November 2012 : GNSS

Publication: 10

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R.N.I No - UPENG/2010/34153 R e g i s t r a t i o n n o : U P / G B D - 1 3 6 / 2 0 11 - 1 3 YOUR GEOSPATIAL INDUSTRY MAGAZINE

www.geospatialworld.net NOVEMBER 2012 VOL 03 ISSUE 04 ISSN 2277 - 3134

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Inside...

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ARTICLES FDI/India:

Big reforms, bigger money?

Anusuya Datta

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GNSS:

In pole position John Pottle

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Interference/Jamming:

Signal barred Dr Heidi Kuusniemi and Dr Mohammad Zahidul H Bhuiyan

FIRST PERSON

Strumming a geospatial tune!

Ola Rollen CEO, Hexagon AB

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LBS:

Ubiquity is the name of the game Ashutosh Pande

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Intelligent Geospatial Systems:

CHAIRMAN

M P Narayanan

How far is Hal-Nav?

PUBLISHER

Sanjay Kumar

Stephan Winter

PUBLICATIONS TEAM Managing Editor Business Editor Editor - Latin America (Honorary) Sr. Associate Editor (Honorary) Executive Editor Deputy Executive Editor Product Manager Assistant Editors Sub-Editor

Prof. Arup Dasgupta Bob M. Samborski Tania Maria Sausen Dr. Hrishikesh Samant Bhanu Rekha Anusuya Datta Shivani Lal Deepali Roy, Vaibhav Arora Ridhima Kumar

DESIGN TEAM Sr. Creative Designer

Deepak Kumar

CIRCULATION TEAM Circulation Manager

Vijay Kumar Singh

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CASE STUDY US: To be precise

INTERVIEW

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D ISCLAIMER Geospatial World does not necessarily subscribe to the views expressed in the publication. All views expressed in this issue are those of the contributors. Geospatial World is not responsible for any loss to anyone due to the information provided.

OWNER, PUBLISHER & PRINTER Sanjay

Kumar PRINTED AT M. P. Printers B - 220, Phase-II, Noida - 201 301, Gautam Budh Nagar (UP) INDIA PUBLICATION ADDRESS A - 92, Sector - 52, Gautam Budh Nagar, Noida, India

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Dr Wubbo J Ockels "Geospatial tech can help create a waste-free society" 07 Editorial

PRICE: INR 150/US$ 15

08 News

COVER IMAGE COURTESY Astrium Navigation Systems & Applications

Abbas Rajabifard President, GSDI Association

Greg Bentley CEO, Bentley Systems

Juergen Dold President, Hexagon Geosystems

Preetha Pulusani Chief Strategy Officer, Rolta Group

Aida Opoku Mensah Director - ICT Division UN Economic Commission for Africa

Prof Ian Dowman First Vice President ISPRS

Kamal K Singh Chairman and CEO Rolta Group

Shailesh Nayak Secretary Ministry of Earth Sciences Government of India

Bryn Fosburgh Vice President Trimble

Jack Dangermond President, Esri

Mark Reichardt President and CEO Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

Vanessa Lawrence CB Director General and CEO, Ordnance Survey, UK

Derek Clarke Chief Director-Survey and Mapping & National Geospatial Information Department of Rural Development & Land Reform, South Africa

Josef Strobl Director, Centre for Geoinformatics, University of Salzburg, Austria

Matthew M O'Connell President and CEO GeoEye

Geospatial World I November 2012

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EditorSpeak

Location: Intelligence inside "Most travellers hurry too much...the great thing is to try and travel with the eyes of the spirit wide open, and not too much factual information." — Lawrence Durrell in Spirit of Place. s I sit to write this editorial, Hurricane Sandy is in the news. Where is it going to make landfall, which are the areas likely to be affected, where are the shelters? In each of these questions, the dominant word is 'where'. Location is the most powerful aspect of geospatial data and the determination of location is thus a technological challenge. While we have moved far from the early days of navigation by stars, compass, chronometer and sextant to modern systems like GNSS, the principles remain essentially the same but the applications have moved beyond navigation. Indeed, we can now experience the spirit of remote places through these technologies.

A

The greatest game changer has been the availability of cheap GNSS receivers which find place in personal devices like cameras and cell phones. Personalised location-based services have thus become a booming industry. It has also made geospatial systems participatory through VGI and neogeographers. Location is now turning intelligent and can be activated through speech. Adding virtual reality to location results in a very interactive identification of points of interest.

At a professional level, GNSS has revolutionised surveying, design and engineering, asset tracking, transportation management, health care, disaster management and defence.

Where next? The United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has successfully demonstrated that cars can navigate autonomously at realistic speeds using a raft of technologies including GNSS. Efforts are on to enable sketches and voice messages as inputs to C4ISR systems to describe battlefield situations and identify target locations. Car navigation systems do provide voice instructions. Imagine a situation where the driver can command the device through simple sentences like "navigate to the nearest gas station". As Ashutosh Pande comments, location must become pervasive and, I might add, persistent.

Prof. Arup Dasgupta Managing Editor arup@geospatialmedia.net

However, there are challenges. The portion of the spectrum carrying the GNSS signals is crowded with other satellite and terrestrial services. The biggest enemy to the GNSS is the crowding and resultant degradation of service. While there are stringent specifications on spectrum use, rogue elements or accidental spill-over can be damaging. As applications grow, the need to regulate the spectrum usage becomes more and more important. However, regulation of the usage of technology is another matter.

Geospatial World I November 2012

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NEWS agement Satellite Constellation (ARMC), the country is planning to develop a 250-400 kg earth observation (EO) satellite, announced the

N IG E R IA

Online LIS soon The Lagos State GIS and mapping system will go online before the end of 2012 to speed up land documentation. The present land documentation system is slow due to physical submission and retrieval of land information for processing land titles, particularly the certificate of occupancy (CofO). The base station is ready and will become operational once some issues are resolved. The Surveyor General of Lagos State, Joseph Olorunjuwon Ajenla, said his mission was to integrate data from the land registry, land information systems and GIS to have a robust land registry.

SOUTH AFR ICA

New EO satellite soon In a bid to contribute to the African Resource and Environmental Man-

of media professionals from the western, eastern and southern Africa to educate them on the use of geospatial information in the newsroom. The media professionals pledged to promote the creation of National Geospatial Science Journalists Association in their respective countries.

SWAZ I LAN D Image courtesy: NASA

Department of Science and Technology (DST). The proposed new satellite will operate from a low earth orbit and have a planned lifespan of seven years. The satellite is expected to serve the environmental decision making needs of the South African government.

Media to promote geospatial technology The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has established a forum aimed at enhancing the capacity of the media in the promotion, advocacy and awareness-creation of GIS in the African continent. The UNECA even organised training for a select group

WHO's GIS-based aid for tuberculosis The World Health Organization (WHO) has handed over a GIS-based patient mapping equipment to the National TB Unit at an event held at the National TB Hospital in Manzini.

Dr Owen Kaluwa from the WHO said patient support remained one of the most critical elements of the care for all tuberculosis patients given the lengthy duration of treatment in this disease, mainly in the case of multidrug resistant cases (MDX). "Tracking lost patients for follow-ups and reengaging them could potentially save many lives and curb transmission of TB," he added. The equipment handed over includes 4 units of computers and 10 units of the GIS equipment.

G HANA

Geospatially enabled Africa envisaged Organised for the first time in Ghana, the 7th Africa Geospatial Forum, saw experts deliberating on various issues that plague Africa and how GIS technology can be used to tackle those challenges. The experts felt that while there is enough know-how in the region to implement geospatial technology, the need is to unite the disjointed efforts and work towards a common cause for the overall benefit of the region. The conference was jointly organised by Geospatial Media and Communications and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.

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Geospatial World I November 2012

USD 18-mn govt aid for Spacesat

CH I NA

Tougher penalties on illegal mapping Foreigners carrying out illegal surveys, mapping without permission or marking the location of key facilities without authorisation, will face tougher penalties amid measures to enhance security of strategic areas.

Tackling these activities and the requisite punishment is under discussion as authorities draft amendments to the National Surveying and Mapping Law. The draft will consider criminal liability in cases where illegal surveys were carried out and endangered Chinese citizens. Almost 40 illegal surveying and mapping cases were detected between 2006 and 2011.

ITU to resolve navigation dispute China and Europe have agreed to take their dispute over satellite navigation frequencies to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) by the end of this year, a senior European Commission official has said.

China and the European Union (EU) have signed a joint statement on space technology cooperation that indicates they will try to work out a long-standing dispute over the overlay of an encrypted Beidou signal planned for government/military use on the same frequency as Galileo's proposed public-regulated service (PRS).

Geospatial World I November 2012

China Spacesat Corporation Limited, the nation's key developer of small satellites, said it would receive CNY 116 million (USD 18.3 million) in government financial support. The fund will help increase the company's research and development capabilities in satellite applications and boost its competitiveness and profitability. Four projects, run by the company or its subsidiaries, have been declared as support targets of a national fund developed to foster the country's strategic emerging industries.

More accurate navigation system China is building a highly accurate navigation system, Xihe. The National Remote Sensing Centre of China said Xihe had been successfully tested to pinpoint positions within 0.1 metre in outdoor and 3 metre in indoor areas.

The system is based on a technology known as CRP, or cooperative realtime precise positioning, which is designed to enhance the accuracy of navigation satellite systems.

I N DIA

'ISRO maps more accurate than Google' ISRO maps and data are much more up to date and have higher resolution than Google maps, S Sudhakar, Director, North East Space Application Centre (NESAC) said at a workshop on space-based information support for decentralised planning.

Nominations invited for young scientists In order to encourage young scientists, Rachapudi Kamakshi Memorial Trust has instituted Rachapudi Kamakshi Memorial gold medal for 'Young Geospatial Scientist'. The award will be presented during the India Geospatial Forum, which will be held in January 2013 at Hyderabad. Nomina-

Previous winner receiving the award

tions are invited from scientists, engaged in research work in any of the areas related to GIS and technology, who is not more than 35 years of age, as on December 31, 2012. The last date for receipt of the nominations is December 31, 2012. Those interested can mail their nominations to Dr Hrishikesh P Samant at hrishikesh.samant@xaviers.edu.

Allaying fears prevailing among government officials regarding use of ISRO maps and data, Sudhakar pointed out that only certified maps were released to the public domain with accuracy and proper scrutiny.

The workshop called for utilisation of vital data and maps made available

by ISRO through state-level remote sensing centres for decentralised planning at state, district and block levels.

9

Tracking trains in real time via Rail Radar The Indian Railways has launched online application RailRadar, http://railradar.trainenquiry.com, where one can find the exact geo-

ing (LiDAR) technology for a more accurate mapping of the land surface area. Using this technology, civic officials and elected representatives will be able to determine where road repairs and constructions are necessary and identify the nature of structures, such as encroachments, that may be causing bottlenecks.

Image courtesy: Rail Radar

GLONASS centre set up in Mumbai

graphical location of about 6,500 trains on a Google Map on a realtime basis. Trains running on time are displayed in blue while those running late are shown in red. Clicking on a train shows the status of the train and also the route.

LiDAR to aid road maintenance In an attempt to modernise its land surveying, the road department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) of Mumbai city is planning to adopt the light detection and rang-

The first demonstration centre of the Russian company GLONASS Navigation and Information Systems (NIS GLONASS) has opened in Mumbai.

The establishment of the centre confirms the company's plans of launching production and developing software for the Indian market. "If our business is successful, we might open another two new full-fledged centres in India's key regions and small centres at the offices of our regional partners," said Vladimir Finov, Director, India-GLONASS programme.

Telecom major to use GLONASS services Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is expected to sign a memo-

randum of understanding with Sistema. The Russian major will offer satellite navigation services to BSNL via Russia's GLONASS. BSNL may initially start a pilot project to test the service before going commercial. BSNL will be able to offer free customer services like emergency services, transport monitoring, city bus fleet management and accident response system through GLONASS.

'BIM integral to Delhi's ATC tower' London-based architectural firm HOK is heavily relying on building information modelling (BIM) to design an air traffic control (ATC) tower at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGAI) in Delhi. "BIM allows an architect to create a digital model of their designs, giving unprecedented insight into how a building will work long before it's even built. It improves our ability to stress test our designs and undertake much more detailed and advanced feasibility testing," said project lead, Anthony Leslie. Construction is currently under way and the new ATC tower will be operational by 2014.

'GAGAN can cut fuel cost by 20 pc'

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Image courtesy: SXBluegps.com

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will launch GPS-aided GEO-Augmented Navigation System (GAGAN) in July 2013. S Sundara Raman, Executive Director (Communication, Navigation & Surveillance), AAI, said “airlines can save 20 per cent on their fuel costs," with the launch.

