| Maine Purchases SPOT Statewide Image Map
The Maine Office of GIS (OGIS) will soon be using a statewide digital "image map" created from current SPOT satellite imagery. Maine OGIS purchased the imagery, and the licensing to distribute it throughout all state, county and local government agencies, and to all state schools. In addition, the image database will be viewable over the Internet.
"Many of our mapping and GIS applications will benefit from this image database," reports Dan Walters, Director of OGIS. "Initially, we will be using the imagery to quickly screen digitize new roads for our statewide E911 program. The imagery greatly increases the flexibility and efficiency of our road centerline update process by allowing us to be more selective and methodical in scheduling GPS field work." SPOT is currently using their constellation of satellites to acquire the imagery needed to create the Maine database. The very current 10 meter resolution imagery will be processed to a high degree of map accuracy, and formatted for easy use in desktop mapping and geographic information systems (GIS). The imagery is licensed for use by any state, county, and local government agency, and by all Maine state schools, including universities. The Maine coverage is part of the new "SPOT USA Select" product series that will cover the entire US, providing low cost and broad access to large area image databases. The program is the first of its kind to respond to market demand for increased access to readily useable image databases.
For additional information on the SPOT USA Select program see http://www.spot.com/HOME/NEWS/spotusaselect.htm
For additional information on the SPOT USA Select program see http://www.spot.com/HOME/NEWS/spotusaselect.htm
For general information on SPOT see http://www.spot.com/spot-us.htm
For information on Maine OGIS, see http://apollo.ogis.state.me.us
The Maine E911 project web site is http://apollo.ogis.state.me.us/projects/e911/e911.htm
AVCAN announces a Major Technology Breakthrough to Detect Shallow Oil and Gas Pipelines
AVCAN Systems Corporation has recently developed and successfully tested their Infrared Detection System for identifying shallow oil and gas transmission pipelines. The Infrared Detection System can effectively and accurately detect shallow or exposed pipe and other potential pipeline integrity issues before these conditions cause pipeline failure, threaten property boundaries, adversely affect the environment or cause loss of life.
The Infrared Detection System is a refinement of the existing AVCAN System enabling oil and gas companies to locate pipelines not buried to the required depth, usually 42 inches. Test sections that were recently surveyed for a major U.S. utility found pipe originally indicated by existing methods to be buried at 50 inches below grade were in fact only 24 to 32 inches as identified by the Infrared Detection System. This is an extremely important find for pipeline companies as shallow pipe is one of the leading causes of pipeline integrity failure.
With AVCAN's Infrared Detection System, there is no need for extensive ground inspection methods. Our differential GPS positioning digital video and digital infrared imagery provides tangible confirmation of any potential problem areas and satisfies clients' due diligence reporting. In North America alone, there are over 500,000 miles of oil and gas transmission pipelines, representing an estimated annual market potential of over $US 75 million for AVCAN's proprietary services for this particular application.
AVCAN has developed a technology that enables utility companies to operate more efficiently by supplying a business solution that effectively monitors and controls inventories and assets. As a data acquisition service provider with proven industry knowledge, AVCAN provides fast, cost-effective and critical information to utility companies. By generating integrated information that is vital to the planning, managing and operating of utilities, AVCAN services utilities and allows them to gain a strong business advantage.
For further information contact: John J. Sutherland, President and C.E.O. , Phone: 604.654.1860 E-mail: [email protected]
Idrisi Upgrade Offer
Now through September 30, 2000, order a new single-user license of Idrisi32 and receive the competitive upgrade discount! All you need to do to receive the discount is provide proof of ownership of competitor products-- ArcView, ArcInfo, Map Info, Erdas, PCI, ENVI, ERMAPPER, AutoCAD, GeoMedia/MGE, Atlas GIS. A photocopy of the CD, cover page of the manual, or bill of sale is acceptable proof.
Upgrade prices are for new orders only, not upgrades from previous versions of Idrisi32. Student Starters, K-12 licenses and multi-seat license products do not qualify for the competitive upgrade.
