eeGeo Launches Global 3D Mapping Platform to Visualise Location-Based Services and Interiors

New Geospatial Meta-Mapping Platform Contextualises Data for Interiors and Places

eeGeo, the UK-based 3D mapping company, today launched its geospatial meta-mapping platform which enables organisations to build interactive mobile applications to deliver content and location-based information. The eeGeo platform enables businesses across a range of sectors to easily visualise complex data sets on a geospatially accurate representation of the interior and exterior world. The platform is disrupting the industry through enabling customers to deliver engaging, compelling and differentiated 3D map experiences.

“The world is a three dimensional space and our platform accurately represents this as a global 3D map, transitioning seamlessly from outdoors with detail of all terrain, roads and landmarks, to the interior of buildings, right down to office, desk or counter level,” said Ian Hetherington, CEO, eeGeo. “We are able to visualise any space in intricate detail, including airports, shopping malls, museums, offices, stadiums and whole campuses. We enable location-based services in the widest sense, encompassing many vertical markets. With our solutions, businesses can extract meaningful understanding and insight from big data, all on one single integrated platform. Our most powerful differentiator is our ability to engage and retain users, a legacy of our video game roots.”

Hetherington continues, “This is a platform of true scale; to date we have built the entire USA, Britain, Canada and Japan, plus a host of iconic cities around the world. Building whole countries is carried out in response to customer demand, the process taking only a matter of weeks to create a country-wide, cloud-based map. This dynamic, interactive world enables our clients to highlight key destinations and places of interest specific to their brand, enriching the end user experience. eeGeo has helped clients within the facilities management, travel, tourism, local media and advertising sectors to successfully launch applications to better visualise data, increase engagement with customers and differentiate as brands.”

“This is no mean feat – after four years of intensive development we are really excited to bring eeGeo to market. The applications and use cases of the eeGeo platform are endless. In an increasingly mobile-first world it provides the ability to present multiple real-time data feeds within one visually stunning app, enabling end users to visualise, understand and act on information instantly and intuitively,” Hetherington added.

“Often businesses have the ability to attract users but struggle to maintain engagement and retention levels,” said Jeremy Copp, Chief Commercial Officer, eeGeo. “Presenting information and services on our platform maximises user acquisition, engagement and retention. As an example, our users have been found to interact with the application nearly three times longer than the sector benchmark and over-index on the frequency of use. And, NTT DoCoMo has successfully attracted millions of consumers after launching its 3D Map application delivered using the eeGeo platform.”

The cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) platform can ingest raw map and GIS data from any source, creating integrated 3D maps of any building interior, city or country. The platform delivers high performance, real-time streaming of the 3D maps over wireless networks, eliminating the need to store map data in the application or on the device. Streaming is optimised for mainstream mobile devices and low bandwidth networks to deliver a dynamic, interactive experience to all users. The platform software development kit enables customers to develop applications on a full range of device architectures including smartphones, tablets, browsers, PCs and virtual reality headsets.

The eeGeo 3D geospatial meta-mapping platform provides its customers with the following advantages:

Clear differentiation from competitors through the ability to fully customise the appearance and functionality of the map, specific to brand preferences
The ability to map the interior and exterior of buildings, providing an instantly recognisable environment for orientation and information discovery and an engaging user experience
No restrictions on business models, data or service types means that customers have the freedom to include all types of localised search and advertising results, to including display advertising and dynamic content
Transparent and cost effective, per-active-user, monthly pricing models enable customers to control the services margin without any surprises
Recce, the eeGeo proof of concept application, can be downloaded through the Android and iOS app stores. Recce provides users with insight into the eeGeo experience and is an example of some of the platform’s capabilities. Users can explore and navigate their way through major cities in 3D such as London, San Francisco and New York, whilst discovering key points of interest around them.

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NASA created detailed 3D map of Greenland’s ice sheet

By Aleks Buczkowski






Deep ice sheets close to North and South Poles are a natural storage of historical records of climate changes over last thousands years. Using ice-penetrating radar data, NASA scientists have built the comprehensive map of layers deep inside the ice of Greenland.

Greenland’s ice sheet is the second largest mass of ice on Earth, containing enough water to raise ocean levels by about 20 feet (6 m). This new map, prepared on the basis of radar scans collected by Operation IceBridge, gives scientists data to determine the age of large swaths of Greenland’s ice as well as to monitor its melting which dramatically accelerated over the past two decades.