A senior SpiceJet technical official said airlines don't take a straight line between two destinations. "After GAGAN, we will have what is called 'freedom flights', leading to reduced fuel burn by 18-20 per cent," he explained. GAGAN will also help the AAI by increasing its revenues from air-navigation services by 2015.

Geospatial World I November 2012

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Monitoring illegal mining via satellite Tamil Nadu is all set to go hi-tech to curb encroachments with its mining tenement registry through GIS and satellite images. A comprehensive database of mining tenements in mineral bearing areas in various districts will be prepared. The registry will also provide satellite images of cities and villages with survey numbers along with details of mining leases.

PAKISTAN

Japanese aided GIS centre inaugurated Law Minister Arshad Abdullah inaugurated the first GIS laboratory for digitisation of land records in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The facility to computerise the land record was completed as a pilot project with the assistance from the UN agency, the UN-Habitat, under the Pakistan Settlements Flood Recovery Project for which funds of PKR 9.5 million were provided by the government of Japan. This is the first time that land records will be computerised and replaced by satellite images and maps for ensur-

ing transparency and accountability of land record keeping in Pakistan.

KAZAKHSTAN

Oil firm tracks workers using RFID Agip Kazakhstan North Caspian Operating Company (Agip KCO) is deploying radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to track the location of its personnel throughout the facility. The system is provided by British offshore tracking solutions company S3 ID. The system, which uses real-time location system (RTLS) hardware, is expected to go live during the first quarter of 2013.

Through RFID, Agip KCO will be able to quickly locate personnel during an emergency, as well as ensure that all staff members leave the hazardous area safely.

PH I LI PPI N ES

Mobile app for real-time flood alerts The Philippine government has launched a mobile phone application which can provide real-time informa-

tion on rainfall and flooding to the general public. The Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards, which aims to provide information about bad weather to mitigate disasters launched its website in July.

Now, a free mobile phone application has been added.

THAI LAN D

Initiative to strengthen space technology Asia Pacific countries have launched a five-year campaign aimed at promoting greater use of space technology and GIS for improved disaster risk reduction and management as well as to minimise the environmental costs of economic growth in the region. The Asia-Pacific Years of Action for Applications of Space Technology and the GIS for Disaster Risk Reduction and Sustainable Development 2012-2017 was proclaimed by Asia-Pacific countries meeting at the 68th annual session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). The Asia-Pacific Years of Action aims to increase relevant activities at the national, subregional and regional levels.

JAPAN The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is scheduled to launch ALOS-2, an advanced land observation satellite, in 2013. The high-resolution imaging satellite will monitor ship movement near the disputed Senkaku Islands and Takeshima islets.

ALOS-2 is equipped with high-performance radar with a resolution of 1-3 metres. The radar can monitor a 2,320-kilometre-wide surface area. The satellite was designed for missions that required radar imagery to map territory and to monitor disaster areas.

ALOS-2 can capture day and night images and see through clouds.

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Image courtesy: JAXA

EO satellite for marine surveillance

Geospatial World I November 2012

deployment of the remaining operational satellites.

FRANCE

UK

Insurers look to EO for flood monitoring

New technique to up GNSS accuracy

In an innovative business approach, a consortium of insurers and reinsurers, including Swiss Re, Munich Re, Allianz, Willis and Guy Carpenter, has teamed up with Zurich-based PERILS to assess real-time flood extent based on data from a constellation of six European and Canadian remote sensing satellites. During the next 12 months, the inundation area of significant floods will be delivered to a web-based platform hosted by PERILS for the business partners.

This trial is part of ESA's activities to develop the industrial use of earth observation-based services to stimulate growth within the European service sector.

Researchers at the Nottingham Geospatial Institute (NGI) have developed a new technique that improves GNSS positioning accuracy under the adverse tracking circumstances that arise during ionospheric disruptions.

The technique improves position estimates without using external models to predict the distorting scintillation effects.

The technique uses information that can be extracted from any GNSS receiver in real-time as it 'senses' the effects of the ionosphere. This information can then be applied to counter ionospheric disturbances that currently limit the accuracy attainable by the PPP technology.

Two more Galileo satellites launched The third and fourth satellites of the Galileo global navigation satellite system were lofted into orbit from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. They join the first pair of satellites launched a year ago to complete the validation phase of the Galileo programme. These satellites were built by a consortium led by Astrium as prime contractor, with Thales Alenia Space in charge of assembly, integration and testing.

With four identical satellites now in orbit, ESA will be able to demonstrate the performance of the Galileo positioning system fully before the

Geospatial World I November 2012

'LBS revenues set to cross USD 4 bn in 2012' Analysts at ABI Research have predicted that location-based service (LBS) revenues are on course to break USD 4-billion mark in 2012.

The GPS-enabled health and fitness market continues to grow strongly with application downloads expected to break the 100-million mark in 2012. Revenues currently remain low as companies move to a 'freemium' model to build presence, but it is a sector that has huge potential, with fitness device partnerships expected in 2013.

Harpoon to pull out old satellites Engineers at Astrium UK are developing a system to harpoon redundant satellites and pull them out of the sky. The harpoon will be fired at the satellite from close range, a propulsion pack tethered to the projectile will then pull the junk downwards, to burn up in the atmosphere. "Space has become a critical part of our infrastructure - from weather

Image courtesy: BBC

forecasting and earth observation, to GPS and telecommunications," said the harpoon's designer, Dr Jaime Reed from Astrium UK. “Space junk poses a real threat to these vital services if we do nothing about it so it is very important that we develop capture technologies to remove some of this material," he added.

Companies recognise value of big data: Survey Almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of the UK and Ireland (UKI) businesses recognise the competitive advantage associated with big data, a report released by IBM and the SaĂŻd School of Business at the University of Oxford has found. This marks a significant increase with just over a third

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(34 per cent) recognising its value back in 2010. However, despite this increased appreciation, there are still key areas where UKI companies are failing to exploit the potential of big data.

OS promotes licensed map data Ordnance Survey (OS) has urged land and property professionals to use licensed maps in order to maintain their professional reputation. The agency said it was important for organisations to have the appropriate licence to effectively use mapping data. The use of older, unlicensed data, not only has legal and cost implications, but also risks damaging professional reputations, which may have taken many years to build.

ITALY

Astrium to provide video from geo orbit After five years’ of efforts, Astrium Satellites is finally close to manufacturing a geostationary-orbiting earth observation satellite, HRGeo, offering persistent 3-metre resolution video

for military and civil security customers. Military officials have said they are willing to sacrifice some image quality in exchange for persistent video coverage of a given target area. The HRGeo satellite will operate at an altitude of 36,000 km over the equator, maintaining a fixed position over a given point on earth. Built for a 10-year service life, HRGeo will be 10.3-metre high at launch and weigh 8,840 kg, providing a 100-km-wide image swath.

Image courtesy: ESA

gramme office and Spain's Indra Espacio S.A. signed a EUR 4.7-million contract to build the radar in 2010.

SPAI N CYPR US

First orbital debris test radar deployed A new radar designed to test methods for finding orbital debris that can be hazardous to space navigation has been installed in the country. The radar will be used to develop future debris warning services, helping boost safety for European satellite operators. The radar was installed near Santorcaz, about 30 km from Madrid.

The first series of acceptance and validation tests are scheduled to begin in mid-November. ESA's Space Situational Awareness (SSA) pro-

Galileo ground station to come up soon The Republic of Cyprus and the European Union (EU) signed an agreement on setting up a Galileo ground station in Cyprus. The ground station will be one of the three medium earth orbit local user terminals (MEOLUT) network. It will relay distress signals received by the Galileo satellites to rescue teams throughout the EU. The Galileo Search and Rescue (SAR) service will be one of five services to be provided by the European global navigation satellite system.

G E R MANY

Irish firm to lead ESA project

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Image courtesy: ESA

Ireland's TechWorks Marine will lead a European Space Agency (ESA) project on utilising satellite data for monitoring the quality of coastal water. The Irish Ministry for Research and Innovation is supporting this initiative. The project will combine satellite observations with data from ocean buoys to deliver timely, high-quality information for water and waste management operators. The initiative aims to improve water quality in Ireland.

Geospatial World I November 2012

AUSTRALIA

Bathymetrical survey for safe vessel transit

Image courtesy: CARIS

Computer Aided Resource Information System (CARIS) has completed a successful project for the provision of a bathymetrical database system for the Port of Melbourne Corporation (PoMC). PoMC conducts regular

bathymetric surveys as part of its statutory obligation to provide safe and effective transit of vessels through Port Waters. The project involved the integration of CARIS Bathy DataBASE and the Engineering Analysis Module into existing PoMC workflows.

Soils-to-satellites tool to help researchers Australian National Data Service (ANDS) has granted funds to cyberinfrastructure professionals from the Australian Government's National Collaboration Research Infrastructure Strategy programme (NCRIS) to build a soils-to-satellites online tool.

The tool will enable researchers to explore and display relationships

Geospatial World I November 2012

between disconnected data sets in ways not previously experienced. For example, they will be able to display 'layers' of Australian environmental data such as elevation, temperature or soil type and then 'drill down' to compare vegetation and genomics data across those layers and to perform subsequent analyses across the combined datasets.

New flood guide for Australia An agreement has been signed between Geoscience Australia and Engineers Australia to complete a revision of the Australian Rainfall and Runoff guide. The agreement forms part of a four-year programme to increase the quality, consistency and accessibility of flood risk information in response to the Natural Disaster Insurance Review. The guide formed part of a suite of products, including maps of historic floods derived from satellite imagery and a national flood portal providing a single point of access to flood studies, to be developed by Geoscience Australia. “The new guide will enable engineers to develop more accurate and detailed flood studies. This will enable them to consider the potential impact of climate-induced changes to rainfall and river flow patterns,” said Martin Ferguson, Minister, Resources and Energy.

Landgate, DEC to consolidate data Landgate partnered with the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) to provide a more current and comprehensive topographic record of Western Australia. The two agencies will combine resources and

Supercomputer to process satellite data A new supercomputer operated by the National Computing Infrastructure (NCI) will be used to provide scientists with a greater understanding of changes in Australia's landscape over the past two decades. The 1.2 petaflop Fujitsu supercomputer will be

Image courtesy: ANU

used to process large volumes of remotely sensed data collected by the European Space Agency Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites over the past 20 years.

The analysis will contribute also to the development of a dynamic geodetic coordinate system for Australia and support applications which require high quality positioning information such as mapping, construction, precision agriculture and earth sciences.

consolidate information from their separate data sets into one database, to provide a single source of topographic data for the state.

The project is expected to reduce costs, duplication, inconsistencies and time spent on maintenance.

Lesley Arnold, Landgate Manager, said the collaboration would result in a richer record of Western Australia’s roads, water courses, infrastructure and terrain.

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B USI N ESS

'EO sales to reach USD 3 bn by 2021' The market for commercial earth observation (EO) data slowed significantly in 2011 with a growth of only 6 per cent to USD 1.4 billion, following five years of strong growth of over 20 per cent from 2006 to 2010. The primary factor behind this slow growth was the stabilisation in US defence data procurement following the awards of the Enhanced View contracts by the NGA to DigitalGlobe and GeoEye, the latest research report by Euroconsult has revealed.

However, commercial data markets in South-East Asia, Latin America, Russia and CIS are all experiencing high growth rates. With these drivers supporting the industry, commercial data sales are forecasted to reach USD 3.9 billion by 2021.

Esri acquires Geoloqi Esri has announced acquisition of Geoloqi, a platform for next-generation location-based services, to form

the Esri R&D Center, Portland. The first product offering will be a geocoding enhancement to the Geoloqi API that gives three new capabilities to developers: the ability to create triggers based on physical addresses rather than map coordinates, reverse geocoding and a MapKit alternative for iOS developers based on Esri maps.

GeoEye delivers Web hosting service GeoEye has announced the delivery of new capabilities to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). GeoEye's EnhancedView Web Hosting Service (WHS) is now connected to additional government networks. This new capability will provide soldiers and intelligence analysts around the world easy access to unclassified, high-resolution earth imagery through classified and unclassified US government networks. The EnhancedView WHS provides users with online access to GeoEye and third-party earth imagery processed into highly precise foundation geospatial intelligence and base maps. New imagery will be disseminated to users through intuitive Web map interfaces.

APPLICATIONS

Video game to create real combat scenario Earthling Technology is developing a new video game, Geoception, which aims to leverage the technology of Google Earth to offer players the largest explorable map in video game history. Geoception allows players to command and control UAVs and

Image courtesy: Geoception

other combat drones in a realistic manner, anywhere in the world.

