GIS on Demand

Where 2.0, 2010

2010-03-31T04:42:00.005+08:00

Day 1 (Tue, March 30, 2010)
. There are still talks about standardization in Geoweb. esp. in area of virtual reality, Augmented Reality, and stuffs like that.
. More push to application
. More talks about embedded geodata to mainstream application
. developer, mainly about iPhone & Andriod / C vs Java.
. google pushes to local search and local business listing
. some API update on mobile applications
. blah blah blah

. Attended tech track from wikitude and OpenGeo. showcasing their standard & API on AR. Good future.
.. Acceessable mostly mobile phone.
.. one of the main issues about AR application is battery power, esp. camera, GPS, & network (GSM/3-4G/Wifi) are working at the same time, this limit the usage. Not to blame the programmers. Also the limitation in in door navigation, accuracy etc.
.. What trigger me, is why not focus AR on street navigation devices with bluetooth connectivity to GSM/3G/WIFI networks?
. Huge gaming potential..
. AR creating more layers
. Serious engineering freternities will come once accuracy issues solved, which very much on hardware sides.
. Until than this is very much visual discovery.

Autopilot system

2010-02-07T13:02:00.002+08:00

Feb. 7, 2010 - Geo Sense is inviting any individual with background in electronic board development to join our team for the development of Malaysia mini uav autonomous chipset system. The team consist of 3 engineers with following backgrounds
1. Aeronautical engineering
2. Electronic design and programming (C & Matlab experience is encouraged but not necessary)
3. UAV operational team (geosense engineering team)

The project will take 8 - 12 months development. Full time in Skudai, Johor office.

Please study mini autopilot system like
Micropilot, paparazi, teknol and Ardu

email me at ismaili at geosense.com.my

Operating micro glider based UAV for town planning & aerial monitoring

2010-01-17T12:04:00.002+08:00

Geo Sense UAV

2009-12-29T11:13:00.003+08:00

Geo Sense is inviting potential partner to look into our existing Cropcam based UAV system. We are looking to improve the following areas

1. Endurance - from existing 30min to min. 60min flight time. Maintaining total aircraft weight of below 4 kg.

2. Camera stabilizing system (gyro system) - to design and develop gyro casing (system) to host on our existing UAV compact camera (camera spec size & weight Pendex Optio A40)

3. Data Telemetry system - to extend existing data coverage (2.4 Mhz) from existing 4 km to min. 10km coverage.

4. To design and develop a simplify UAV recovering system - currently we are using 20 x 20 feets net, with 2 stand poles that are tighted to the ground by 3 robes on each pole. ref pic. We need to improve;
4.1. simplifying the installation of the net, (currently 1 person 20min installation). We require simple installation, 1 man 5 min. installation.
4.2. Looking at parachute recovering system.

5. We are looking for autonomous system programmer to help us with designing and developing (programming) UAV auto pilot system. We provides the basic parameter based on our existing system.

Geo Sense moving forward - an exec summary

2009-11-24T10:14:00.004+08:00

Geo Sense Sdn. Bhd. has been involved in providing service in taking high resolution aerial services using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Geo Sense micro UAV system is glider types that is pre-programmed with flight data and hand launch to fly autonomously according to the pre-set flight plans. Existing micro UAV has been further improved internally by Geo Sense engineering team from it based system, Cropcam, which is purchased from Micropilot, a Canadian based micro UAV technology company. In North America and Europe, Cropcam is mainly used for precision agricultural. Geo Sense has been enhancing Cropcam to be able to extend the flight endurance, functionality and better telemetry system for more demanding works such as urban planning, monitoring, remote sensing and mapping. Geo Sense is creating a new business opportunity in providing an unmanned remote sensing services and a unique service in taking precision high resolution aerial photography on demand services. Geo Sense has been receiving various business requirements for UAV utilization in civilian as well as military.

Geo Sense is among very few private companies in Malaysia that has an opportunity to manage a working commercial UAV system. At this stage Geo Sense is ahead when it comes to first hand operation learning curve as well as the technology know-how.