The radar works by sending signals into the ice and recording the strength and return time of reflected signals. From those signals, scientists can detect the ice surface, sub-ice bedrock and layers within the ice. Scientists are especially interested in knowing more about ice from the Eemian period (115,000 to 130,000 years ago) that was roughly as warm as today. Based on historical knowledge we could try to predict the future climate changes.

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Commercial UAV Expo Issues Report on UAVs and Construction

Free Report Provides Insight from Leading Firms on the Value of UAVs for Construction Projects




The organizers of Commercial UAV Expo today announced the release of their most recent report, titled “Progressive Construction Firms Mobilize to Put UAVs to Work.” This free report provides key insights into how UAV technology is being implemented to improve efficiency, production and safety in construction projects. The complete report is available for download here.

The report comes as a result of increased demand from the construction industry for more information on implementing drone technology in construction projects. To date, more than 1,000 Section 333 exemptions have been granted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for operating commercial drones. Many of these exemptions are for construction related applications such as aerial surveying, construction site inspection and monitoring, aerial photography and 3D mapping.

In advance of Commercial UAV Expo, which will take place October 5-7, 2015 in Las Vegas, the report will delve into how industry leaders from leading firms including AECOM, Barrick Gold and DPR Construction are using UAV technology, where they are finding the greatest benefits from it, and how the value of UAVs data gathering solutions will grow in the near future.

Jon Amdur, Vice President and Program Manager for AECOM’s Unmanned Aerial Systems (DCS Division), Iain Allen, Barrick Gold’s Senior Manager of GIS and Scott Widman, Project Manager at DPR were interviewed for the report. Jon Amdur and Ian Allen are on the Commercial UAV Expo Advisory Board and will be chairing sessions at the event. Scott Widman will be speaking in two sessions at Commercial UAV Expo, “Reality Capture in Construction – Drone Data” and “Insurance Considerations.”

About Commercial UAV Expo
Commercial UAV Expo is a conference and exhibition exclusively focused on the commercial sUAS (small Unmanned Aerial Systems) market in North America covering industries including Surveying & Mapping; Civil Infrastructure; Mining; Construction; Process, Power & Utilities; Precision Agriculture; Law Enforcement, Security and Search & Rescue (SAR). Registration is available online now. Prices increase September 15. UAV professionals are encouraged to register early for the best rates.

Commercial UAV Expo is organized by SPAR Point Group, a leading organizer of conferences and trade shows with 15 years in the geospatial arena, including SPAR 3D Expo & Conference and International LiDAR Mapping Forum. SPAR Point Group is wholly-owned by Diversified Communications. Commercial UAV Expo will take place October 5-7, 2015 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.


Contact:
Lee Corkhill
207-842-5520
Email Contact

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Rolta Wins Smart City and 3D Mapping Projects Worth About US $15M in the Middle East

(PRNewswire) — Rolta announced today that it has been awarded Smart City and 3D Mapping with City Modelling projects in the Middle East, for a combined value around$15 million USD.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121023/570667 )

This recognizes Rolta's unique ability to combine its domain expertise with productized Smart City solutions that fundamentally change how agencies and governments fulfill their missions. This is a natural evolution and extension of Rolta's pioneering 3D Mapping, which lays a foundation for sophisticated Smart City applications. Rolta's innovative Smart City solutions consolidate numerous agency centric systems, while 3D mapping offers visually rich means of collaboration and communication of spatial data.

These wins follow on the heels of numerous other success stories in the region and globally, often garnering recognition and awards from prestigious customers and leading Industry bodies. Rolta's growing portfolio of IP led Smart City solutions serve diverse needs, including Asset Management, Economic Development, Safety & Security, National Spatial Data Infrastructure, Governance, Urban Planning, Environment, Transportation and many more. With a strong footing in the Middle East, Rolta continues to reinforce its commitment to serve the needs of the region's progressive clientele.

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. K. K. Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, stated "Through our deep expertise with hundreds of Smart Cities client engagements, Rolta is helping cities around the world transform how they deliver services and engage with citizens leveraging innovative technologies such as Big Data, Analytics, GIS, 3D Mapping, Mobility and Social Media."