Tactical scenarios and missions can be dynamically generated at any location on the globe, providing challenging targets such as armed personnel, moving vehicles and rooftop sentry guns.

Wearable sensor system to map disaster

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Image courtesy: MIT

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a wearable sensor system that automatically creates a digital map of the environment through which the wearer is moving. The prototype system is envisioned as a tool to help emergency responders coordinate disaster response. In experiments conducted on the MIT campus, a graduate student wearing the sensor system wandered the halls and the sensors wirelessly relayed data to a laptop in a distant conference room. Observers were able to track the student's progress on a map that sprang into being as he moved.

Geospatial World I November 2012

M ISCE LLAN EOUS

Foundation to map global waste sites The Clinton Global Initiative has launched the Foundation for Sustainable Waste Resources with Esri and D-Waste to address health and environmental problems caused by billions of tonnes of waste produced worldwide. The Foundation's first initiative will be to partner with organisations, companies and NGOs to create a global map of waste management systems. The map will be created by developing a platform using IT, GIS and mobile applications.

US Army to establish data storage standard The US Army, in collaboration with the National Geospatial-Intelligence

Geospatial World I October 2012

Agency and US Marine Corps USMC), is working to establish the GroundWarfighter Geospatial Data Model (GGDM) as the ground-warfighter National System for Geospatial-Intelligence standard. GGDM will serve as one of the core components of the Army Geospatial Enterprise. The purpose of the effort is to reduce stovepipes, lower costs, simplify acquisition and accelerate transition of technology as part of a standard and shareable geospatial foundation.

ARG E NTI NA

Ground deformation in Andes revealed Satellites have detected ground deformation under-way above a major subterranean magma body in the central Andes Mountains. In a

Image Coutesy: ESA

study published in Science, scientists used radar data from the ERS and Envisat missions to study an unusual uplift near the Uturuncu volcano, which had been dormant for 270,000 years. The satellites show that the ground in this area has been rising by about 10 mm per year over the past 20 years. The surrounding area, however, is sinking at a slower rate of about 2 mm per year.

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FDI / INDIA

Big reforms, bigger money?

The Indian government’s recent reforms spree to kickstart a stagnant economy could open new vistas for geospatial industry in the country

"I am told there are people who do not care for maps, and I find it hard to believe." — Robert Louis Stevenson, The Art of Writing

S

tevenson, whose masterpiece The Treasure Island opened the first secrets of maps for us, couldn't have been more relevant today. As governments and businesses across the world take to geospatial technology to unlock the secret to many a mystery, a host of geospatial companies are excited about fresh business prospects the economic reforms in India could unfold for them. This has come after the Indian government finally bit the bullet and opened up foreign direct investment in sectors such as retail, pension and insurance, and airlines after years of contemplation and ambivalence.

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"We are already in talks with a major US retailer for identifying locations and planing logistics," says Rajesh Mathur, Vice Chairman, Esri India. Big retailers such as Tesco, Wal-Mart, Carrefour extensively use GIS for identifying locations, business analytics, building up inventory etc. "And multinational firms always bring with them the best practices. Given that, it's obvious that we will see a lot of activity in the geospatial space," adds Mathur.

Reaping retail shopping India has emerged as the fifth-most favorable destination for global retailers, says A T Kearney's Retail Development Index 2012. The USD 450-billion retail market in India is currently controlled by tiny mom-and-pop stores, with organised retail comprising only 10 per cent but expanding at 20 per cent. With increasing disposable incomes and a middle class of close to 300 million growing at 2 per cent a year, expansion of shopping centres and malls, the sector is likely to grow to about USD 900 billion by 2014, projects PwC. So far, 100 per cent FDI was allowed only in wholesale ventures. The recent change allows 100 per cent FDI in single-brand and up to 49 per cent in multi-brand retail, subject to sourcing restrictions and a mandatory investment clause of at least 50 per cent in backend infrastructure.

To keep up, Indian retail firms must optimise businesses against new competition, while foreign players, already familiar with cutting-edge technologies, need to strategise to capture the complex Indian market. MapmyIndia Director Rohan Verma says in this fast-changing scenario, the first thing most retailers will look for "is ways to sell efficiently, which will help reduce the cost to consumers and improve earnings of the farmer and vendors".

"So if this is a signal for a boom in retail, and

Geospatial World I November 2012

the allied FMCG sector, we see a big boom coming for the geospatial sector [too]." says Verma.

A critical aspect for a retailer is location. Other than plain GIS maps, a solutions provider adds layers of demographic data — population density, incomes and consumer buying pattern. Traffic generators like the kind of market areas or shopping malls in an area, petrol pumps, ATMs, restaurants help them decide on the viability of a place. There is also information about the supply-chain management — location of vendors and their supply areas, warehouses, logistics cost from the farmers to warehouses to retail outlets — that GIS solution providers help retailers with. For logistics, they need vehicle tracking, fleet management, GPS hardware and GIS mapping.

Dr. Aniruddha Roy, Vice President, Strategic Business Group (GIS) at Navayuga Spatial Technologies, sees a huge market potential here. "Business analytics is for the mobile players when we talk about retail. Companies dealing in GIS and spatial solutions will be the ones to gain... also, Web and service-based players." But he is not too optimistic about the growth pace. "It will still be slow, very slow for retail... most of the work has already been done," says Roy, implying FDI proposals had been in the pipeline for some time and foreign retailers surely did not wait for the last moment to start homework. "Data is being sent and solutions are being created out there [abroad]."

Mathur, on the other hand, feels there's enough room for geospatial companies in India to reap the benefits.

"Large companies demand fast solutions. It's a part of their workflow. They need it, so we will do it."

Of opportunities and mixed signals The mandatory 50 per cent investment clause in backend infrastructure is expected to boost back-end supplychain capex, says Crisil Research, which projects that FDI in retail has the potential to attract USD 2.5-3-billion

“We are already in talks with a major US retailer for identifying locations and planing logistics... Large companies demand fast solutions.

They need it, so we will do it.”

Rajesh Mathur Vice Chairman, Esri India

Geospatial World I November 2012

CHANGES IN FDI NORMS 51% in FDI in multi-brand and 100% in single-brand retail 30% sourcing from SMEs and 50% investment in backend must States to have the final say on whether to allow foreign chains Foreign aiirlines can acquire up to 49% in domestic airliners Earlier, FDI up to 49% by non-airline companies was allowed FDI cap in insurance to be raised to 49% from present 26% Changes in insurance subject to Parliament nod

investments over the next five years. A large chunk of this investment is expected in the food and grocery vertical.

Here too, geospatial players smell new vistas. A large number of multi-brand retail chains mean FMCG companies need to put businesses on the smart track. "Essentially, FMCG sales are driven through retailers — large and small," says Verma. "FMCGs would have to supply to a large number of outlets, and that's where we can provide distribution logistics and sales and marketing solutions."

Already, Indian businesses in retail and FMCG are investing in geospatial technology and solutions as they have realised its potential to optimise businesses. Verma says his business has seen significant growth in the last two to three years. On FDI, however, geospatial players are cautious about the "mixed signals" and await foreign players to firm up their India plans before counting chickens. "The government wants to relax it, the states have the option to adopt it, and the Opposition is totally against it. So, isn't it too early to say whether the signal is strongly towards FDI in retail?" asks Verma. "There has been no announcement so far as foreign retailers are still in talks.

Only when the signals are clear can we talk," says the official of a geospatial company requesting anonymity.

Insurance a risky bet The geospatial sector is more guarded over the reforms in insurance. The USD 41-billion insurance industry in India is full of potential but hit by regulatory hurdles, a sharp dip in GDP growth and uncertain market condi-

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lines, and airport management for private operators.

Foreign airlines can now pick up to 49 per cent stake in Indian carriers, a move that is expected to inject muchneeded cash flow into the aviation sector. Though global carriers are non-committal, experts say those with deep Rohan Verma pockets will eventually enter India. Even amid this gloom, Director, MapmyIndia the Centre of Asia Pacific Aviation has projected 8 to 10 per cent traffic growth for 2012-13 for the India market. More the merrier for the geospatial sector, which thinks the avitions. Even though current norms allow FDI up to 26 per ation story is promising in the medium to long term. It is cent, several foreign players have quit India. The hike in hoping that fresh investments in aviation technology will FDI cap is subject to parliamentary nod, not an easy task improve flight operations, ground handling and safety given that the ruling coalition is in a minority. standards. Besides high taxes and capital cost, the aviation It is in this chaos geospatial players are looking for sector is plagued by high airport charges, congestion at opportunity. "With our enablement, the insurance industry airports and lack of airport infrastructure at smaller cities, will become more organised and scientific, in terms of issues that can be dealt with GIS and GPS solutions. reaching out to consumers at the front end and risk and The geospatial industry is betting that with the rise in resource management at the backend," says Verma. And the number of aircraft, the number and size of airports he may not be wrong given that the market is still at a will also go up. "Airlines and airports are aligned, just nascent stage of evolution. The ratio of life like FMCG and retail. They need similar insurance premium to GDP in India is yet different solutions," says Verma. Airabout 4 per cent, much lower than the ports require slightly different solutions, A return-on-investment study at the Los developed market levels of 6 to 9 per cent. like 3D indoor mapping, fleet, vehicle and Angeles Airport shows In urban areas, penetration is only about asset monitoring. A return-on-investment that after an initial 65 per cent while rural penetration in the study at the Los Angeles International Airinvestment in banked segment is 40 per cent and marport demonstrates that after an initial establishing a GIS, the ginal in unbanked segments. E&Y lists investment in establishing a GIS, there system delivered an diverse distribution strategies, focus on was an annual return of over 400 per cent. annual return in excess financial inclusion and consumer needs There is also, as Mathur says, scope in of 400 per cent. and preferences as the most crucial areas route planning, new hubs and "spokefor insurance companies. This is where and-wheel kind of an architecture". the geospatial industry can step in. Customised GIS and The silver lining demographic data for consumer indexing and risk "When big companies need quick solutions, they will pump assessment by aggregating a variety of geospatial data in big money," says Mathur. Indeed, big money could also can address these issues. lead to more innovation, fresh products and solutions that Getting them off the ground the Indian geospatial industry is yet to try its hands on but The debt-ridden domestic airlines industry is a different claims it is capable of. Geospatial is an enabling industry ball game. Much of what it has to do with geospatial that helps businesses become more productive and costtechnology is government-controlled in India, with little effective with seamless processes. The more other busispace in fleet management and route planning for airnesses grow, there will be a follow-on effect onto the B2B side of geospatial industry. But for now, it’s a chicken-andegg situation — the ‘big money’ it expects will come only if the reforms translate to tangible reality.

“With our enablement, the insurance industry will become more scientific — reaching out to ers at the front end and risk consume management at the backend.”

Anusuya Datta, Deputy Executive Editor anusuya@geospatialmedia.net

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Geospatial World I November 2012

GNSS

In Pole Position Less than 50 years ago, the concept of satellite positioning didn't exist. Today, global navigation satellite systems have become inextricably intertwined with national security and infrastructure, international relations and our daily lives. Here’s a look at the route that got us here, and some of the obstacles and solutions on the road ahead, including the huge potential of integrating GNSS with other technologies — both old and new.

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ast month saw the 55th anniversary of the Sputnik-1 launch, a pivotal moment in the genesis of GNSS and the space race. The scientists’ decision to listen out for its signals was, in effect, the GNSS universe’s equivalent of the Big Bang; it set GNSS technology in motion and its reach hasn’t stopped expanding since.

The world’s first global navigation satellite system was TRANSIT, designed and built for the US Navy — launched in 1959 and declared fully operational five years later. By the time TRANSIT reached retirement, almost 30 years later, the expansion of the GNSS universe was well underway. Its now-silent satellites

Geospatial World I November 2012

shared the skies with GLONASS, Russia's GNSS, and its own successor, GPS.

GNSS APPLICATIONS ACCELERATE While GPS's civilian signal had been available for many years, it had also been subject to 'selective availability', a function that intentionally introduced time errors, reducing accuracy in the interest of preserving national security. While methods existed (such as differential GPS) to mitigate its effects, 'selective availability' generally cut accuracy from about 10 or 20 metre to almost 100 metre. Crucially, for popular adoption in road transport applications,

that's the difference between being on the 34th Street and 35th Street in New York City!

When US President Bill Clinton deactivated 'selective availability' on May 1 2000, the move's intention (as stated in the White House's own fact sheet), was to: "…accelerate [GPS's] acceptance and use by businesses, governments, and private individuals in the US and around the world that will enjoy increases in productivity, efficiency, safety, scientific knowledge and quality of life."