Geo Sense wants to make full use of these advantages to move beyond operational services to R&D and commercialization civilian UAV system in supporting Malaysia aerospace industry.

recovering

2009-11-22T17:44:00.006+08:00

Geo Sense glider UAV is recovering manually by landing or hitting on the net. In order to minimize the impact, the RC pilot needs to minimize the speed and also to make sure the airframe is bulleyed to the net. Any side hit and miss hit will cause bad impact to the airframe such as cracking and even damaging to internal electronic components.

The airframe is fiberglass based top model elantra pro, high efficient glider with very good penetration. The down side is limited fuselage space to accomodate the batteries and various flight chipset modules. Thus we need to tightly push all component at every pre-flight installation. This cause risk in loose in connectors' joints etc.

Due to our urban flight mission, the UAV have to land in a very tight space, thus inviting high landing risks. In many instances the UAV had to land in high speed, which in long run create cracking to the airframe body. Below is what happen to us after 50 missions and more than 300 km endurance, pretty nasty pictures. The fuselage was break into 2 during our landing in Kemas area
View Larger Map

This bad timing to our mission, which we already facing unusual raining season and also the near deadline.

Lucky, early on we managed to outsource the same airframe as the spare part item. The plan is to transfer the whole electronic components to the new airframe, this include the GPS system which failed at 2 occasions and very much worrying the team. We have 2 days to study the existing broken connectivity and install to the new airframe, which give us 50/50 success rate.

So we sacrified our weekend and we got our new airframe installed with flight components, autonomious system and also some adjustment from our learning curve. This is all about progressive elaboration to the team, and on Sunday afternoon we got the new airframe and quite successful test flight. There some minor hiccups here and there but we got over them as the team and determination. Below is picture of 2 UAV airframes, the one with blue cap is the new one and the left is old one in restoration process.

dead reckoning

2009-11-19T23:26:00.003+08:00

After more than 50 flights mission and almost 500 km total distance, covering more than 30 km sq areas.

Dome Problem

2009-10-20T08:01:00.004+08:00

Geo Sense had been taking and stitching thousands acres of high res aerial images in and around Iskandar Malaysia Development Region. One of the problems that we are facing is when stitching small area with high object like minaret or dome. This is due UAV flies low and many shots were taken with various orientation to fit small area such as pic of UTM Mosque on the upper left.

Simply run stitching software will not work. Manual adjustment using PT GUI or PCI Geoinfomatic is normally required to correct the problem. At worse case a fresh flight is needed to get the exect area of the land object.

mapping Visualization Value

2009-10-19T14:42:00.009+08:00

Real estates and town planner are using boundaries and/or cadastral maps to present an area. The area map gives sufficient information about shape and size of the area as well as in relation to line and point of interest but do not gives enough information about the existing property situation for decision making.
A site visit for inspection is normally required for clarification and decision making. We can use Google maps to get the satellite view of the interest area. Google gives limited resolution and out dated imagery. Thus other options are to order new satellite images of the interest area or hiring an aircraft for aerial photography, which are time consuming and costly. Considering the image need to be ready for decision making in a day or two.
Above is sample of plotted map area and on the right is the one with high res aerial imagery. The possibility to manipulate images for various application are endless.

UAV Flight Planning

2009-10-04T11:13:00.015+08:00

We like to share some of the processes for pre-flight planning in taking high resolution aerial photo using UAV.

The early stage planning is by identifying area that is required to be covered. We use Google Earth Pro to plan the area as well as to get idea on the estimate coverage. Google earth satellite images inherited 20-50 meter accuracy but still it is easiest and fastest way to get an idea how the site look like, other alternative is to visit the coverage area for ground control points (etc), which in many cases, we do not have the resources to do so.
Once we agreed with the coverage area in Google Earth, we will save the raster high res GE image, this features can only be done using GE pro. The jpeg file is save in Lentsika map folder for future viewing.