Competitive Upgrade Price: Idrisi32 General $695; Idrisi32 Government $475; Idrisi32 Non-Profit $475; Idrisi32 Academic $295; Idrisi32 Student $125
Order by e-mail at: [email protected], phone 1-508-793- 7526 or fax 1-508-793-8842. You can also order on-line and the discount will be applied at our office before shipping. On the Payment and Shipping page, there is a question: "Which point of contact initiated this order?" You MUST choose "Competitive Upgrade Promotion" from the pick list to receive the special pricing. The competitive upgrade proof must be submitted with order to receive discount.
Digital Earth 2001 Call for Papers
The Digital Earth 2001 Program Committee invites the submission of 200-400 word abstracts for presentations at the international conference to be held in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, June 24-28, 2001.
We invite contributions from leading international experts who are willing to share their vision, knowledge and experiences. Papers are sought in, but not limited to, the following areas: -Vision and Concepts of Digital Earth
-Leveraging the information infrastructure
-Conceptualization, design, operation and acceptance of publicly accessible information
-Integration of information for improved decision-making
-Public participatory GIS
-Democratization of information
-Electronic government and E-business
-Internet/web GIS
-Leveraging GIS/RS/GPS/communications technologies
-Earth observing systems and remote sensing technologies
-Standards and interoperability
-Multi-dimensional data modeling
-Spatial data warehousing and mining
-Virtual reality
-High performance computing and communication
-Using the Digital Earth concept to solve real-world problems in environmental protection, disaster management, natural resource conservation or improve sustainable economic and social development
-Using the Digital Earth concept to improve the quality of life of the humankind
Digital Earth addresses the cultural, institutional, scientific and technical challenges that allow the citizen, scientists, planners and policy makers to visualize the Earth, and all places within it, to access information about it and to understand and influence the social, economic and environmental issues that affect their lives in their neighbourhoods, their countries and the Earth.
Abstract submission deadline is December 1, 2000. These should be in a non-formatted ASCII text format, in English and/or French and be limited to 200-400 words.
All submissions must be sent to the attention of: David Finley, Program Chair, E-mail to [email protected], Tel: 1-506-444-4644, Fax: 1-506-453-3898.
For a complete listing of suggested conference themes, abstract submission specifications or on the Conference, please visit the web site www.digitalearth.ca.
Sheri Flanagan - Public Relations Coordinator Digital Earth 2001 Organizing Committee 264 Rookwood Avenue, Fredericton, NB, E3B 2M2, Canada Tel: 1-506-458-8533 Fax: 1-506-459-3849
Starlink announces the first ultra-portable DGPS system
The new Invicta 210L receiver, weighing only 15 ounces and measuring .875"h x 4.125"w x 7.375"d, creates a new class of high performance, sub-meter DGPS receiver. When combined with Starlink's TBA series antenna, the Invicta 210L provides a truly lightweight, low profile, high-performance positioning package. Man-portable applications such as GIS data collection will benefit greatly from the new ultra-portable DGPS receiver technology.
The 210L is the latest development in Starlink's Invicta series of receivers, which combine GPS and DGPS receivers into versatile units that provide real-time, sub-meter accuracy. The single circuit card used in the 210L is also available as an OEM product.
"The 210L is combined with the new TBA series antenna, representing the next step for combined DGPS receivers", said David Fowler vice president of new product development at Starlink. "Starlink is proud to be the first to offer a product in the ultra-portable class".
For more information, contact: Starlink Incorporated; 500 Center Ridge Drive, Suite 600 Austin, TX 78753-1030; (512) 454-5511; (800) 460-2167; Fax: (512) 454-5570 http://www.starlinkdgps.com [email protected]
TXU Electric & Gas Adopts Tadpole's Mapping Software For Field Operations
Tadpole-Cartesia, the field mapping software business unit of Tadpole Technology, Inc., announced the enterprise adoption of its Conic software solutions by TXU Electric & Gas. Tadpole's productivity-generating software will now be run on over two hundred mobile computing devices by the utility's gas leak detection and repair personnel.
TXU Electric & Gas is constantly looking for more productive methods of working in the field. Aimed at supporting the company's pledge to deliver value and fast customer support, the utility has developed a compliance management system to track and assign all work to a technician in the field. Conic software will now become an integral part of the system and will allow gas leak detection technicians to sketch new leaks and view job-related spatial data in the field.