Over the last 10 years, and largely due to this decision, civil and commercial applications of GNSS positioning have indeed proliferated — as well as the systems delivering them.

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GNSS TODAY As we travel further into the age of GNSS and as satellite positioning finds applications in an increasing range of sectors and industries, we are constantly learning — not only to make better use of the technology itself, but to deploy it alongside and integrate it with other technologies, to meet newer challenges. To see how, let's examine current developments in several key industries.

Simply increasing the physical size of our infrastructure would also do little to enhance safety. According to the World Health Organization's Global Status Report for Road Safety 2009, approximately 1.3 million people die each year on the world's roads, with (as more developing countries take to cars) road deaths estimated to be the fifth biggest cause of casualty by 2030.

Solutions

Automotive The road vehicle is still, for many GNSS users, the natural home of satellite positioning. But today's challenges are quite different from those we were looking to solve at the turn of the century. Having answered the problem of how we get to where we're going, we are looking to GNSS to help us answer another problem, one that's arguably even more crucial — how we get all of us there safely and sustainably. In the interest of sustainability, increasing demand for road use can no longer be countered with the construction of more, or wider, highways. (And, given the current global economic situation, it is not, in many instances, an attractive option financially.)

GNSS positioning, when combined with other technologies, both old and new, has the potential not only to meet these challenges, but also to change our whole experience of road travel. With increased wireless radio connectivity — either between cars, or between cars and smart infrastructure — there is the possibility of intelligent speed control and information about traffic conditions or hazards ahead being transmitted to in-car displays, enhancing journey efficiency while improving safety.

Roughly 90 per cent of the accidents are caused by human error, however, and it is easy to see why some believe enhanced in-car warnings and automated security features

will ultimately prove insufficient — that the real solution is to remove the capacity for human error altogether. With an array of sensors from laser distancing to radar, we are already seeing the first self-driving cars on our roads. Smarter cars offer not only the opportunity to make more efficient use of existing infrastructure, but also help us to plan acceleration based on the road ahead, reduce the need for braking (eg. at traffic signals), slipstream to save fuel. The realisation of ever more automated driving will, of course, depend on establishment and adoption of widespread standards, as well as the reliability and security of the systems they govern.

Railways A train cabin may not be the first place where one would expect a GNSS receiver, but the potential benefits of incorporating GNSS technology into rolling stock are wide-ranging — from reduced infrastructure costs and more efficient operation, to enhanced passenger information and safety.

Potential railway-based applications of GNSS include positive train

Image courtesy: ST Microelectronics

Key GNSS application areas...

Automotive

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Civil aviation

Indoor positioning

Geospatial World I November 2012

control and in-cab signaling, automatic door operation, on-train monitoring and recording, train and infrastructure protection and better information for rail users.

Then why GNSS is not there in all our trains? The key obstacle to bringing the benefits of GNSS to railways has always been the difficulty of guaranteeing positioning integrity (the reliability of the fix) and accuracy. This guarantee is clearly vital in applications where safety of life is at stake and the railway landscape, with its bridges, tunnels and cuttings, is particularly challenging for GNSS receivers, which need a clear line of sight to at least four satellites to establish a full positional fix.

Solutions

As we move further into the age of multiple GNSS, however, the power of this obstacle is diminishing. MultiGNSS receivers (which can process signals from more than one GNSS), naturally have access to more satellites, more of the time — meaning enhanced accuracy and availability, even in a railway's often demanding environment.

The full promise of multi-GNSS seems likely to be realised through

radio navigation service (ARNS) its combination with other technologies. Many of the world's railways are bands. With the expansion of the world's GNSS over the next few already moving away from trackside years, such siginfrastructure to nals are set to onboard, in-cab, As we travel further into become more signalling. The the age of GNSS, we are numerous and European Rail constantly learning to deploy reliable.

Traffic Manageit alongside and integrate it ment System (an with other technologies, to GPS modernisation initiative to promeet newer challenges.

The ongoing mote interopermodernisation of ability and safety across the EU), for example, relies on GPS constellation, for example, includes the addition a new ARNS radio beacons inserted in the tracks band signal L5. The US Government at regular intervals, which relay has stated L5 is to be, “reserved information regarding the track exclusively for aviation safety services ahead. By augmenting such a system … and features higher power, greater with GNSS, there is the potential to bandwidth, and an advanced signal reduce costs and increase reliability design.” Greater availability and qual— as well as add some of the servicity of aviation-grade signals can only es outlined above. help GNSS to take flight in civil aviaCivil aviation tion, removing one of the principal GNSS uptake in civil aviation is slowbarriers to adoption. GNSS uptake in er than one might expect — and non-regulated industries, where sigagain, one of the primary reasons is nal integrity isn't necessarily a matthat lives are at stake and regulation ter of life and death, is currently is strong. Applications in other indus- proving much swifter. tries can take advantage of any GNSS Mining signals available. To minimise the One such industry is mining. Comparisk of interference, aviation applicanies are already taking advantage of tions must use signals transmitted their relative regulatory freedom to on specific safety-of-life aeronautical create and operate fleets of self-driving, wirelessly connected trucks, as well as adding GNSS-aided automation to other key processes.

GNSS in action

At one of Vale's opencast mines in the Amazon Rainforest, GNSS technology is not only employed to prevent the Brazilian company's machines colliding with each other and with material stockpile, but to

Mining

Geospatial World I November 2012

Railways

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services, as well as promoting open interfaces and a standards-based approach.

Image courtesy: Spirent Positioning Technology

CONCLUSION

A test engineer assesses the performance of a GPS receiver using an RF constellation simulator

coordinate the movement of a mobile conveyor system, that crawls alongside the mining operation.

Indoor positioning As we have taken the ability to know where we are, wherever we are, to our hearts, we have become increasingly reluctant to accept the idea that this ability has limits. Even multiGNSS, as noted above, has limits — need for line of sight to the satellites.

From in-store, in-museum or in-airport navigation to location-based marketing, new social and commercial location-aware applications demand accurate positioning in cities, indoors, and even underground. In this area, even more so than on our railways and roads, integration of GNSS with other technologies is providing many of the most compelling solutions.

Hybrid positioning

With smartphone adoption rate faster than any other consumer

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technology in history, there has been no lack of will to solve the indoor positioning challenge — and no dearth of solutions. The most promising include combining GNSS with Wi-Fi positioning (in which the location-aware device checks the landscape of the local Wi-Fi hotspots observed against a hotspot database) and augmenting GNSS with data from the inertial sensors commonly included in smartphones.

A smartphone's accelerometers and other sensors naturally continue to function when GNSS signals are lost; by combining the last GNSSverified location with the information from these sensors, positioning accuracy and availability can be enhanced. The future of indoor positioning has a strong foundation: the recently formed 'indoor positioning alliance' In-Location. It is a group of 22 technology companies including Nokia, Sony and Samsung and has stated its commitment to collaborate on piloting new indoor positioning

Integration of GNSS with Wi-Fi, inertial sensors and other technologies is helping us to further extend its possibilities – and vice versa.

GNSS and its augmentations, however, also have the potential to support integration on a larger scale, to coordinate efficient, multi-modal journeys for goods and people. Less than 45 years from now it could be helping us find the fastest route from our house, across town in the safety of a self-driving car, straight through the labyrinthine train station, and onto a faster, more punctual train.

As the applications of GNSS expand, new challenges and obstacles will need to be dealt with.

Ensuring positioning integrity and mitigating signal interference (whether natural or unnatural, accidental or malicious) will be essential for any application or service on which people rely. Today, there are very few quality standards for positioning integrity and receiver performance, a situation which will have to change as GNSS makes greater inroads into our lives and is relied upon by more of us, for more important things, every year.

But one thing is certain. The evolution of satellite positioning, and its applications, shows no signs of stopping. The next few years are set to prove very exciting indeed.

John Pottle Marketing Director Spirent Positioning Technology John.Pottle@spirent.com

Geospatial World I November 2012

CASE STUDY / US

To be precise n the last 20 years or so, the face of the mid- to large-scale farming operations has undergone a dramatic change. From the use of satellite imagery to enhance irrigation efforts, the use of computer technology to know the precise egg production of each laying hen, to truly robotic dairy cow milking systems, change has become the rule rather than the exception. As operating budgets tighten and costs for fuel, seed, fertiliser and chemicals rise, farmers continue to look for ways to increase efficiencies, cut expenses and strengthen their bottom line.

I

For North Carolina-based DMG Farms, equipping each of its two tractors with a precision agriculture system from Topcon Positioning Systems was a bold step toward accomplishing all that and more. Today, the company reports far better efficiencies in its crop planting and fertilising, has opened up that planting

process to workers who might not otherwise have had the opportunity and believe it will have be a much better operation.

TECH INNOVATIONS When the Gardner family of DMG Farms made its initial foray into farming nearly a century ago, an advance in technology meant using a steel plough rather than a wooden one. And, according to Clay Gardner, great-grandson of the company's founder, mules were the power behind those farm implements.

"We have realised that technology drives improvements in this business, so we've been following the advances made in various areas," says Gardner. He says the family had already become interested in precision agriculture, a GPS-based approach to crop planting, cultivation and maintenance. They knew what had once been little more than an automation of the steering system

was now a full-fledged sophisticated technique to include control over seeding and spraying, the ability to map and log data, and more.

Clay Gardner and his father David farm 400 acres of their own land and 1,400 acres they have leased from local residents. In addition to the various types of sod, the company plants sweet potatoes, tobacco and soybeans, which is traditionally done using a row marker extended off the side of the tractor to delineate and maintain equal spacing between rows. Gardner calls this technique "running rows". With the addition of the agriculture control system, not having to continually watch those markers — and suffer the accompanying fatigue — was just one immediate benefit DMG enjoyed.

"Now, we just establish an 'A' and 'B' point and the system connects those two points and drives the machine, resulting in the straightest line imaginable," says Gardner. "But,

Case Study

Precision agriculture helps US farm to streamline sowing and fertilising

Embracing technology — including the use of GPS-based systems — has helped farmers keep operating costs down and better utilise their workforce.

Geospatial World I November 2012

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On the 12-inch screen of the system, the farmer can easily monitor all the critical elements of the operation such as rates and field coverage

Case Study

while that comfort level is nice, one of the biggest things for us is the ability to have different employees running rows for us. Years ago, when there were more farms, there used to be a lot more workers available with the skill to operate equipment."

"Today, it's basically 'what you get is what you train' and this system makes it unbelievably easy to train people. They don't really have to understand how to run a row — the system does that for them. If they happen to lean one way or take their eye off the row for a second, there is no harm done. And having more people to run rows frees me up.”

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STRAIGHT RUN Maintaining a straight row for the farmer is about more than just aesthetics. Straight rows make the most efficient use of the land available for planting. Being able to maintain a straight line or equal spacing between rows also eliminates a number of potential problems.

"Just as they are everywhere,

costs associated with running a farming operation like ours are going up," says Gardner. "Fertiliser, seed, insecticide, herbicide — they are all getting more expensive, so we need to make the most efficient use of them. We don't use a broadcast spreader of any kind. Instead, everything we apply is done using row units — a series of individual components with bins to hold and dispense seed, fertiliser etc. attached to the rear of the tractor.

These help in the actual delivery of the product into the soil, but if the rows aren't straight and get closer or widen, product is wasted. Precision agriculture, by maintaining straight, evenly spaced rows throughout the planting or application, eliminates that issue."

The Gardners were recently planting tobacco in a field that had curved rather than straight rows, a challenge using a traditional row marker. If the rows are not curved just right, there is a chance of water collection which ultimately damages

the plants. Further, Gardners not only plant the tobacco but also cultivate the crop, which presents an additional challenge for the tractor operator. "If I have a man on the machine and he gets too close to another row, he can take out that row which is costly to us. All that — the contour issues, the risk of accidentally removing plants, the overor under-application — has been eliminated. We did this year's entire tobacco crop using precision agriculture, the rows are just outstanding and cultivation will be a breeze."

The system to which DMG committed, while providing an autosteering function, offers a host of additional benefits which Gardner says he has already tapped. These include a comprehensive control for application and rate, including an auto-coverage feature to eliminate the risk of overlapping or gaps in coverage; an enhanced data management capability which allows them to record data from multiple fields and tasks for different farms, then create detailed reports and multi-year analyses.

The 12-inch screen itself was a huge selling point. "With the new system, we are able to essentially customise the display to meet our specific needs. We have the option of seeing the operation in a number of different views; we can easily monitor all the critical elements of the operation such as rates and field coverage; and it is all icon-driven so the learning curve for both me and my employees is minimal. Perhaps the best feature is also the most basic: the display's resolution is so clear and sharp that it is easy to read — even in the brightest sunlight.