Meanwhile, the jpeg image need to be registered from Raster to geo spatial vector format and the image registration process is done using Map Info software to produce *.tab format. We need min 3 control points to produce vector table image but in our situation, we normally take 5 control points, which we grap from Google Earth satellite points and this is actually not enough, (and yes, this mean we already inherited like 20-50 meter inaccuracy). Good control points is by going to the ground and take 15-30 GCP, again, in our case, we do not have pleasure and resource to do so. Once the coverage sat image is registered in WGS84 projection. The image can be viewed in our Lentsika flight planning software. Lentsika is developed by Mr. Altos who is working in Finland Forestry R&D centre and is also using Cropcam UAV for their forest monitoring etc. Lentsika is so far the powerful software in managing Cropcam Micropilot UAV flight plan, which give us the coverage area, flight paths, altitudes, attitudes, required resolution, number of images etc. Once we satisfied with the Lentsika flight plan, the flight logs is saved to *.fly file to Horizon ground control software. Can open Horizon software fly and tab files for flight simulation as well as final adjustment in altitute control, flight pattern etc. Geo Sense normally set UAV flight altitute to 320 m or 1,200 ft, which give us approx 6 cm res per pixel image. Horizon log files (fly file) is than transmitted to UAV autonomious flight system or Micropilot for flight data and than trasmitted back to Horizon ground control wirelessly for flight data syn.

There are many ways to fail the flight plan or even to lost the UAV, most controllable and some beyond our control. So far we find we are always subjected to Murphy Law.

Next..how we process large aerial images.

Penggunan UAV Bagi Applikasi Awam

2009-08-25T14:46:00.015+08:00

Ismail Ibrahim
Geo Sense Sdn. Bhd.

Pengenalan Teknologi UAV Bagi Kegunaan Awam (Civilian UAV Applications)

Bagi memastikan pembangunan yang terancang, Kerajaan memerlukan sistem pengurusan dan pengawasan pembangunan yang cekap. Sistem utama yang diguna pakai bagi mengurus dan menganalisa maklumat yang berhubungkait lokasi dan data-data sokongan yang lain dinamakan sistem maklumat Geografi atau Geographical Information System (GIS).

GIS telah diguna pakai seawal tahun 90an bagi membantu pengurusan, penganalisaan dan pemaparan maklumat terutama maklumat pemetaan. GIS juga mampu mengendalikan maklumat-maklumat yang lain seperti hartanah, penduduk, status dan sebagainya. Melalui GIS, susunan-susunan maklumat diletakkan secara lapisan atau spatial dan dihubungkaitkan antara satu dengan yang lain bagi mendapatkan corak hubungan data dan mengenalpasti perubahan sesuatu kawasan mengikut kategori, jarak, kawasan, waktu dan sebagainya.

Data spatial di GIS mempunyai format yang terhad dan dipaparkan secara poligon, garis lurus dan titik tetap (Point of Interest). Walaupun maklumat ini mencukupi untuk pembentangan dan analisa teknikal namum tidak ramai pengguna dapat memahaminya dan memanafatkannya. Ini ditambah dengan sistem GIS yang agak komplek, di mana hanya penguna yang terlatih sahaja yang mampu untuk mengendalikan dan mengekses sistem tersebut.

Sistem maklumat lokasi adalah penting kepada Kerajaan, kerana kebanyakan maklumat kerajaan adalah berkaitan dengan lokasi, kawasan, alamat dan bagi tujuan pemahaman teknikal ianya digambarkan didalam bentuk pemetaan. Jika maklumat pemetaan ini dapat di permudahkan dan di kongsi oleh ramai pengguna maka ianya akan lebih bermanafaat dan akan dapat memperkasakan lagi pengurusan kerajaan diperbagai peringkat.

Kini dengan kemudahan Internet, perkongsian maklumat dapat dijalankan dengan menyeluruh termasuk maklumat pementaan atau geografi (GIS). Prasarana Internet akan terus mempengaruhi dan merubah aliran komunikasi dari tahap rakyat sebagai pelanggan ke peringkat jentera Kerajaan sebagai perlaksanaan dan pemimpin atau pembuat dasar. Sebagai contohnya, kini orang ramai boleh mengekses imej satellite pemetaan Google Earth dan secara langsung boleh menandakan sesuatu kawasan dan mengemail maklumat kawasan tersebut ke pemimpin , kerajaan atau dipaparkan di halaman Internet untuk tujuan perkongsian cadangan, bantahan, dan sebagainya .

