HxGNLIVE 2015

An extravaganza of new technology, future visions, opinions, synergetic collaborations and a great deal more was presented during HxGNLIVE in Las Vegas, which ran until June 4th 2015. The event has attracted thousands of users from a variety of industries and organisations, many of whom work in surveying, GIS, building, metrology, security, mining, cadastre or government. 

Attendees witnessed pioneering performances from Leica Geosystems, whose innovations will result in high precision measurements executed by UAV's (drones). Ground Penetrating Radar is now being combined with Mobile Mapping: underground/above ground integration whilst driving. The term ‘Wearable Reality Capture’ refers to the miniaturizing of 3D scanners. Future Hexagon conferences will surely boast scanning teams equipped only with a backpack. The prefix 'Smart' has also landed within the Hexagon family of companies, but it still might be synonymous with 'how we really would like stuff to run'.

Another hot topic is the crowd sourcing of map data. “We can't rely on a few professionals, we have to ensure everyone contributes to making the best maps possible.” Folks who still feel that crowd sourced data is useless, might want to reconsider if they want to make it work. “See it as a big lump of data, find trends in the volume and not so much in the detail”, said Mladen Stojic of Hexagon Geospatial. David Glenn, of Intergraph fame, elaborated in a dedicated session on Geomedia GIS about upcoming versions of GeoMedia 15.0 and what could be expected from "16.0" 

Geospatial

Mladen Stojic refers to the new M.App Chest cloud space, which is hosted by Amazon, 'The Dropbox for Geospatial'. The official launch of the Smart M.App portfolio and the Geospatial 2016 release will be at HxGNLIVE in November 2015, in Hong Kong. Purpose built applications for end users, localised by partners, are going to be a part of the M.App Portfolio. GEOApp: UAS is another new product from Hexagon's Geospatial division. It's a fully automated workflow using photogrammatic data from UAV's. A collaboration between Hexagon and satellite image vendor Airbus Defence & Space integrates content into the software.

Geosystems

Creating 3D models, the newly released Leica Captivate enables measurement professionals across a wide array of industries, working in various applications, to capture and manage complex data. By combining software, precision measurement instruments and services, it's an all-encompassing solution with the look and feel of a smartphone. With Leica Captivate onboard, the new Leica total stations and MultiStation 'learn' any environment, deliver accurate positions regardless of difficult conditions and offer a fast relock in case of interrupted line of sight. The new instruments include: Leica Nova MS60 MultiStation, Leica CS20 Controller, Leica Nova TS60 Total Station, Leica CS35 Tablet and Leica Viva TS16 Total Station. When integrated with the Hexagon Imagery Program through Leica Infinity office software, basemaps can be viewed in Leica Captivate. 30 centimetre, 4-band georeferenced imagery helps users be more visually aware of what is at any jobsite, allowing for better decision making in real time. This results in increased productivity, fewer errors and a reduction in return trips to the site. Additionally, this saves time during post processing. 

Technet Rail

Geosystems elaborated on the acquisition of Technet-Rail 2010 Gmbh, a software development firm specialising in geospatial big data applications for the rail transportation industry. Incorporating technet-rail’s specialised knowledge, the acquisition should extend Leica Geosystems’ offerings, specifically in the mobile mapping segment and enable the bundling of direct or hosted market vertical solutions for the rail industries. Technet-Rail’s highly-mathematical and probability-perception approach to analysing large 3D datasets is in use on rail networks with mobile mapping data, including applications such as dynamically extracting clearances and rail gauges over whole rail networks. With this technology, Leica Geosystems is now able to further extend existing mobile mapping solutions into the rail industry. This includes developing specific monitoring tools for dedicated pit-to-ports rail networks, solutions for timely and cost-effective rail bridge refurbishment, and enabling monitoring of the growing high-speed rail networks. Offering full geo-referenced rail network maps, technet-rail 3D data tools can be used to calculate maximum train speeds – a process that until now was without an as-built basis.

Esri

The newly launched Hexagon Imagery Program, which provides ready-to-use imagery services, will be available to Esri users through the ArcGIS Marketplace. These services deliver high-resolution aerial imagery such as ready-to-use basemaps and analytical subscription services. Esri, Hexagon, and Leica have joined forces to provide this imagery to Esri users. These images are powered by the ArcGIS platform, deployed into the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. As these services are powered by the ArcGIS platform, the user has the support of a powerful, dynamic web GIS. The Hexagon Imagery Program includes two imagery services that are live and available now on the ArcGIS Marketplace as basemap and dynamic image services. The Basemap Service is a cached basemap imagery service consisting of 30-centimeter true colour imagery that is updated on an ongoing basis. The Multispectral Imagery Service provides access to the original pixel values for all four bands (red, green, blue and near infrared) of the 30-centimeter imagery. This dynamic image service is ready to use for rich image analysis and exploitation activities in ArcGIS for Desktop, ArcGIS Pro, web and mobile apps, and supported Esri partner applications. Through the Hexagon Imagery Program, the collection, storage and serving of imagery have been streamlined through a set of cloud-based subscription services, freeing up staff to perform the critical tasks that keep our communities running smoothly. These services are sold on a subscription basis for specific areas of interest. A single subscription includes access to both the Basemap and Multispectral Imagery services. This bundling of capabilities allows organizations to deliver both fast-performing basemaps and analytically capable multispectral services using just one subscription.

Autodesk

Leica Geosystems announced a collaboration with Autodesk to provide wider access to premier reality-capture and BIM-to-field layout solutions for professionals involved in laser scanning, building construction layout and related markets. The collaboration should create new opportunities for professionals working with Autodesk software to leverage the high-accuracy data from Leica Geosystems’ sensors directly within popular Autodesk authoring tools. Multiple technology integrations are being explored as both companies investigate ways to create synergies that will benefit their joint customers. 

Next HxGNLIVE events: Hong Kong 18-20 November 2015, Anaheim, CA 13-16 June 2016.

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