That's unbelievable luxury."

Geospatial World I November 2012

ADVERTORIAL

Trimble Integrated Systems Deliver Precision and Productivity Surveyors today utilize GNSS, optical measurements and compreh hensive desktop k sofftware to provide d accurate inform inf format ati tion ion an and d se serv rviices ices for thei heir ir clilien entts. ts By By int nteg tegra rati ting ti ng multiple technologies for positioning, visualization and data da ta man anag agem emen entt, Tri rimb mble le has set the sta tand ndar ard d fo forr inte in tegr grat atio ion n be betw twee een n fi fiel eld d an and d of offi fice ce.

The new Trimble R10 GNSS system delivers major advancements in GNSS tech hnology l and d performance, f wh hille Trimbl Tri imbl blee VI VISI SION SI ON provi vid ides des incr increa ease sed d flex exib ibilililit ib ityy, saffet it ety ty an and d productivity. In the office, Trimble Business Center software wa re ble lend ndss po posi siti tion onin ing g an and d im imag agee da data ta for ana naly lysi siss and an d de delilive very ry to do down wnst stre ream am clilien ents ts and sta take keho hold lder erss.

Trimble R10—A New Level of Productivity and Confidence in GNSS Surveying GNSS has earned widespread acceptance among surveyors and other geospatial professionals. And despite the simple appearance of a survey-grade GNSS receiver, GNSS surveying systems conduct simultaneous, tightly coordinated functions including satellite tracking, terrestrial communications and complex calculations. By improving any of these components, manufacturers can provide incremental gains in performance. But large-scale advances can come only by adding innovation and new performance into all aspects of a system. Trimble is doing just that.

The new Trimble® R10 GNSS system introduces new technology and workflow advances across the entire GNSS surveying process. The result? Surveyors will work with a new level of productivity, confidence and reliability that extends far beyond comprehensive GNSS support.

Advanced Satellite Tracking and Processing Satellite technology is evolving and expanding. New frequencies and signals are in place, and entire new constellations of positioning satellites are emerging. To help surveyors realize maximum benefit from the new satellites, the Trimble R10 can utilize available signals from existing and currently planned GNSS constellations and augmentation systems.

Equipped with Trimble 360 receiver technology, the Trimble R10 offers 440 individual GNSS channels capable of tracking signals from existing and planned GNSS constellations including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Compass and QZSS. The receiver can also utilize augmentation systems including WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS and GAGAN. To manage and process the GNSS data, the Trimble R10 uses two Trimble Maxwell™ 6 GNSS chips and powerful, energy-efficient processors.

It’s all integrated into a compact, lightweight receiver that provides the highest-level performance for RTK and post-processed surveying.

The Trimble R10 also introduces a new technique for GNSS computations that provides reduced convergence times and instantaneous point measurements. Rather than focusing on the conventional “fixed versus float” approach, the new Trimble HD-GNSS core processing engine provides precision-based measurements that enable users to focus on the precision of the position itself. The system continuously delivers the best possible positions, together with estimates of precision and increased reliability in difficult GNSS areas. RTK initialization commonly requires only a few seconds.

In the office, Trimble HD-GNSS is incorporated into Trimble Business Center software for processing and analysis of GNSS measurements.

The desktop system makes it easy to utilize precise ephemeris data and to access GNSS control station data from networks around the world.

GNSS in Difficult Conditions For surveyors working in challenging areas, periods of radio outage sometimes render the primary stream of RTK correction data unavailable to support conventional single-base or Trimble VRS™ (Virtual Reference Station) network RTK. To help overcome these challenges, the Trimble R10 includes support for Trimble xFill™ technology.

Based on Trimble RTX positioning technology, Trimble xFill uses L-band satellite transmissions to provide centimeter-level positioning during times of interrupted RTK correction streams. Not only does Trimble xFill enable survey-level point measurements to continue for short periods, it may also enable brief excursions into areas masked from reference radio signals but still visible to the GNSS constellations. As a result, surveyors experience less downtime on the job.

Bypass the Bubble For the surveyor in the field, the simple task of plumbing the receiver pole can be time-consuming and a potential source of error.

To solve this, the Trimble R10 has replaced the level vial or pole bubble with high-precision electronic tilt sensors. Using Trimble SurePoint™ technology adapted from Trimble S-Series total stations, the Trimble R10 continuously measures the tilt of the pole.

In Trimble Access™ field software, the eBubble display indicates if the pole is within tilt tolerance needed to measure a point. When the pole is sufficiently plumb, the system can even automatically initiate measurement and record the point.

To provide additional confidence, the pole tilt measurements are stored with each measured point. Back in the office, Trimble Business Center can access Trimble SurePoint data for analysis and quality control.

Integrating the Advances— The Benefits of the System Approach Working with Trimble Access field software and Trimble Business Center in the office, the Trimble R10 is at the core of a GNSS surveying system that delivers new levels of performance and productivity.

• Trimble 360 provides improved tracking and use of available satellites to deliver the best possible data.

• Trimble xFill lets you continue RTK work even if communications are briefly blocked, increasing productivity and reducing rework.

• Trimble HD-GNSS delivers faster initialization and continuous display of reliable precision estimates, and provides full information on the precision of the observations.

• Trimble SurePoint speeds data collection in the field and provides new levels of confidence and traceability.

• Built-in communications options include internal UHF radios to transmit or receive RTK corrections as well as integrated cellular modems, WiFi and Bluetooth communications. capable of running simultaneously.

Trimble VISION—A New View of Surveying One of the best views of a project comes from the perspective of the surveyor’s total station. But the people who can benefit from the instrument’s view—office technicians and even the surveyor at the prism pole—can’t see what the instrument sees. That’s all changing, thanks to pioneering technology from Trimble.

Trimble VISION™ technology integrates advanced hardware and software to bring digital imaging to the survey workflow and dataset. Trimble VISION provides increased safety, flexibility and productivity in the field. In the office, Trimble VISION improves quality control and depth of information while providing the ability to measure additional survey points.

See What the Instrument Sees Trimble VISION integrates a digital camera into the Trimble S-series total stations and Trimble VX™ spatial station to produce images of the scene as viewed through the instrument telescope. Using live video and remote control, Trimble VISION brings the instrument’s view to the field controller.

Rather than looking through the telescope, the operator can use Trimble VISION to aim the instrument at the desired survey targets. High-quality video, on-screen crosshairs and digital zoom make it easy to identify and precisely point to the desired location. With a simple tap on the video display, the instrument turns to the selected point and uses Trimble Direct Reflex (DR) technology to automatically measure and store the point’s location.

Because the operator can see exactly what the instrument sees, it’s simple to switch from robotic to DR mode to capture points in inaccessible or difficult locations. Surveyors also take advantage of Trimble VISION to operate the instrument by remote control.

In areas of hazardous conditions or restricted access, Trimble VISION makes it possible to collect survey points quickly and safely while maintaining the needed precision. The system is rapidly finding a home in plant and architectural surveys, transportation, engineering projects and cadastral applications.

Trimble VISION goes beyond measuring points. In the field, the location of measured or design points can be displayed on the Trimble VISION image.

The surveyor can easily check that needed points have been collected and determine the location of points to be staked in the field.

Calibrated for Accuracy In each Trimble VISION instrument, the calibrated digital camera maximizes

quality by optimizing field-of-view, exposure, depth of field, resolution and image file size. Because the camera is physically built into the telescope, Trimble VISION can precisely match measured survey points with images from the camera. As a result, the field surveyor is confident that the point in the image is the same point that is measured and stored.

The calibrated camera also opens an entirely new door for increased productivity. Survey field crews can collect multiple images that are tied together based on the instrument location and orientation. In the office, technicians can use photogrammetry functions in Trimble Business Center software to measure additional 3D points. The image quality and precise positioning greatly simplify the photogrammetric process.

Trimble’s new, simple photogrammetric approach creates opportunities in projects that require dense data of difficult–to-measure objects.

Applications include power lines and communications towers, architectural projects and engineering or construc-

A Clear View of the Future Trimble VISION is quickly improving the efficiency of surveying activities in the field and office. By increasing the quality and quantity of survey information, Trimble VISION helps surveyors deliver added value to their clients.

• Speed—Fast measurement to prisms or reflectorless targets. Remote control of the instrument and overlay of field data onto jobsite images.

tion asbuilt surveys. By combining reflectorless measurement and photogrammetry, surveyors can capture detailed information quickly, safely and without costly revisits.

The View from the Field Surveyors can use Trimble VISION to document site conditions and data capture. High-quality digital images can be automatically attached to measured points. Field crews can use Trimble VISION to automatically collect panoramic views of sites and objects. In the office, Trimble Business Center processes the multiple images into a single panorama, correcting for exposure and parallax to create a single, seamless image.

Surveyors can combine visual information with field measurements and design data to produce comprehensive, detailed data on project conditions and features. By integrating survey and design information with real-time images, Trimble VISION lets surveyors verify that they have collected all the needed data before leaving the job site.

• Productivity—Measure points in the field and office using Trimble VISION. Avoid rework and return visits to collect missing data.

• Accuracy—Collect complete data in a single visit, and communicate detailed site conditions with the office and project stakeholders.

INTERFERENCE / JAMMING

SIGNAL BARRED GNSS is prone to threats, both unintentional and deliberate, due to extremely low signal at the user end. Frequent checks, countermeasures and upgrade in satellite systems could improve positioning accuracy and reliability

M

odern society is highly reliant on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). In addition to the obvious usage in positioning and navigation, more and more applications are relying on robust timing reference from GNSS. Though it provides accurate and global position, velocity and time, just like any other radio frequency (RF) signal, the technology is highly vulnerable to a range of interference threats. GNSS is particularly prone to unintended and malicious interference due to extremely low signal at the user receiver end after travelling from the satellite transmitter to the user receiver antenna on the earth. The received minimum power of 157 dBW is expected both for GPS (Global Positioning System) L1C and Galileo E1 open service signals, considering both data and pilot channels.

The Volpe report by the Department of Transportation in the United States from 2001 (Volpe, 2001) and the Royal Academy of Engineering report of 2011 from the United Kingdom (Royal Academy, 2011) describe the wide variety of threats ranging from interruptions in satellite-based services in some regions due to solar storms to the intentional jamming risks from localised to more exten-

Geospatial World I November 2012

sive denials in GNSS availability. The interference sources threatening reliable GNSS operation could be divided into unintentional and deliberate risks.

Unintentional interferences include natural phenomena such as increased levels of ionospheric disturbance and solar flares as well as man-made phenomena such as inherent errors in the satellites or transmitted signals, and unwanted radio frequency transmissions due to television, microwave communication traffic or radar signals. The pressure on the shared use of finite radio spectrum compromises the satellite navigation signals. Moreover, ionospheric scintillation affects GNSS receivers, causing losses of lock, navigation data bit errors, cycle slips, and degradation in the accuracy and availability of the measurements. Intentional GNSS interference sources include jamming, meaconing, and spoofing. Of late, a serious concern has been the increase in the number of illegal jammer devices on the civilian front.

Intentional interference Jammers are also termed personal privacy devices (PPDs) and they are intended to prevent people and vehi-

31

The power spectrum (above) and the frequency with respect to time (below) for a low-cost in-car jammer

cles from being tracked within a limited area. Jammers may cause severe damage if their signals are not properly detected and the effects mitigated in user receivers.

Meaconing is a form of intentional interference, including interception and re-broadcast of navigation signals.

Deliberate deception in the form of spoofing signals on the other hand is a more complex form of interference, deceiving a GNSS receiver to another location by broadcasting a modified and slightly more powerful signal than that received from the GNSS satellites.

At present, GNSS is used in a wide range of everyday businesses, such as tracking of valuable cargoes, tagged offenders or vehicles, measuring the distance travelled etc. Unfortunately, these innovations give criminals an incentive to interfere with GNSS services. Intentional interference occurs when a user is deprived of GNSS services deliberately and maliciously. Jamming of GNSS signals can be achieved quite easily using relatively lowcost equipment, for example an inexpensive in-car jammer shown in Fig. 1.

Spread spectrum signals such as those of GPS and the upcoming European Galileo are most vulnerable to a broadband jammer, taking out all the civilian GNSS signals. The Russian frequency division system GLONASS can still give positioning service if the jammer is narrow enough to take out only one or two satellites' signals.

Recorded incidents of deliberate jamming have mostly been observed by US and European military authorities, but on the civilian side, the maritime and aviation world remain vastly vulnerable to jamming.