Kiri - Gambaran Rangkaian GIS (Dari Website ESRI)

Secara langsung juga penerima maklumat boleh mengekses maklumat yang dihantar dan membuat tindakan susulan. Ini membuktikan prasarana Internet membolehkan maklumat dikongsi secara segera oleh sesiapa sahaja didunia ini. Yang mana, selama ini maklumat pemetaan hanya dikendalikan oleh sebahagian kecil penguna di peringkat jabatan atau unit tertentu.

Kini teknologi Internet membolehkan sistem GIS diperluaskan dan di k

ongsi pakai oleh lebih ramai pengguna serta mampu untuk di kemaskini secara langsung oleh pelbagai peringkat pengguna. Dengan semakin ramai penglibatan pengguna didalam sistem GIS ini maka sistem akan dapat mengumpulkan lebih banyak maklumat dan akan lebih berguna kepada Kerajaan dan juga meningkatkan lagi ketulusan pentadbiran (Government Transparency).

Pada pertengahan tahun 2005, apabila Google Earth mula diperkenalkan, maklumat permetaan di Malaysia adalah terhad dan terkawal, malahan kawasan imej satellite yang ber-resolusi tinggi juga amat terhad. Dari masa kesemasa Google telah menambah dan memperluaskan kandungan imej satellite yang lebih ber-resolusi tinggi sehingga pada akhir tahun 2006, Google telah mula menambah kandungan dengan memperkenalkan maklumat permetaan jalan serta persempadanan wilayah secara umum di Google Earth dan Google Maps. Kini lebih 70% data jalan raya dan tempat-tempat utama (POI) di Malaysia boleh di ekses melalui pementaan Google

dan dipaparkan secara multimedia dan interaktif.

Semenjak adanya dua perkhidmatan utama ini, iaitu imej satellite dan pemetaan jalan, maka kita dapati pada masa ini lebih satu juta maklumat-maklumat tambahan lokasi telah didaftarkan, dikongsi dan di kemaskini oleh orang ramai melalui "gallery Google Earth community" secara sukarela (participatory). Maklumat-maklumat ini boleh dieksesdan dikongsi secara langsung dan percuma.

Walaupun terdapat maklumat yang tidak tepat namum majoriti dari maklumat

yang didaftarkan adalah benar mengikut pengetahuan pengguna berdasarkan gambaran imej satellite dan maklumat pemetaan yang disediakan. Mengikut maklumat Google 80% maklumat lokasi yang didaftar secara sukarela di Google Community adalah sahih mengikut ketepatan visual yang sedia-ada.

Ini menunjukan bahawa sesiapa sahaja boleh memanafaatkan sistem maklumat lokasi seperti Google Earth jika ianya dapat diekses dan di fahami dengan mudah oleh semua lapisan pengguna. Pengalaman Google Earth jelas menunjukkan bahawa imej satellite ber-resolusi tinggi yang dilapik (overlay) dengan data ekses pemetaan jalan dan sempadan adalah merupakan antara kandungan maklumat lokasi asas yang boleh difahami oleh majority pengguna dan juga amat berguna (premium contents) untuk tujuan membuat keputusan.

Imej Satellite Dan Had Penggunaan

Imej udara satellite diambil oleh oleh satellite dari ruang angkasa yang dinamakan "imaging satellite". Satellite ini terletak lebih

500 km di angkasa dan berada di orbit tetap mengelilingi bumi. Imej satellite telah lama diguna pakai didalam kajian cuaca, kajian muka bumi, pemantauan seperti kebakaran hutan, perancangan bandar atau wilayah. Imej Satellite mempunyai perlbagai band warna yang membolehkan analisa remote sensing lanjut dijalankan bagi perlbagai tujuan

Imej satellite dibekalkan oleh pembekal atau agen-agen pembekal tempatan. Pembekal-pembekal imej satellite adalah terdiri dari syarikat antarabangsa yang telah melaburkan ratusan juta ringgit bagi melancarkan satellite (imaging satellite) ke angkasa. Antara

nama-nama pembekal imej satellite antarabangsa adalah Digital Globe, Ikonos, Google GeoEye, SPOTS dan sebagainya. Malaysia juga telah melancarkan imaging satellite yang pertama dinamakan RazakSAT.

