Philadelphia, PA USA
March 15 – 16 Export Controls London, UK
March 15 – 19 14th International Conference on Engineering Surveying Zurich, SWITZERLAND 
March 16 GeoNorth Manchester, UK
March 17 – 18 GIS Connecting Communities – The 12th MAC-URISA Regional GIS Piscataway, NJ USA
March 22 – 23 Seventeenth Annual Geographic Information Sciences Conference – TUGIS 2004 Towson, MD USA
23-24 March Web Enabled GIS Strategies Conference 2004  Sydney, NSW, Australia
March 23 – 25 A Joint GOFC/GOLD Fire and CEOS LVP Workshop "Global Geostationary Fire Monitoring Applications" Darmstadt, GERMANY 
March 24 GIS Tech 2004 Rotterdam, The Netherlands
March 24 – 25 APAS (Association of Public Authority Surveyors) Conference The Entrance, NSW
March 26 Wireless GIS and Location Based Services Bristol, United Kingdom
March 26 – 28 NSGIC Midyear Conference Reston, VA, USA
March 28 – 31 Integrating GIS & CAMA Conference Austin, TX USA
March 28 – 31 The GeoTec Event — Pathways to Integration Toronto, Ontario, Canada
March 28 – 31 GIS-T Rapid City, South Dakota, USA
March 28 – April 1 Water: Planning for the Future (Australian Water Association, part of Enviro 04) Sydney, NSW Australia
March 28 – April 1 Enviro 04 Sydney, NSW Australia
March 29 – 31 4th International Symposium on Mobile Mapping Technology Kunming, China
March 29 – April 1 20th National Space Symposium  Colorado Springs, CO USA
March 30 MapWorld User Forums Perth, WA Australia
March 31 – April 2 8th International Symposium on 3-D Analysis of Human Movement Tampa, Florida, USA 

April 2004
1 April MapWorld User Forums Canberra, ACT Australia
1-2 Apr 2004  RSPSoc Annual Student Meeting 2004 Edinburgh, Scotland, UK 
1-2 Apr 2004  FME Training Course Toronto ON Canada
3-8 April South Central Arc User Group Conference Irving, TX USA
5 April MapWorld User Forums Brisbane, Qld, Australia
5 April MapWorld User Forums Hobart, Tas, Australia
6 April MapWorld User Forums Sydney, NSW Australia
7 April MapWorld User Forums Melbourne, Vic Australia
12-16 April APS April Meeting 2004 Orlando, FL USA
13-14 April Tennessee Geographic Information Council Annual Conference Franklin, TN USA
14-16 April 14th Annual Nevada NGIS Conference Las Vegas, NV USA
15 Apr  Basic GIS Coordinates Seminar Springfield, Illinois USA
15 Apr  GO! Sync for ArcPad Webinar WWW
15-16 Apr  FME Training Course Denver, CO USA
15-16 Apr  ESRI Regional User Conference Calgary, AB Canada
15-17 Apr 2004  International Symposium on Spatial Data Quality
ISSDQ 2004
Bruck an der Leitha, AUSTRIA 
16-21 Apr 2004  ACSM-TAPS 2004 Annual Conference and Technology Exhibition Nashville, TN USA
18-22 Apr 2004  2004 MidAmerica GIS Symposium (MAGIC) Kansas City, Missouri USA
19-23 Apr  2004 INTERMOUNTAIN GIS CONFERENCE  Billings, MT USA
20 Apr 2004 Wireless China 2004 Roadshow Shanghai, China
20 Apr 2004 Delaware GIS 2004 Conference Dover, Delaware USA
21-23 Apr 2004 MeCEO 2004
1st Mediterranean Conference on Earth Observation (Remote Sensing)
Belgrade, SERBIA-MONTENEGRO
21-23 Apr  FL Joint Mapping Conference Daytona Beach, FL USA
22 Apr 2004 Wireless China 2004 Roadshow Chengdu, China
22 Apr 2004 MapWorld 2004 Toronto, Canada
23-24 April Inaugural Queensland SSI Conference: Queensland Spatial Information Infrastructure Council (QSIIC) in association with SSI  Brisbane, Qld Australia
24-28 April APA National Planning Conference  Washington, D.C., USA
25-28 April 27th Annual GITA  Seattle, WA US 
25-30 Apr 2004 European Geosciences Union 1st General Assembly Nice, FRANCE 
27 Apr 2004 Wireless China 2004 Roadshow Shenzhen, China
28-29 Apr  FME Training Course Brisbane Qld Australia