Brian Jackson, gas records system supervisor at TXU Electric & Gas, comments: "The decision to use Conic software was logical. It's simple to learn and easy for technicians to display multiple drawings and raster data, store attribute information and navigate to locations by address or street name. It also provides TXU personnel with a controlled sketching environment, and the ability to transfer data back to the utility's central leak management system."
With Conic software, reports will be prepared or updated at the job site by TXU Electric & Gas personnel thus eliminating delays and increasing customer responsiveness. The risk of misinterpreting a technician's drawings or notes resulting in inaccurate data being entered into the corporate system will be virtually eliminated; the technician will record the information on site at the time work is completed.
For more information, contac Tadpole Technology plc at (www.tadpole.com), ;760-929-0992, or by email [email protected].
PCI Announces Release of Two Additions to Geomatica
Geomatica FreeView, publicly available since May 2000 as a Preview release, is a new viewing environment for working with a variety of data, including imagery, vectors, and ancillary data such as graphical bitmaps. Geomatica FreeView allows the viewing, enhancing, and examination of remotely sensed imagery such as LANDSAT, SPOT, RADARSAT, IKONOS, ERS-1, NOAA AVHRR, and aerial photography.
Readable geospatial data formats include Oracle 8i Spatial® (with Oracle GeoImage® data management), MrSID®, TIFF, NITF, Arc/Info shape files, and SICAD, just to name a few. Users can employ FreeView to integrate GIS data with imagery and view the associated attribute data. Geomatica FreeView also offers basic enhancement features, cursor controls, efficient roam capabilities, and detailed online help.
"Our preview release of Geomatica FreeView was a great success with our customers, product testers, and our industry partners. Refinements since then have made Geomatica FreeView the best freeware geospatial image/data viewer tool available."
Dr. Robert Moses, President and CEO, PCI Geomatics. Geomatica FreeView provides seamless access to the most complete range of geospatial data formats in the market - free. Geomatica FreeView is available from the PCI Geomatics web site (www.pcigeomatics.com) where updates will be made available.
Geomatica GeoGateway provides viewing, integrating, and translating of geographic data. The Geomatica GeoGateway interface is a fully georeferenced file based viewer that can visualize any number of geographic data layers in a single viewing environment. This viewing environment is matched with the capability to import/export over 80 imagery, vector, and other data formats (without the need for conversion), including read and write support for Oracle 8i® Spatial with Oracle GeoImage® data management. This seamless and direct geospatial data transfer application is unique in the market place, making geospatial imagery much more accessible to a wider range of users. Other supported formats include MrSID®, TIFF, NITF, Arc/Info shape files, and SICAD, just to name a few.
Building upon Geomatica FreeView, released in the Spring of 2000 and updated in September 2000, Geomatica GeoGateway has additional image manipulation tools built into the user environment. Improved reprojection and subsetting tools are found in Geomatica GeoGateway, as are impressive image enhancement, magnification, and panning features.
"Geomatica GeoGateway offers customers a very effective and very affordable tool for translating, integrating, and visualizing geospatial data. The market has taken a keen interest in this as well as the added enhancement, reprojection, and subsetting capabilities we are providing." Dr. Robert Moses, President and CEO, PCI Geomatics. Geomatica GeoGateway is available for purchase from PCI Geomatics sales representatives around the world. Visit the PCI Geomatics web page (www.pcigeomatics.com) to find a representative in your area. Geomatica FreeView, the no-cost geospatial data viewer, is available for immediate download directly from PCI Geomatics through their web site.
Phase Three, Geomatica Prime, is currently scheduled for December 2000. Geomatica Prime contains the essential elements needed for accomplishing most tasks in remote sensing, GIS, and cartography. Its emphasis is on ease of use, multi-resolution data handling, automation, extensibility, and the ability to integrate Geomatica with other technologies. Additional modules include advanced capabilities for Remote Sensing, GIS, Cartography, Photogrammetry, DEM, and WebServer.