Diagram Pengguna Utama Imej Satellite di Malaysia

Sesiapa sahaja boleh membuat tempahan bagi mendapatkan i

mej satellite disatu-satu kawasan, ianya dapat dilakukan samada tempahan imej yang baru (new tasking) atau imej lama (archive). Tempahan yang baru adalah lebih mahal dari imej archive. Imaging satellite akan mengambil gambar sesuatu kawasan yang luas dinamakan strip. Satu-satu strip meliputi kawasan seluas 30 km x 90 km. Kebanyakan pembekal imej menetapkan pem

belian minima sebagai cont

ohnya 10 km x 10 km dan sebagainya.
Kualiti imej satellite adalah berdasarkan kepa

da resolusi per cm. Iaitu setiap pixel di paparan mewakili beberapa cm atau meter jarak sebenar di tanah. Kebanyakan imej satellite adalah ber-resolusi dari 60 cm ke 200 cm per pixel. Atas alas an Keselamatan, pihak Pentadbiran Keselamatan America Syarikat (Inte

rnal Security) telah menghadkan hanya imej ber-resolusi 50

cm per pixal ke atas sajaya yang boleh dibekalkan oleh syarikat pembekal imej satellite.

Proses tempahan imej baru juga memakan masa yang agak lama, sebagai contohnya di Malaysia purata untuk mendapatkan imej baru adalah dari 1 ke 4 bulan. Ini adalah kerana apabila permintaan baru (new tasking) pembekal terpaksa menunggu giliran dan memastikan imej yang diperolehi melebihi tahaf peratusan boleh guna atau tanpa gangguan awam dan kabus.

Di Malaysia dan negara tropikal yang lain, litupan awan merupakan masalah utama bagi perolehan imej yang lebih cepat. Ini adalah kerana kemera satellite tidak dapat menembusi awan dah kabus yang tebal. Ada sesetengah kawasan yang be

gitu sukar untuk mendapat imej yang jelas kerana sentiasa diliputi awan dan berkabus.

Satellite imej didapati amat berguna didalam perancangan dan mengawasan kawasan yang luas, sebagai contohnya bagi mendapatkan imej sesebuah wilayah, daerah, negeri dan negara. Namun bagi kawasan yang kecil seperti mukim, pekan taman pe

rumahan, dan ladang yang mempunyai keluasan kurang 3 km persegi, penggunaan satellite imej adalah kurang praktikal dan ekonomikal. Antara alternatif lain yang boleh digunakan adalah dengan penggunakan pesawat kecil .

Imej Udara Pesawat Ringan Dan H

ad Penggunaan

Pesawat ringan telah lama digunakan secara meluas didalam aktiviti pemantauan udara terutama pemetaan. Pesawat seperti Cassina dan He

licopter dapat membawa penumpang dan perkakasan-perkakasan optikal kamera yang besar dan berat seperti kamera udara dan system pengkomputeran kamera "multispektrum", LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), 3D Camera dan sebagainya.

Multispectrum camera sebagai contohnya membolehkan pengambilan imej pelbagai warna (multi-band) hasil imej boleh digunakan untuk kajian saintifik seperti kegunaan tanah, penyakit pertanian, keborocan paip dan sebagainya. Kamera LIDAR pula membolehkan pemancaran titik-titik lazer di pancarkan ke bumi untuk mendapatkan bentuk muka bumi

dengan kadar ketepatan yang tinggi dan seterusnya maklumat ini mampu untuk diproses bagi mendapatkan model bentuk muka bumi secara 3D. Sistem yang canggih ini memerlukan pengendalian tenaga professional yang terlatih, kos perolehan dan penyelengaraan yang juga amat

tinggi.

Berikut merupakan contoh sekeping imej

udara di kawasan Skudai

Pengambilan gamb

ar udara se

lalunya ditahaf ketingian 5000 kaki hingga 10,000 kaki, aras ketinggian yang cukup tinggi bagi meliputi kawasan kajian yang luas dengan petepatan yang diperlukan untuk analisa lanjutan. Satu-satu Imej udara menggunakan pesawat adalah sebesar 2 km - 3 km persegi dibandingkan dengan 30 - 90 km persegi dengan imej satellite. Namun kualiti imej dari pesawat udara adalah lebih jelas dari imej satellite, iaitu dalam lingkunga

n 20 - 40 cm per pixel berbanding 60 cm – 200 cm menggunakan image satellite.