Countermeasures for jamming are available in the

32

form of expensive directional antennas and interference suppression units, but there is a great need to develop low-cost, effective civilian vulnerability alleviation approaches. Spoofing is more difficult to achieve than jamming, as it is necessary to simulate the signals in order to make the receiver lock on to false signals, to cause a functional deception scenario. Furthermore, the consequences of spoofing are far more serious than those of jamming. If the false signals are indistinguishable from the real ones and give a position close enough

Figure 1: An inexpensive in-car jammer in research use at the Finnish Geodetic Institute

Geospatial World I November 2012

checks (such as monitoring the signal's carrier-to-noisedensity ratio, C/N0) and navigation solution hypothesis testing (such as receiver autonomous integrity monitor> System-level countermeasures ing) can detect, diagnose, and characterise an interfer• Multi-GNSS utilisation ence situation, including potential jamming and spoofing • Signal authentication and encryption/decryption attacks. > Antenna based countermeasures In order to make an effort to mitigate the effects of • Adaptive beam-forming interference, from intentional or unintentional sources, • Controlled radiation pattern antenna reliable interference detection must be conducted. In the presence of interference, whether it is unintentional or > Receiver based countermeasures deliberate, one of the following scenarios will unavoidably • Time domain techniques occur — loss of accuracy resulting in noisy position solu• Frequency domain techniques tion, severely erroneous position information with signifi• Transformed domain techniques cant "jumps" in the position solution, total loss of signal • Switching frequencies in a multi-GNSS case resulting in no-position solution, or appearance of haz• Integrating GNSS with Inertial Navigation System (INS) ardous misleading information. > Application-level countermeasures Current satellite navigation systems are evolving — • Backup solutions the modernised US GPS and the Russian GLONASS will - Terrestrial backup systems make new signals available with further utility coming • Comparison schemes to the predicted course of from the expected deployment of the European Galileo navigation and the Chinese Compass systems. Modernised GNSS signals will generally consist of a pilot channel and a data to be believable, the user may not be aware of the decepchannel. The pilot channel is a spread spectrum-modution and possibly lead to life-threatening danger. An lated signal but does not have a low rate data modulated authentication service via encryption/decryption is cononto it such as the current civilian GPS C/A (coarse/ sidered an effective countermeasure to spoofing. acquisition) civilian signal. This allows for continued sucConsequences of interference to navicessful operation at lower signal-to-noise gation applications may range from a ratios, either due to attenuation in urban complete loss of signal, false position environments or jamming. Above all, the Improved positioning information or intermittent loss to degraadvent of multiple GNSS constellations accuracy and reliability with multiple GNSS dation of accuracy. GNSS signals of curand signals from each satellite on multiconstellations brings rent and future generation are affected in ple frequencies provides more measurenewer opportu unities different ways depending on the specific ments to the GNSS user, and hence for receivers to cope type of interference (for example, continubrings newer opportunities for receivers better in challenging ous wave (CW), narrow band (NB), or wide to cope better in challenging GNSS GNSS interference environments band (WB) interference). Strategies for interference environments by offering mitigating the GNSS vulnerabilities were improved positioning accuracy and categorised and the following schemes reliability. were distinguished: individual interference awareness, Dr. Heidi Kuusniemi global GNSS disruption awareness, legislative counterResearch Manager, Department of Navigation and Positioning measures, backup systems and electronic crosschecks, Finnish Geodetic Institute heidi.kuusniemi@fgi.fi and authenticable signals in modernised systems.

Countermeasures to GNSS threats

Countermeasures Knowing you are under interference and reporting it is crucial on an individual receiver basis. Some basic signal

34

Dr. Mohammad Zahidul H. Bhuiyan Senior Research Scientist, Department of Navigation and Positioning Finnish Geodetic Institute

zahidul.bhuiyan@fgi.fi

Geospatial World I November 2012

LOCATION-BASED SERVICES

Ubiquity is the name of the game When we think of time, we do not think of the technology behind it, or its ubiquity, then why so with location? Reaching this stage of ubiquity will enable location-based applications with wide societal benefits.

L

ocation, as a reference, has always been with us. Along with time, it forms the continuum that we always use. While we have made significant progress in observing and providing a scientific reference to time, we have unfortunately not made the same advancements with location. From having day and night as the reference of time, we now have time in every gadget that we carry. Through the watch, time has evolved as a separate identity -- even though there is technology involved behind the depiction of

36

time through a watch, one never thinks of the technology.

For location though, while major strides have been made in the past two decades, we are far from having a seamless scientific approach of its depiction. Our usage of location is still predominately landmark-based, just as our reference for time was sunlight-based 500 years ago. And, whenever we go beyond landmark references, we immediately turn our focus onto the technology behind location. We still think "this location information is coming from GNSS"!

Our approach to location has not yet reached a stage where it is so allpervasive that we don't even think about it; it is just there.

Ubiquitous location It is to this stage of ubiquity of location that we need to move. The granularity of time has improved from the sunlight being a reference to capturing time in milliseconds. The higher the precision we achieve in time, the higher is the granularity. This has immensely increased the applications developed to take advantage of

Geospatial World I November 2012

the new capabilities. Do we ever read articles on “time based services"? The same should happen with location.

Today, ‘location’ is confined to outdoors. But gradually, location technology will move indoors. Once ‘outdoor’ and ‘indoor’ merge seamlessly, we will not be even talking about 'location-based' services — we will see 'location-enabled' services, where location acts as an enabler to existing services. One can take any service they are offering and add location to it for an enhanced and enriching experience.

Location technology also needs to graduate from the transitory applications we see today, like tracking employees, tracking vehicles, or finding a friend's whereabouts on social networking sites, to influencing societal behaviour at large and making a positive contribution to society. This is where the real impact and real applications of location enablement lie.

The enabling factors Let us consider the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. Through

Location technology will gradually move indoors

Geospatial World I November 2012

their surveys, the terrorists had a decide how to respond to the incicomplete blueprint of the hotel they dent — whether to send police or an attacked and were holed in. Having air ambulance. the ability to locate individuals Another instance is the use of indoors, both friend and foe, can location technology in health care. enable real-time There are numerinformed decious activities Do we ever read articles on sion-making by globally for collec“time-based services”? The security officials. tion of healthsame should happen with Location related and cenke any location. One can tak enablement can sus data. The service and add location to help address granularity of this it for an enhanced and public safety too. data varies. It is enriching experience.

Citizens, espeusually at block cially women, level or district often find themselves in environment level. It needs to be collected at the where they do not feel very safe. If neighbourhood level. Health probinstruments, like the mobile phone, lems are often due to the environare location enabled, then just one ment in a particular area. Adding call can make all the difference. location to health statistics can help Location enablement can therefore narrow the region of interest, allowcontribute to citizen empowerment ing for deeper analysis which leads and citizen safety. Recently, Russia to identification of the root cause. announced an initiative called ERAAnother usage of location, priGLONASS (ERA: emergency roadside marily indoor location, is providing assistance). It stipulates that by care for the elderly. People who live 2016, every vehicle in Russia will away from their elderly parents are have a GLONASS tracking device. concerned about their safety and Any vehicle's registration and annual well-being. Integrating location techrenewal will be subject to the tracknology with a different kind of sening device installation. The larger sors can enable tracking activities of purpose of this individuals, like waking up, sitting, is public safety. walking and provide a fair idea on The tracking the physical wellbeing of a person. device will Also any unfortunate incident, like a enable people fall, one can be immediately alerted in the control along with the location of the person room to receive concerned. This empowers us to an alert in case take the required action in case of of an accident, any accident. locate the site, Location technology can make monitor the sittremendous contribution to agrarian uation, undercountries like India. Data on key indistand the cators is already being captured — severity, and rainfall, soil contamination, plant accordingly diseases in the field etc. These are,

37

however, currently not locationenabled. For instance, often a picture of a diseased crop is taken and sent for analysis. But, adding location (and time) to it enables richer analysis. If it is found that the disease is progressing in a particular direction, then the farmers with farms downwind can be forewarned so that they can take preventive measures. There are applications today where one takes a picture and uploads it on social media that allows one to geotag it. We need to replicate this ability for societal benefits also.

At another level, location enablement can play a tremendous role in document management. Both the government and the private sector possess sensitive documents that often end up getting pulled out of computers and shared in unauthorised ways. What if these documents can be 'location locked'? Locationlocking these documents and ensuring they open only at pre-designated location/s, even by the persons authorised to open it, brings another level of security. Another aspect of document management is file management in countries where government offices have not completely gone the e-way. Tracing physical files, very often becomes a humongous task, severely affecting efficiencies in state departments. Here, the

Augmentation of satellitebased GNSS systems with terrestrial as well as inertial systems will eliver accurate location de inside buildings, enabling in-building applications and deeper positioning

38

Geotagging can offer tremendous benefits to agrarian countries

use of passive 'indoor location' technology can make a difference.

Document management and tracing also has relevance in the academic sector in countries like India where paper and pen examinations are the norm. Examination papers are often leaked by a handful of people trying to make a fast buck.

This frequently results in cancellation of papers, jeopardising the careers of scores of students. By integrating wide area location technology with proximity positioning, question papers and answer sheets can be uniquely tracked.

Tech integration Over the last decade, signals from GNSS satellites have been enhanced and accuracy of positioning has been improved. The completion of the GLONASS satellite system and the use of multi-system receivers have significantly improved availability of location in outdoor environments.

The next step should be augmentation of satellite-based GNSS systems with terrestrial as well as inertial systems. It is this combination that will deliver accurate location inside buildings, thereby enabling in-build-

ing applications and deeper positioning. The technologies in the terrestrial systems will not only use the existing infrastructure, including cellular towers and broadcast towers, but solution providers will also deploy proprietary networks to provide deeper in-building positioning.

Another interesting aspect is that inbuilding space is three-dimensional and value is derived when Z-axis accuracy is achieved. The inertial and terrestrial systems will address the Z-axis. Devices enabled with pressure sensors that can tell users which floor of a multi-storey building they are on will augment this solution.

Soon, we will see that GNSS systems will guide a user to the front door; from there the inertial systems will take over for indoor navigation. It is not long before we start having this experience without having to think about the underlying technology. That will be the day when location will be ubiquitous and allpervasive.

Ashutosh Pande Chairperson, LBS Committee Association of Geospatial Industries India

Geospatial World I November 2012

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PROGRAMME LAYOUT X MAIN CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

SEMINARS

PLENARY SESSIONS

• Water Utility • Smart Grid • Societal Impacts and Benefits of Improved Environmental and Geospatial Information (Partner: iEEE Committee on Earth Observation) • Crisis Management using 3D (Partner: TU Delft) • GI Policy

SYMPOSIA • • • •

Defence and Intelligence Agriculture City Management (Partner: V-ICT-OR) Monetising Geospatial Value for Land Administration (Partner: Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency, the Netherlands) • Construction and Infrastructure • Mining and Exploration • Earth Observation System for Economic Development (Partners: ISPRS, EARSeL, EARSC and GEO)

DIALOGUE SESSION • Leveraging SMEs’ strength for INSPIRE (Partner: JRC, European Commission) TECHNOLOGY SESSIONS • Airborne Sensors • UAV

THEME

M

Since almost half a decade, geospatial has evolved from science to technology to an infrastructure into a fully fledged industry. Geospatial technologies have contributed to the world economy by empowering industries to make better decisions based on smart and intelligent geographic information. It is a widely recognised fact that almost 80% of information has a location orientation and good understanding of the same has made decision making faster, surer and more effective for executives in both government and private sector enterprises.

INDUSTRIALISATION INFRASTRUCTURE

COMMODITY

TECHNOLOGY

UTILITY

SCIENCE TOOL

onetisation has become a part and parcel of everyday discussions wherein several governments are talking about ways in which they can monetise their debt and companies are finding ways to monetise their products and services more effectively and efficiently. Not only them, but individuals too are seeking ways to monetise their assets into some form of value and earnings. Nothing quite like the current economic crisis has happened before, with financial systems failing in tandem the world over. In order to survive and thrive within the given economic scenario one must ensure optimisation of value and returns-on-investment.

MONETISATION PROCESS The vulnerability and precarious position of current global economic status can well be addressed by exploiting the value and utility of geospatial to the maximum by both governments and industries. With the theme Monetising Geospatial Value and Practices, Geospatial World Forum will focus on assessment and enhancement of the value of geospatial information.

Prospects and challenges associated with geospatial industry vis-à-vis monetisation of geospatial value and practices shall be discussed and deliberated between and amongst high level stakeholders of geospatial industry and its user communities.