For more information, contact: PCI Geomatics at (www.pcigeomatics.com)
Research Systems, Inc. Announces Site License Agreement with NOAA
Research Systems, Inc., a developer of technical data visualization and application development software, announced an IDL* site-wide license agreement with NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The site license agreement gives NOAA unlimited rights to distribute, install and run IDL software at several of their research facilities including the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, National Severe Storms Laboratory, Space Environment Center and the National Data Geophysical Data Center. By purchasing a site license, NOAA will be able to standardize their data visualization, data analysis and application development on IDL.
NOAA has been using IDL for more than 15 years for a wide variety of research including:
* El Ni–o/La Ni–a studies
* Climate change studies & modeling
* Atmospheric chemistry, data collection & research
* Ozone layer depletion research & air quality studies
* Weather forecasting
* Solar storm prediction
* Space weather studies
* Hurricane research and predictions
* Oceanography & ocean chemistry research
NOAA is comprised of five different agencies: the National Weather Service, The National Marine Fisheries Service, the National Ocean Service, the National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service, and the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.
NOAA's mission is to describe and predict changes in the Earth's environment, and conserve and wisely manage the Nation's coastal and marine resources.
For more information about NOAA, visit their Web site at www.noaa.gov.
For more information contact Michelle Asher at 303-413-3951 or at [email protected] www.researchsystems.com.
ACTion Imaging Solutions announces the latest generation of its ANAtech Eagle Monochrome Scanners
With a 42" scan width and ground breaking 2540 dpi maximum resolution, the Eagle 4225 is designed specifically for the most demanding GIS, mapping and CAD applications. The scanner is also available in a 27" scan width with the model designation 2725.
The ultra high 1270 dpi optical resolution is made possible through a unique patented three point optical mounting and media transport system. This critical design feature delivers exceptional geometric accuracy of 0.05% by eliminating the effects of environmental changes, external vibration and resonance.
The ANAtech Eagle 4225 produces extremely accurate first generation scans capable of being imported directly into a Geo Referencing application with minimal post-scan editing, such as rubber sheeting or warping. For example, these scanners can resolve an incredible 18 line pairs per millimeter, allowing the tightest of contour lines to be separated. No other scanner is available at this price point that is capable of achieving this level of quality and performance.
ACTion Imaging Solutions Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Barry Silevitch states, "ACTion Imaging Solutions responded to requests from GIS and mapping customers for a superior level of performance in a large format scanner solution. Our job as the leading GIS scanner developer is to provide the best product solutions and the Eagle 4225 is our answer to the latest GIS and CAD requirements. Already it has received worldwide interest and several scanners have been put to work in client facilities producing superior results".
For more information, contact: ACTion Imaging Solutions, Kings Hall, St. Ives, Cambs, PE27 4WY UK Phone: +44 (0)1480 464618 Fax: +44 (0)1480 464620 10499 Bradford Road, Littleton, CO 80127 USA; Phone: +1 800 533 0165 Fax: +1 303 973 7092
Intermap Announces $1,600,000 GeoSAR Contract
Intermap Technologies announced that it has received a contract to provide software and technical assistance on the GeoSAR project from the prime contractor, Earthdata, Corp. GeoSAR is a next generation Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IFSAR) which will collect high resolution and high accuracy Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and Orthorectified Radar Images (ORIs). The contract, worth $1,600,000 US is for provision of software tools, quality control processes and technology transfer, based on Intermap's extensive experience with radar systems.
Intermap Technologies has a 25 year history of radar remote sensing, through it's STAR-1 and STAR-2 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems. For the last three years, Intermap has been operating its STAR-3i system, which is the current generation IFSAR system. Brian Bullock, Intermap's President and CEO commented, "Our extensive practical experience with the commercialization of airborne radar systems will add tremendous value to the GeoSAR project. We are looking forward to being involved in the development of the next generation of Radar remote sensing."
Intermap provides digital elevation data and orthorectified images for customers who want accurate data that features consistency and lower price. The Company employs approximately 120 people in its corporate office in Denver, Colorado and other offices in Calgary, Alberta, Ottawa, Ontario. Intermap Technologies Corporation is listed on the Canadian Venture Exchange and trades under the symbol IMP.A. The CompanyŐs website may be found at: http://www.intermaptechnologies.com
For More Information Contact: Intermap Technologies Garth R. Lawrence, vice president, Marketing; Tel: (303) 708-0955, Ext. 211; E-mail: [email protected]
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