May 2004
3-4 May ESRI Regional User Conference – North Bay North Bay, ON Canada
4 May ESRI – Solutions for Local Government Melbourne, Vic Australia
4-6 May ExpoGPS 2004: 1st International GPS Technology Congress and Exhibition São Paulo, Brazil
4-6 May GEOBrazil 2004: 5th Annual International Conference on GeoInformation  São Paulo, Brazil
4-7 May International Workshop on Administrating the Marine Environment – the Spatial Dimensions; PCGIAP – Working Group 3 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 
5-7 May Land Development Conference & Expo 2004  Baltimore, MD USA
5-7 May Impacts of Improving the Positional Accuracy of GI Databases Dublin, Ireland 
6-7 May FME Training Course Surrey, BC Canada
10-11 May 2004 Location Technology & Business Intelligence Executive Symposium Philadelphia, PA, USA
10-14 May 2004 IV International Congress GEOMATICA 2004 "Geospatial Technology: Trends and Opportunities"  Havana, CUBA 
11-12 May Twelfth Annual Pennsylvania GIS Conference  Harrisburg, PA USA
12 May MapWorld User Forums Darwin, NT Australia
12-13 May ESRI – Solutions for Local Government Gold Coast, Qld Australia
12-13 May FME Training Course Sydney, NSW Australia
12-14 May Geospatial World 2004 (Intergraph Users Conference) Miami Beach Florida 
12-14 May GTC West Sacramento, CA USA
14-15 May 2004 Mapping the News Conference Washington, D.C., USA
17-18 May ESRI Regional User Conference – London London, ON, Canada
17-20 May 2004 URISA Caribbean GIS Conference Jamaica
19-20 May Geographic Information System (GIS) Symposium – Troy State Troy, AL, USA 
19-21 May CgA World Conference 2004  Mumbai, India
20-21 May FME Training Course Atlanta, GA USA
22-27 May 2004 FIG Working Week 2004 "The Olympic Spirit in Surveying" Athens, GREECE 
23-27 May 2004 Bentley International User Conference Orlando, FL, USA
24-27 May 2004 SimTecT 2004, Simulation – Better Than Reality? Simulation Industry Association of Australia Canberra, ACT Australia
24-28 May 2004 ASPRS Annual Conference Denver, CO USA 
25 May MapInfo Benelux Conference 2004 Ede, Netherlands
25-27 May 2004 24th EARSeL Symposium
"New Strategies for European Remote Sensing"
Dubrovnik, CROATIA 
26-27 May FME Training Course Auckland, New Zealand
28-29 May 2004 EARSeL SIG Workshop on "Remote Sensing of Land Use and Land Cover"  Dubrovnik, CROATIA 
31 May-1 June GIS for Emergency Management Sydney, NSW Australia

June 2004
1 June GITA (Regional Workshop) Brisbane, Qld Australia
7-9 June 2004 12th International Conference on Geoinformatics Geospatial Information Research: Bridging the Pacific and Atlantic  Gavle, Sweden 
9-10 June FME Training Course Canberra, ACT Australia
10 June MapWorld 2004 Chicago, Illinois, USA 
9-11 June Open Source GIS Conference 2004 and Second Annual MapServer User Meeting  Ottawa, Canada
10-11 June FME Training Course Surrey, BC Canada
20-23 June 2004 ISPRS IC WG II/IV
97th Annual Canadian Institute of Geomatics Conference 
Ottawa, CANADA 
23-24 June FME Training Course Melbourne, Vic Australia
23-24 June ESRI Regional User Conference – Penticton Penticton, BC, Canada 
23-25 June 2004 EOGEO 2004 Workshop for developers of Geospatial data services over the Web  London, UK 
23-25 June 2004 European Commission – GI & GIS Workshop Warsaw, Poland 
24 June MapWorld 2004  San Francisco, CA USA
June 28 – 29, 2004 ESRI GeoInfo Summit  Chicago, IL USA

 
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A Parting Gesture…Smile... it's free.

Rice Bush 
From Grime
We take you now to the Oval Office where President Bush is meeting with National Security Advisor Condolezza Rice:
George: Condi! Nice to see you. What’s happening?
Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.
George: Great. Lay it on me.
Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.
George: That’s what I want to know.
Condi: That’s what I am telling you.
George: That’s what I’m asking you. Who is the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes.
George: I mean the fellow’s name.
Condi: Hu.
George: The guy in China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The new leader of China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The Chinaman!
Condi: Hu is leading China.
George: Now whaddya asking me for?
Condi: I’m not asking, I’m telling you Hu is leading China.
George: Well, I’m asking you. Who is leading China?
Condi: That’s the man’s name, sir.
George: That’s who’s name?
Condi: Yes.
George: Will you or will you not tell me the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he was in the Middle East.
Condi: That’s correct.
George: Then who is in China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir is in China?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Then who is?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Look, Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of China. Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.
Condi: Kofi?
George: No, thanks.
Condi: You want Kofi?
George: No.
Condi: You don’t want Kofi?
George: No, But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And then get me the U.N.
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi?
George: Milk! Will you please make the call.
Condi: And call who?
George: Who is the guy at the U.N.?
Condi: Hu is the guy in China.
George: Will you stay out of China?!
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi.
George: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone.
(Condi picks up the phone) Rice, here.
George: Rice? Good idea. And a couple of egg rolls, too. Maybe we should send some to the guy in China. And the Middle East. Can you get Chinese food in the Middle East? 
Smile... it's free.
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…that’s all, folks! (for now).