Key statistics on GWF 2013

2000

SQ MTRS EXHIBITION SPACE

1500 700

ORGANISATIONS

400 80

DELEGATES

PRESENTATIONS

COUNTRIES

40

THEMATIC SESSIONS

• LiDAR • GNSS • Cloud & Grid Computing SESSIONS • Standards and Interoperability (Partner: OGC) • Cartography (Partner: ICA) • Open Source (Partner: OSGeo) • 3D - the future of geospatial information (Partner: EuroSDR) • European Location Framework (Partner: Eurogeographics) • Spatial Thinking (Partner: Wageningen University) • Asset Management

X PRE-CONFERENCE PROGRAMME DIALOGUE FORUMS* • Monetising Geospatial Value and Practices for Business Enterprises • Monetising Geospatial Value and Practices for National Developmental Goals

*

Exclusive Sessions. For more information contact info@geospatialworldforum.org

CONNECT & MONETISE Exhibition @ GWF 2013 will offer a great platform to geospatial technology providers and user organisations from across the globe to showcase their latest products and services. It will enable businesses to interact face-to-face with key clients and brand new customers that can fructify into long term business relationships.

Geospatial World Forum 2013 Exhibition brings with it: Global market players as exhibitors High quality International audience Top tier user segment participation Attractive exhibition layout and projection opportunity Additional meeting area to support business interactions Personalised service to make your exhibition experience easy and memorable For space bookings, write to info@geospatialworldforum.org

GET FELICITATED Geospatial World – The Premier Geospatial Industry Magazine has been encouraging and recognising excellence in the various projects, innovations and policies that have helped shape the future of the geospatial industry. Geospatial World Awards were introduced to promote and recognize such excellence thus bringing out and highlighting the best practices and innovations in the global geospatial industry.

Nominations for these awards are encouraged from all geospatial and allied projects for the following categories:

BE A PART OF THE GLOBAL FORUM Register online at www.geospatialworldforum.org and block your seats today!

Note: Register before 15th Feb 2013 to avail complementary Awards Night and Gala Dinner Ticket

Geospatial World Excellence Awards | Geospatial World Innovation Awards | Geospatial World Policy Awards

For more information or submission of awards nomination please log on to

www.awards.geospatialmedia.net Last date for submission of Nominations: 30th November 2012 Write to awards@geospatialworldforum.org for awards related queries

For queries, write to registration@geospatialworldforum.org

WHAT WE AIM TO ACHIEVE FROM GEOSPATIAL WORLD FORUM IS TO: Connect Geospatial Stakeholder Communities | Provide Thought Leadership Promote Globalisation | Encourage Partnerships | Share Knowledge Raise Industry Profile | Develop Business | Promote Networking Showcase Innovative & Integrated Technologies Build Awareness on Value Proposition

AS A DELEGATE, BENEFIT BY PARTICIPATING IN WAYS MORE THAN ONE: Learning the value proposition of geospatial technologies | Understanding evolution and growth dynamics of geospatial industry | Connecting with technology developers & users | Influencing decision makers | Expanding business with new contacts and ideas Sharing knowledge and know-how | Understanding need and ways for developing appropriate policy framework | Showcasing the brand and projecting company’s identity | Forming fruitful partnerships and alliances

GEOSPATIAL WORLD FORUM IS SUPPORTED BY LEADING ORGANISATIONS FROM THE WORLD OVER...

AGILE | Astrium | Agiv | ASM Magazine | Coudere | Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency, The Netherlands | Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, South Africa | Directions Media | EARSC EARSeL | EFTAS | Esri | E-Leaf | EuroGeo | EuroGeographics | EUROGI | EuroSDR | GeoBusiness Nederlands Geoinformatie Nederlands | GEONOVUM | Geospatial World | Group on Earth Observations | Hexagon | ICA IEEE Committee on Earth Observation | Imaging Notes | ISPRS | Joint Research Center, European Commission MDA Corporation | OGC | OSGeo | PROGIS | RIEGL Laser Measurement Systems | Scanex | SDI Magazine Sensors and Systems | Topcon | Terrago | Trimble | TU Delft | University of Hannover | V-ICT-OR Wageningen University | Z_GIS, University of Salzburg. . .

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INTERVIEW

“Geospatial tech can help

create a waste-free society

The first Dutchman in space and a former astronaut of the European Space Agency, Dr Wubbo J Ockels iss a scientist and a

”

professor at the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. But whether att the university or in own projects like Superbus and green yacht Ecolution, he is constantly lookin ng for innovative ways to utilise natural resources in everyday life.

An untiring proponent of ‘Happyy Energy’, Dr Ockels is currently involved in producing energy from a ‘laddermill’ — a windmill consiisting of a “ladder” of kites. It’s not difficult to chat up Dr Ockels on the topic close to his hearrt — sustainable energy.

What is the scope for various renewable forms of energy like hydropower, wind, tidal etc?

We need to be more intelligent in dealing with our environment. Use of fossil fuels should be stopped immediately because it harms the environment. We should also learn to use local environmental characteristics. For instance, if you live in Norway, use hydropower because it is easy to use. And if you live in Spain, where it is relatively easy to use solar power, you should use that. People use biofuel in many areas because they have a lot of trees, but biological processes from an energy point of view are not the most efficient. Look at the island of Aruba, which has been strongly promoting sustainability. It is blessed with constant wind so they have installed wind turbines, which generates close to 60 per cent of the total power in Aruba.

A big change will be much more autonomy on a smaller scale. There might be a point where urbanisation comes to a stop, and that would be a happy future as the more we are connected to nature, the richer we are from a sustainability point of view.

There is a concept called cubic mile of oil. When difding to ferent forms of energies were compared accord this concept, oil was found to be cheapest in terms of per unit cost. What is your take?

A major problem with calculations of cost is what you take into account. Once a research student decided to calculate the cost of a gallon of fuel in the US. Various costs such as subsidies to research were added and the

44

final cost came out at over USD 10 per gallon — much more than the market price. So, it is a question of what you take into account. In case of nuclear power, you can't calculate the consequences of nuclear waste because nuclear energy has unknown cost and you cannot compare it with anything that has a known cost. On the other hand, market price is a completely different issue, which depends on regulations, circumstances, taxes etc. If we take into account the integrated cost for the society, we are already beyond the point where sustainable and renewable energy is cheaper than the rest. In 2010, the World Health Forum estimated that governments had to spend USD 150 billion that year as a result of climatic change, which was roughly the same as the profits made by energy companies that year.

So, if you look at the total economy of the earth, it is going backwards, which is not normally how the economy works. The sun does not cost anything, but how you transfer that energy into watt is a different issue. The same holds true for oil, which is of no use until you have an engine to convert it into energy. So, the engine cost is a part of the total cost. In the Netherlands, one litre of gasoline costs EUR 1.8. The amount of mechanical ener-

“

We have to get an insight on the weakness of the large-scale things and the strengths of diversity.

We have to put regulations on them

”

Geospatial World I November 2012

gy produced by one litre of gasoline is 1.5 kilowatt hours.

Thus, the cost of 1 KWh comes out to be more than EUR 1, five times more than driving an electric car powered by solar energy.

We have to develop a society free of waste. The best way to do this is to pay only for services while the ownership remains with the resources. This is where geospatial technology is extremely essential as it can help us to know the exact location of a resource so we can effectively harness it.

A major reason for that is the feedback mechanism, where a person earning more money has more power.

This way, very few people earn huge money and have lots of power. You should have some fundamental regulations on limiting the size of an endeavour. But most of the time the risk is for the society and the profit is for just a few. It is a wrong thing from a sustainable society point of view.

A system with small lakes is much better for the people.

A big lake may result in cheaper energy but the risk associated is also high.

You once said the Chinese will save the world. But China is also one of the biggest users of coal.

However, things are going exactly in the opposite direction. We see mergers and acquisitions hapening all over. Even the pe geospatial industry is on a huge M&A spree.

To say that China is one of the biggest users of coal means that the entire world is using coal, because it comprises one-fifth of the world’s population. I meant China was planning long term. It already has plans in place to take the coal away. I wanted to assert that the West’s thinking was lacking on long-term responsibility.

Although a very strong statement to make, it was made to emphasise two elements — the Chinese make our solar panels and they are a good example of long-term planning. India also has the same planning while Europe has started to do that recently.

You have been to space and that expends a huge amount of energy.

Going into space consumes around 3,000 tonnes of fuel.

So, we can make use of either hydrogen or oxygen because the space shuttle's main engines operate on a mixture of these gases. However, only the first two minutes of space travel result in pollution with the release of solid rocket crystals, after which the exhaust is water.

But, water does not belong to the higher levels of the atmosphere, so you do influence the atmosphere with a space shuttle. Yet, it's not bad as long as there is a limit to it. The atmosphere can sustain 10 shuttle flights a year; a hundred flights may be a problem. So, our current space transportation is certainly not sustainable. We may have sustainable forms in future such as space elevators, but it is still some time away.

Huge dams have a negative impact on the environment. Although it has been recognised that we can minimise the impact with several small dams instead, k is the idea has not yet taken off. What do you think the reason?

Geospatial World I November 2012

That is why we need to decide quickly. We have to get an insight on the weakness of the largescale things and the strengths of diversity. We have to put regulations on them. We know use of fossil fuel is wrong and we cannot continue this way. The same holds true for the large-scale exercise of buying out all small companies. These larger organisations have large governing power but there is nobody to control it, which does not go well with the fundamentals of democracy. The need is to create awareness and educate the decision-makers about the problems and challenges facing our society. If the bigger companies realise their responsibility towards the society, then we can certainly Dr Wubbo Johannes Ockels look towards a Professor of Aerospace for Sustainable brighter, happier and Engineering and Technology Delft University of Technology sustainable future.

The Netherlands

45

INTELLIGENT GEOSPATIAL SYSTEMS

How far is HAL-NAV? Sixty years since Alan Turing asked ‘can machines think?’ artificial intelligence has taken giant leaps. There are some ‘if’ factors though, which pose fundamental problems in the way for intelligent geospatial systems.

In the movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL, the artificial intelligence that controlled the spacecraft, was shut down after it decided to act on its own.

AL, the artificial intelligence that controls the spacecraft and interacts with the astronauts in director Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey, was capable of remarkable introspection: "I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you." That was way back in 1968.

Earlier in 1950, when mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing asked "can machines think", he envisioned a machine that, by its communication skills, cannot be distinguished from a person. (Fig. 1.)

So, how far have we got with intelligent systems, beyond some marketing hype? Is there any agreement on some measurable criteria to what extent, or whether at all, a system can be called intelligent? And what, in particular, is an intelligent geospatial system?

HAL is a wonderful example of humanoid communication skills, including learning mechanisms as reflected in the ability for introspection above. We are nearing 2012 end now, and yet the best we can say on this is artificial intelligence has had a rather chequered history of successes up to now. It works in rather narrow areas, such

H

46

that we "now have machines that have trumped human performance in such domains as chess, trivia games, flying, driving, financial trading, face, speech, handwriting recognition…" Some of these narrow areas either are within the geospatial domain, such as flying or driving (positioning, motion planning), or have applications in the geospatial domain, such as speech recognition (humancomputer interaction about places, times, or directions).

HAL-like navigation system To review the current abilities of geospatial systems, let us imagine a HAL-like navigation system, HAL-NAV. Its role would be solely to give advice to the traveller; thus, it would be able to have any conversation in this context.

Such an idea is very similar to the restricted Turing test, an award advertised annually by Loebner "to find the world's best conversational computer programme". For any chance of success, let us keep HAL-NAV narrowly focused: the communication between a driver and a car, or a passenger and a tram would not be about life or love, but restricted to wayfinding, and perhaps the weather, traffic, meetings, or the shopping list.

Research in human cognitive capabilities and linguistic behaviour inform the design of formal models to

Geospatial World I November 2012

reflect these capabilities and behaviours in a computer.

However, the Turing test only relies on behaviour; it does not require a computer to internally function like a human being and accordingly, the formal models do not aim to explain the functioning of the mind.

The challenges Nevertheless, a whole range of challenges have to be solved in order to build HAL-NAV, among them understanding verbal or graphical human place descriptions, context and relevance, embodied experience of environments, especially salience, modelling the notions of place and modelling user-centred time geography and personal preferences or knowledge of an environment.

Let us focus on a few of these challenges. Consider a request a traveller might pose to HAL-NAV: "Can you tell me the way to the airport?" Surely, people will not have difficulties to answer this question — it is easily under-

stood and applied by the traveller.