Perbandingnan

imej kualiti imej satellite dan imej pesawat udara

Penggunan Pesawat ringat bagi tujuan remote sensing adalah terhad ini adalah kerana:-

Kos perolehan yang tinggi – sebagai contohnya system kamera multispectrum berharga ratusan ribu dan LIDAR menjangkau jutaan ringgit. Disamping kos penyelengaraan yang juga tinggi.

Kos sewaan pesawat udara yang

juga mahal serta tertakluk kepada kebenaran Jabatan Penerbangan Awam (DCA) untuk penerbangan serta had-had kawasan udara yang tidak boleh dimasuki oleh pesawat awam. Sebagai contohnya, kawasan disekitar 5km dari pusat bandaraya Johor Bahru merupakan kawasan had larangan penerbangan awam.

Kurang tenaga terlatih bagi mengendalikan system kamera udara – kebanyakan tenaga professional pengendalian sistem kamera udara adalah tenaga luar Negara seperti AMM-Hatch dari Australia. Maka dari segi keselamatan negara, secara tidak langsung kita membuka rahsia negara kepada orang luar. Kos professional juga amat tinggi, mengikut sebutharga kasar dari AMM Hatch dan TeleAtlas, bagi mengambilan data LIDAR

dan pemprosesan data di Wilayah Pembangunan Iskandar Malaysia, anggaran kos perolehan dan pemprosesan data adalah menc

ecah jutaan Ringgit Malaysia.

Kesediaan pesawat ringan juga terhad dan satu jangka-masa yang panjang juga diperlukan bagi tujuan sewaan pengunaan. Sebagai contohnya di Johor, proses tempahan untuk sewaan pengambaraan udara sehingga imej-imej didiperolehi adalah antara 2 minggu hingga 1 bulan. Jika berlaku situasi yang memerlukan imej udara dengan segara maka ianya adalah amat sukar dan jika ada pun, kosnya adalah amat mahal.

Penggunaan Sistem UAV – Perkhidmatan Remote Sensing secara Tanpa Pemandu (Unmanned Remote Sensing Service)

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) merupakan pesawat kecil

tanpa juruterbang yang di program untuk penerbangan mengikut input destinasi yang telah dimasukkan kedalam processor navigasi di pesawat tersebut. Pesawat kecil seperti pesawat kawalan jauh (RC airplane) ini berkomunikasi mengunakan radio dan GPS dengan sistem kawalan darat (Ground control system).

UAV telah lama diguna pakai didalam tugasan ketenteraan, terutama didalam tugasan pengintipan dan tektikal. Kepentingan UAV didalam tugasan ketenteraan udara dapat dilihat dimana sepanjang tahun 2008 sahaja rekod pengunaan UAV Amerika Syarikat telah melebihi 1 juta jam terutama penglibatan operasi-operasi ketenteraan di Iraq dan Afghanistan. Banyak kajian dan pembangunan berkenaan dengan UAV telah dijalankan dan ianya merupakan teknologi semasa dan masa depan industri ketenteraan.

UAV secara umumnya boleh dikategorikan mengikut tempoh penerbangan (endurance), kelajuan, ketinggian dan kemampuan saiz berat muatan. HALE UAV (high altitude Long Endurance) kebanyakan digunakan bagi tujuan kajian saintifik yang dapat terbang melewati 30,000 kaki dan ada yang sampai ke lapisan atmostfera. Mid Range UAV, mampu terbang melepasi 3 jam dan setinggi melebihi 10,000 kaki. Predator UAV yang mampu membawa peluru berpandu adalah

contoh tektikal dan attacking mid-range UAV. Makro UAV pula adalah UAV yang hanya mampu terbang kurang 1 jam dan mempunyai factor muatan yang terhad. Kebanyakan micro UAV adalah berdasarkan rekabentuk pesawat luncuran (glide

r). Kebanyakkan pengunaan umum (civilian) adalah merujuk kepada sistem mikro UAV.

