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. 

A new VirtualGeography is pushed out about once per month, towards the end of the month, 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 ). 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 hereto 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.

WASHINGTON, DC – October 21, 2002 – Quantum3D®, Inc., today announced at the Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., a new embedded graphics subsystems design win with Saab Avionics AB for the Swedish multi-role helicopter, HKP14. Under the terms of its contract, Quantum3D will provide Saab Avionics with Sentiris(tm) PCI Mezzanine Cards (PMCs) to drive the helicopter’s digital map system, and develop a custom video/graphics subsystem to power the helicopter’s displays for advanced situational awareness information. The Sentiris PMC and other Quantum3D visual computing products and solutions will be on demonstrated in booth 729 at AUSA.

This program marks the first major avionics program win for the Sentiris PMC COTS 2D/3D embedded graphics subsystem, and another major win for Quantum3D’s Farsight nV(tm) program-the Quantum3D and NVIDIA® initiative under which Quantum3D brings NVIDIA graphics technology to the embedded visual computing market. Under the Farsight nV program, Quantum3D provides commercial and military aircraft, vehicles, vessels and transportable systems integrators and manufacturers with Quantum3D developed graphics subsystems based on NVIDIA Quadro®4 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) for realtime graphical, sensor, symbolic and imagery-based information systems used by air, ground vehicle and vessel crews to provide enhanced situational awareness and operational mission effectiveness. 

"This win further demonstrates the momentum of the Farsight nV program, and shows the versatility of our efforts with NVIDIA to deploy both custom and COTS (Sentiris PMC) designs into leading edge systems like the Swedish HKP14," said Ross Q. Smith, Quantum3D co-founder and executive vice president marketing and business development. "Saab Avionics will benefit from our NVIDIA-based graphics technology across their entire product line by its ability to provide their customers with unmatched graphics performance and enhanced capabilities." 

SAN JOSE, CA – October 17th, 2002 – Quantum3D®, Inc., a leading provider of open architecture realtime 3D visual computing platforms and solutions for the Visual Simulation and Training (VST) and Embedded Visual Computing (EVC) markets, today announced Independence(tm), the first 4th generation Image Generator (IG). Independence’s 4th generation design employs a unique "system level" implementation of Quantum3D’s Parallel Rendering Architecture (PRA(tm)) that provides industry leading realtime performance, unmatched full scene anti-aliased (FSAA) image quality and essential features that far exceed the capabilities of competitive IGs – all while preserving the open architecture and value proposition benefits that are the hallmark of Quantum3D products. 

Independence is also the first IG to feature "enterprise class" computing capabilities including "four-nines" high availability, Intrinsic Pre-Planned Product Improvement (IP3I) and comprehensive IG Management software (IGM(tm))-all of which are designed to ensure longevity of the system and reduce the user’s total cost of ownership. IGM is a comprehensive suite of system administration tools that greatly simplify IG configuration management, housekeeping and runtime management tasks via an intuitive graphical user interface. IGM provides hierarchical access and control of the IG- including all of the system’s scalable performance and image quality features. Independence’s 4th generation design uniquely supports IP3I by accommodating the ready insertion of new technology at the subsystem level. Independence’s IP3I capability addresses technology obsolescence issues that confront other IGs by enabling continuous performance and feature improvement over the life of the system. Independence is also the first IG to achieve 0.9999 ("four nines") effective availability. Independence’s high availability, which enables the system to continue operating after subsystem failures, results in significantly reduced IG downtime-typically by a factor of ten, when compared with 3rd generation or proprietary IGs. 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (October 23, 2002)-SGI (NYSE: SGI) will be showcasing advances in collaborative visualization technology and Visual Area Networking for the manufacturing and oil and gas industries at an SGI VizSummit being held in Genoa, Italy, today through Friday, October 23-25. Representatives of leading international industrial and energy companies will be among the key speakers at the event, discussing their innovative uses of SGI® visualization technologies as business tools. 

The summit brings together industry leaders who are using the latest collaborative visualization technologies to move boundaries within their fields of expertise. Techniques demonstrated and discussed include the use of immersive visualization in the styling development process, real-time analysis of large 3D seismic data and the application of visual networks to transform the future of design. 

The concept of Visual Area Networking, introduced by SGI, enables universal access to advanced visualization using any computing device over standard networks. It allows scientists and engineers to store and process data in one place; this data can then be accessed and manipulated by customers using any client device, either singly or collaboratively across existing networks. It puts high-performance computing power in the hands of scientists, engineers and creative professionals, no matter where they are located. 

"For this event, we have brought together a unique mix of customers, end users and technology partners within the manufacturing and energy markets to share and develop new innovations in high-performance visualization," commented SGI’s Steve Coggins, senior vice president, Europe, Middle East and Africa. 

"Through live demonstrations and discussion groups, we will be showing organizations how they can easily adopt cutting-edge visualization technologies as business tools to build better cars or drill for oil," he added. "Visualization technology is evolving at a rapid pace, and SGI will show how it continues to be at the cutting edge, including presentations around new developments in Visual Area Networking." 

"Imagine being able to walk down the streets of Paris, seeing the sights and hearing the sounds around you, without leaving your home. You are able to converse with a friend who is also online, and the two of you decide to fly to Tahiti together.  As you travel around the globe, you stop momentarily at places of interest to view three-dimensional (3D) representations of local structures, learn about representative works of art, browse historical information for the area, or view real-time video and audio feeds of local events.  Apart from its entertainment value, the educational, environmental, and societal benefits of such a facility are enormous."

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". 

Just about anyone or anything can be associated with a known location in the world…a street address, a service region, a climatic zone, a voting district, a latitude/longitude coordinate. Geographic information systems (GIS) software is the ideal tool for extracting the patterns and trends inherent in location-based information.

Mapmaking and geographic analysis are not new, but a GIS performs these tasks better and faster than do the old manual methods. And, before GIS technology, only a few people had the skills necessary to use geographic information to help with decision making and problem solving.

Today, GIS is a multibillion-dollar industry employing hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. GIS is taught in schools, colleges, and universities throughout the world. Professionals in every field are increasingly aware of the advantages of thinking and working geographically.

• DirectionsMag Events
• GeoCommunity Year 2002 Events  
• GISCafe Upcoming Events 
• GIS User Calendar of Events 
• Geoinformatics Calendar  
• ISPRS Events Calendar  

Seeing this, the second man prayed to God, saying, "Please God, give me the strength …and the tools to cross this river." POOF! God gave him a rowboat and he was able to row across the river in about an hour, after almost capsizing the boat a couple of times.

The third man had seen how this worked out for the other two, so he also prayed to God saying, "Please God, give me the strength and the tools…and the intelligence…to cross this river."

And POOF! God turned him into a geographer. He looked at the map, hiked upstream a couple of hundred metres, then walked across the bridge.