About Rolta :

Rolta is a leading provider of innovative IT solutions for many vertical segments, including Federal and State Governments, Defense, Homeland Security, Utilities, Oil & Gas, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Retail, and Healthcare. By uniquely combining its expertise in the IT, Engineering and Geospatial domains, Rolta develops exceptional solutions for these segments. The Company leverages its industry-specific know-how, rich repository of field-proven intellectual property that spans photogrammetry, image processing, geospatial applications, Business Intelligence, Big Data analytics, Cloud computing, and Software Defined Infrastructure for providing sophisticated enterprise-level integrated solutions. Rolta is a multinational organization headquartered in India. The Company operates from 40 locations worldwide through its subsidiaries, and has executed projects in over 45 countries. Rolta is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange in India. The Company's GDRs are listed on the Main Board of London Stock Exchange. The Company's 'Senior Notes' are listed on Singapore Stock Exchange.

For more information, visit - http://www.rolta.com or contact:

Hiranya Ashar
Joint Managing Director-International Operations & Group CFO
Email Contact
Telephone: +91 (22) 2926 6666

Reida Elwannas
President, GIS/Mapping - EMEA
Email Contact
Telephone: +971 (4) 391 5212

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GIS and Gaming

BY ELIZABETH BORNEMAN




Once a treat for the upper classes, video games have become an incredibly technologically advanced piece of equipment to have casually laying around your living room. Children now are raised with video games and, if they don’t have a console themselves, are used to the feel of controllers and screens through contact with them in other places. Graphics have moved from blocky, pixelated characters to incredibly high-definition and realistic pictures that immerse the player in the game. Simple quests have given way to complex story lines, backstories for the myriad of players’ characters, and entire virtual worlds to explore from the comfort of your home.

Move to a science lab at a university where students are gathered around computer screens, mapping an undersea geological feature on the computer with the help of their professor. GIS is used for cartography, mapping watershed patterns, tracking wildlife across a corridor, virtual city planning and much more. Complex algorithms and data are used to create a virtual and very detailed map of the systems being viewed, and the real-life applications are ever expanding.

What do these two pieces of advanced technology have to do with each other? For starters, many video games are set in virtual worlds that require some knowledge of real-world geography from the designers. Rivers, mountains, valleys, and more pepper video games and players would be disappointed if their characters merely walked through them as opposed to over, up, or around. Games like World of Craft and SimCity are fantasy worlds (or allow you to build your own world) while games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto emulate real world places like Iraq and California. Keeping these places geographically correct in the game gives players the ability to immerse themselves in the scenario, making it more realistic.

While GIS remains relatively unknown to much of the non-scientific population it is becoming increasingly popular for game designers, governments, and those who wish to improve the world as we currently know it. Online GIS systems are already up and running and could be used to perform research and analysis by the common users who frequent them. By playing virtual games, data could be collected and used to improve the conditions in our cities and more.

GIS and video games are already being merged by the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies. Research has produced a few virtual war games there which are used to simulate a real war environment (in this case, Iraq) and is used as immersion therapy for returning veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The game explores a war environment in which IEDs, enemy fire, and interpersonal interactions all work towards giving players a better insight into the complexities of war and cultural interactions. Sections of the simulation also allow for practicing negotiation skills and securing a city while dealing with potential problems like tribal interactions, remerging resurgence groups, low supplies, and language barriers.

Veterans with PTSD have been treated with the simulation, starting with something as simple as sitting in a Humvee with a partner to returning to the war environment and solving problems. By being successful in this way, veterans’ brains can be changed to overcome the effects of PTSD and other war-related issues that have followed them home.

The future is bright for both GIS systems and video games. By working together these industries could not only continue to produce better graphics and storylines but put everyday people to use by playing games that could solve the problems we are increasingly facing in the world. From geographical anomalies to weather patterns, animal habitats to urban planning, war games to fantasy worlds, the possibilities are endless.

SIVAN DESIGN’S CIVIL SIMULATE PROVIDES A 3D ENVIRONMENT.

References:
The Intersection of GIS and Gaming. Matt Artz. October 7, 2011. http://blogs.esri.com/esri/esri-insider/2011/10/07/the-intersection-of-gis-and-gaming/

Stack Exchange. Geographical Information Systems. May 19, 2011.http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/9986/is-there-any-experience-using-computer-games-to-display-gis-data

Today’s G.I.s train with video games. NBC News. Patrick Miller. October 10, 2009.http://www.nbcnews.com/id/32331920/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/#.UuOp8hDfrrc

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3D Mapping with Google Smartphones

BY REBECCA MAXWELL




The human brain is a remarkable instrument when it comes to navigation and creating mental maps. A person is able find his or her way through an unfamiliar place while simultaneously producing and storing visual maps of that area in the mind for later use. Of course, some individuals are better at this than others, and paper and electronic maps are helpful navigation tools as well. Up until now, though, technology has not been able to match this innate mapmaking capacity of mankind.