In some respects, it is not too difficult a question for HAL-NAV either. HAL-NAV will be superior to humans in computing routes: compute faster, process more data and produce more accurate results. HAL-NAV can guarantee to compute the quickest route and perhaps even include data about current or past traffic in this computation. It can also compute the cheapest route, and the simplest route. Now, here is the first challenge for HALNAV: which one of these does the user want? The answer leads to a territory still not well understood in artificial intelligence research: context dependency of optimal states. The regular commuter may simply want an

Geospatial World I November 2012

THE TURING TEST The Turing test is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to or indistinguishable from that of an actual human being. The test was introduced by Alan Turing in his 1950 paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence," which opens with the words: "I propose to consider the question, 'Can machines think?'"

The test involves three participants in isolated rooms — a computer (which is being tested), a human, and a human judge. If the judge cannot reliably tell the machine from the human, the machine is said to have passed the test. The test does not check the ability to give the correct answer; it checks how closely the answer resembles typical human answers.

Figure 1

update based on the current traffic situation, the business traveller wants to be guided to the simplest route to the rental car return at the airport and the backpack tourist wants to know how to reach the airport via the cheapest way such as public transport or by ride sharing.

Translating these issues to current commercial navigation systems, challenges take the form of dealing with user preferences, integrating multiple modes, thus accessing distributed, sometimes decentralised data sources and in doing so, maintaining privacy.

Next to the challenge of understanding and dealing with context, HAL-NAV has to correctly interpret the destination description "to the airport". But the way people describe their places or their travel destinations are infinitely rich. So, while HAL-NAV would have the transport

47

WHAT IS AI? One of the fathers of artificial intelligence, John McCarthy, explained this term in 2007 What is artificial intelligence?

It is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programmes.

It is related to the similar task of using computers to understand human intelligence, but AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable.

Yes, but what is intelligence?

Intelligence is the computational part of the ability to achieve goals in the world. Varying kinds and degrees of intelligence occur in people, many animals and some machines.

Isn't there a solid definition of intelligence that doesn't depend on relating it to human intelligence?

Not yet. The problem is that we cannot yet characterise in general what kinds of computational procedures we want to call intelligent. We understand some of the mechanisms of intelligence and not others.

Source: http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/whatisai/whatisai.html

network data readily available, it may still feel challenged by place references. Gazetteered place names, business directories and points of interest are a starting point, but this data does not cover the vernacular (non-gazetteered) names, vanity addressing, extent of places and indeterminacy of some places, ambiguity of place names, and the interpretation of qualitative relationships between places.

In addition to the challenges of understanding the users' request, HAL-NAV is also challenged by responding to the user in a way that is easily understood and easy to follow. For example, a person may respond to the above question like: "Okay, go down this street [pointing], at the traffic lights down there turn right, then drive six, seven blocks until you reach City Gate, a building characteristic for its shape, where you turn left on the highway.

Follow the highway to the airport."

While HAL-NAV would have transport network data ready, it may feel challenged by place references.. It also lacks an understanding for landmarks

How is HAL-NAV different?

Why is this description a good one for the traveller and tough for HAL-NAV to replicate?

For the traveller, the description conforms to Grice's conversational maxims, especially to the maxims of relevance and of quantity ("make your contribution as informative as required," and "don't make your contribution more informative than is required"). It also applies some other remarkable principles. For example, it mixes conversational modes between pointing and spoken word and relates to vista space, engaging with the user in an embodied manner. It also lowers the focus on numerals by deliberate use of uncertainty — still giving a rough idea of distance, but not stretching numerical cognition and short-term memory — and resolves uncertainty by a landmark instead (thus adding even some redundancy for the comfort of the user). Finally, it chunks all further instructions along the highway into one, relying on "knowledge in the world" — the signage to the airport — thus avoiding redundancy in the triangle between the traveller, the environment and the speaker.

The problem for HAL-NAV is machines lack understanding for landmarks. From a cognitive perspective, landmarks are the elements structuring mental spatial representations. They are closely related to the embodied experience of environments. Some of them are personal ("the place where we met"), others are shared ("the red building"). To be a landmark, a geographic feature must stand out from its neighbourhood by some sensible properties, and this will always depend on the focus of the person. These observations about landmarks mean one can only formulate relative classification schemes for landmarks, and these schemes will need to explore rich data resources and act with context awareness.

The simple question of a wayfinder has already brought up a few interesting challenges for intelligent geospatial systems just in the area of navigation services.

There are more challenges and more geospatial systems, of course. Perhaps it is time to suggest a 'grand challenge' for the research community: a restricted Turing test similar to the Loebner Prize, here on intelligent navigation services. Has a HAL-NAV become possible?

Stephan Winter Associate Professor & Discipline Leader Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne

winter@unimelb.edu.au

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Geospatial World I November 2012

速

Trimble

速

FIRST PERSON

I have always felt that the best way to teach someone to swim is to throw the person in the water, and in the early days of my career, that's exactly what I did to myself.

Ola Rollen CEO, Hexagon AB

Strumming a geospatial tune!

50

Geospatial World I November 2012

These two experiences — music and skiing — taught me not to be shy. Standing on stage and playing to thousands of people helped me later in life to articulate and communicate to the audience in large conferences. I did not know it then, but I have used these skills effectively in my professional career.

Eventually, I realised I needed to do something with my life and I started studying law to become a solicitor.

During a coffee break in the university, I saw a few people having fun while studying, and I realised they were studying finance. Soon after, I switched to finance and economics. As I started learning about business, I found it fascinating. When I graduated in 1989, everyone wanted to become a banker. So, I went for a job interview at one of the prominent banks in Scandinavia. They asked me, "Ola, how are you going to make a gazillion dollars for this bank?"

ENTERPRISING GENES My family has always been entrepreneurial. My father owned a small company, and I know the value of a deliverable to a customer. I did not see the banking business doing that. It is all about greed and making money without much contribution. So, during the interview I said, "No, I am not going to make a lot of money.

As a matter of fact, I don't want to work for you at all."

I then joined a pulp and paper company as a trainee and later joined a steel company.

My first brush with technology was in 1999, when I joined Sandvik as the CEO of its material technology division. Sandvik is a large Swedish engineerIn 1999, I met the ing company. A head owner of an obscure hunter then called and company called said, "You should meet Hexagon who told the principle shareholder me, “I bought this of a small company company and it’s a disaster. Do you called Hexagon." I said, want to have a go at "No, I have just joined it?” I was crazy this big company and it is enough to say yes. great for my career. Why would I want to move to a smaller company?"

I eventually met with the owner of this obscure company called Hexagon and he sat me down in his office in Stockholm and said, "Well, I bought this company and it is a disaster. And I don't think you can screw it up further. Do you want to have a go at it? You can do whatever you want." I was crazy enough to say, "Yeah, I will have a go at it." That was towards the end of 1999, and I joined the company in early 2000.

At that point in time, Hexagon was active in more than 25 industries. We had day-care centres, we manufactured hydraulics and mobile phone antennas, we imported tuna fish and many other things, but nothing was a success. After a while, I started hav-

Geospatial World I November 2012

First person

I

was born in Sweden and grew up in the capital city of Stockholm. Very early on, I wanted to be a musician and I played in a rock band for five years.

We got a record contract, but after the band fell apart, I decided not to pursue music. I then became a ski instructor in the French Alps, or, rather, I was dumped there since the company I worked for went bankrupt. I didn't speak much French, and I did not know how to get by in life. I did not have any income, but I managed to survive for more than a season. I eventually learnt some French and could communicate with people.

51

IT'S ALL ABOUT MEASURING!

ing doubts about my decision of joining Hexagon, leaving a prospective career at Sandvik. Without giving up, I sat down during the summer of 2000 and told myself that I needed to do something extraordinary. Then, I remembered I had looked at a company called Brown & Sharpe in 1998. It was based in North America and was up for sale in 2000. By the end of that year, we decided to acquire Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company and rebranded it Hexagon Metrology. That was the cornerstone for a new business we created for Hexagon.

Between 2000-01 and 2011-12, we disposed of all the businesses Hexagon had acquired earlier and created a global leader in design, measurement and visualisation technologies.

Hexagon Metrology is all about measuring tiny things.

How different is measuring the distance between two cogs in a cog wheel and measuring the distance between two peaks in a mountain range? We learnt that though the scales are different, both are guided by the same basic mathematical algorithm. As we grew into an engineering company servicing automobile and aerospace manufacturers, we started looking at surveyApple showed us that ing, geodesy, geomatics both hardware and and so forth. We realised software were equally important. What we had competence in that would a mobile phone area too. As a matter of be without hardware? fact, there are synergies What do you do with a between the two. So, by nice piece of hard2005, we acquired Leica ware if you don't have Geosystems, and by 2007, apps and good sofftware solutions? we realised we needed GPS as well. Leica Geosystems was dependent on a Canadian company called NovAtel. We had to buy NovAtel, otherwise they could have ended up as a competitor. So, we added NovAtel to the portfolio and continued to grow.

By 2008-09, we started to realise that we needed to serve our customers better and needed to protect our business from low-cost competition. We also realised that all the measurements ended up in other products like GIS systems, CAD models, etc. So, we asked, "What if we were to integrate into the software space?" That's when we started looking at suitable companies and realised that Intergraph was a good bet, as they could provide us a platform in the GIS space, and they could also help us in the mechanical engineering world with their Process, Power & Marine (PP&M) products. So, in the summer of 2010, we acquired Intergraph.

HARDWARE, SOFTWARE OR SOLUTIONS? It is a very logical business decision. We saw an opportunity in creating something different in this industry. Until the late 1990s and early 2000s, the world was very hardware-centric. Let us use computers as an analogy. IBM told a young Bill Gates it saw no value in an operating system. But soon, software took over and suddenly Microsoft and SAP giants dominated the industry.

52

Geospatial World I November 2012

MARRIAGE, KIDS AND MORE I met my would-be wife when both of

as well! When we first moved to Eng-

albeit at home, because it is fun

us were very young, and we have

land, there was a rumour going

and takes quite different skills

been very happy since. I think it is

around that my kids' dad worked for

from those used in business and

great advantage if you meet someone

the Pentagon. This

at a young age as you share a lot in

was during the days

intellectual pursuits. It is more

common. It is a very strong relation-

when the second Iraqi

ship and I can discuss anything and

war broke out. I was

everything with her and be myself. I

feeling a bit like

feel sorry for people who do not have

James Bond when I

that kind of bond with another indi-

heard that because

vidual.

everyone at their school was pointing at

When we first moved to England, kids at my children’s school thought I worked for the Pentagon.

I felt like James Bond for some time.

of an emotion.

But I like business as much as I like music.

Business is fun too.

Also, it is measurable.

You can gauge if you are developing or if

We have three kids together. We have

me and saying, "He

a 21-year-old daughter who wants to

works for the Penta-

be a journalist and is studying in Lon-

gon! He is a secret

don. We have a 19-year old son, now

agent." And then my kid said, "No, it

element as well. What's also good

a student at Wharton Business

is not the Pentagon. It is Hexagon." I

about business is that it forces you to

School in Philadelphia, USA. At one

was a superstar for a while, but that

meet new people. You get to travel

point, my wife said, "It's either a kid

was short-lived!

around the world, meet interesting

or a dog." We opted for a child, now

you are falling. So, there is a competitive

and exciting people, and that is very

eight years old and quite younger

MUSIC FIRST?

than his siblings, but we have a dog

I continue to sing and play guitar,

But Apple showed us that both hardware and software are equally important. What would a mobile phone be without hardware? What do you do with a nice piece of hardware if you don't have apps and good software solutions? When you wish to sell solutions, you need both.

That's the direction geospatial industry is moving toward. We need to develop apps because all customers are not alike. One size doesn't fit all. They want to feel that they are special, and we develop systems for them.

Maybe one can use the same hardware in different systems, but the software solutions should be altered so they fit the target customer. That is a big change for this

important in life. It is the human connection that matters.

industry. We have lot of ideas and we will continue to do disruptive things.

In the geospatial space, there are sensor companies and there are mapping companies, and they collaborate via interfaces. But, if an environment is horizontal and one turns it vertical, it presents a very different picture. We want to create vertical solutions for specific industries where the customer can have an entire workflow solution, and not just one detail or a solution that creates boundaries between various technologies. A simplified workflow for a specific industry is our target.

One needs to have a vision, but that vision should not be just about technology. It has to be linked to the business prospect, and we are very pragmatic about that. If we develop something that costs millions of dollars, somebody has to pay for it. Therefore, you need a target and the target should not be defined as technology, it should be defined as a purpose. Someone would want to use it.

And I think that is the difference Hexagon is bringing to most of the industries it is engaged with right now.

At the groundbreaking ceremony of Intergraph headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama, along with senior Intergraph executives.

Geospatial World I November 2012

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