All of that could change with Project Tango from Google. Project Tango is a new initiative from the technology giant that could revolutionize how the world is mapped and navigated. Google announced in February of 2014 that the company has built a prototype Android smartphone that acquires the dimensions of a place just by being moved around it. Someone with one of these smartphones in his or her hand, for instance, could progress around a room, like a kitchen or bedroom. The phone picks up the dimensions of the room as it is moved around, creating a 3D map of it using the data it obtained.

The fundamental goal of Project Tango, according to Google, is to create detailed indoor maps. The 5-inch smartphone is equipped with a regular 4-megapixal camera but also includes a motion sensing camera as well as a depth sensor, all built into the back of the phone. These special sensors pick up what is in front of them using depth perception and spatial awareness, making over a quarter million measurements every second. The phone also incorporates a low-power computer-vision processor that actually creates the 3D maps. This technology is not all that different from how NASA’s rovers explore the surface of Mars. Only this type of technology can now fit in the palm of your hand.

There seems to be a wide range of possibilities as to what this technology could do. By creating extremely detailed maps of the world, and indoor spaces in particular, this smartphone could ultimately give precise directions to any given point. There could be incredible ways to use this technology in order to help the visually impaired navigate places they have never been before. This technology could have other implications as well such as ability to allow users to play hide-and-seek in your house with a virtual character. It could also allow a person to walk into a storeand know exactly where the item is that he or she is looking for.

PROJECT TANGO FROM GOOGLE

Project Tango, with its advanced mapmaking technology, is still in its infancy. So far, Google has only released 200 prototype devices to developers with the hopes of seeing what it is capable of. They have high expectations, however. Google has stated that this smartphone could capture a wealth of data never before accessible to app designers and be used for room and building planning among many other functions. It is yet to be seen whether Project Tango will dramatically alter the world of navigation, but the leader of Project Tango, Johnny Lee, says that the goal of this venture is to bring a human-like sense of understanding of space and motion to mobile devices.

Visit: Project Tango

Watch the video:

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Map Technology Takes Center Stage in San Diego

More than 16,000 people from 120 countries around the world are expected to converge in San Diego, California, to discuss the power of maps and applying geography at the 2015 Esri User Conference (Esri UC). The Esri UC and related events will take place from July 18–24, featuring a variety of speakers from a presidential candidate to global first responders. Attendees will share ideas and best practices for improving our world through maps.

Other featured speakers will include operations staff from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, executives from JPMorgan Chase, the director of Strategic Cooperation at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), and the president and CEO of the National Geographic Society. Former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley headlines a list of innovators from across every industry who will demonstrate how geospatial technology can make government smarter, combat global health challenges, ensure public safety, and drive greater revenues for businesses.

Before the Esri UC even kicks off, a series of concurrent events related to business; education; national security; architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC); and 3D mapping will take place July 18 and 19 in and around the San Diego Convention Center. These focused events will give attendees a deeper dive into various functional areas and equip them with an action plan to immediately invigorate their own organizations.

Throughout the week, more than 1,000 users will deliver presentations detailing how GIS helps their organizations in a number of ways. Whether they're onstage for Monday's Plenary Session or leading one of the nearly 300 moderated paper sessions, speakers will share lessons learned and best practices that can help their peers succeed.

The National Geographic Society will be on hand to continue celebrating the organization's 100 years of making maps. A chronicle of the history of maps and the American presidency, from future President Dwight Eisenhower carrying maps into battle during World War II to President Barack Obama receiving official presidential maps in the White House, will present the art and science of where. Gary E. Knell, president and CEO of the National Geographic Society, will also speak at the Plenary Session about the importance of geography in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.

From hundreds of expert-led technical workshops to the expansive GIS Solutions EXPO featuring more than 300 technology companies and start-ups, attendees will immerse themselves in the latest and greatest in mapping and spatial analysis. Attendees will find a range of demos, talks, and resources about hot topics—big data, 3D visualization, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and more.

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