Mikro UAV boleh dibangunkan dengan menggunakan kapalterbang kawalan jauh (RC). Apa yang membezakan antara RC dan UAV adalah tambahan sistem autonomous atau inboard navigation (INS), antara sistem flight autonomous yang terkenal adalah micro pilot, Ottopilot, Piccolo, Paparazzi, ARDU UAV dan sebagainya. Autonomous chip ini disambungkan dengan komponen kawalan penerbangan yang lain seperti GPS, receivers, servo, sistem kamera dan sistem-sistem sensor yang lain. Disebabkan had muatan yang terhad, UAV mikro hanya mampu membawa kamera yang kecil dan ringgan.

Walaupun mikro UV mampu terbang melampaui 10,000 kaki, namum bagi tujuan pengambilan imej udara, tahaf optimum kualiti imej yang berguna adalah antara 800 k

aki hingga 1200 kaki. Iaitu resolusi imej antara 6 cm hingga 15 cm per pixel. Ketinggian UAV adalah berkait langsung dengan hasil kualiti resolusi dan juga keluasan liputan sesekeping imej yang diambil. Sebagai contohnya, dengan mengunakan kemera 10 Mega Pixel, berikut merupakan perbandingan hasil kualiti foto-foto yang diperolehi:-

Kegunaan UAV Kepada Kerajaan

Antara applikasi-applikasi civilian menggunakan UAV adalah:

1. Kajian cuaca dan alam sekitar – HALE UAV terbang ke atmosfera bagi mendapatkan sample udara.

2. UAV bagi pengawasan sempadan – sebagai contohnya, di New Mexico, pihak Immigration US membuat pemantuan udara menggunakan UAV melihat kegiatan di sempadan.

3. UAV digunakan bagi kajian dan pemantauan

pertaniaan, eg. Cropcam bagi memantau kesihatan dan tahaf penyelengaraan tapak-tapak tanaman gandum, barli, anggur dan sebagainya. Di Malaysia, UAV juga mampu digunakan untuk mendapatkan imej lading kepala sawit bagi mendapatkan gambaran tahap kesihatan pokok melalui warna daun dan sebagainya. MARDI telah menggunakan UAV bagi mengkaji keberkesanan racun serangga dan baja melalui imej udara ber-resolusi tinggi yang diperolehi melalui UAV. Di Jepun rotor based UAV digunakan bagi kerja-kerja pembajaan.

4. Pemantauan Perhutanan – di Canada dan Finland sebag

ai contohnya, UAV digunakan secara meluas didalam penyelidikan perhutanan, terutama didalam kerja-kerja inventori pokok, pemantauan dan penguakkuasaan dan sebagainya.

5. Pemantauan dan penyelengaraan industri minyak dan gas (oil & gas), penggunaan mid range UAV bagi pemantauan saluran-saluran gas di laut bagi mengesan kebocoran dan operasi kecemasan.

6. Pemantauan lalu lintas menggunakan UAV; di Holland, UAV di gunakan disesetangah Bandar bagi melihat status semasa kesesakan jalan raya dan membuat pengawasan perjalanan.

7. Bencana alam – UAV dapat disediakan de

ngan cepat oleh agensi-agensi penyelamat di kawasan gempa bumi dan kebakaran hutan bagi tujuan pemantauan segera. Antara penggunaan yang berkesan adalah ketika gempa bumi di Wilayan Sichuan, China, dimana UAV digunakan untuk tugasan menyelamat dan perancangan membaik-pulih. Pihak penyelamat di California juga menggunakan UAV bagi menijau tahap kebakaran hutan.

8. Pemantauan guna tanah dan pembangunan projek – gambar-gambar ber-resolusi tinggi dari udara sebagai data visual utama bagi membantu agensi kerajaan terutama kerajaan tempatan didalam perancangan, pentadbiran wilayah dan pengurusan asset.

9. UAV sebagai pesawat pengangkutan barangan terhad, di Brazil sebagai contohnya, percubaan dibuat bagi menghantar barangan perubatan menggunakan UAV kekawasan-kawasan pendalaman.

Rujukan http://www.barnardmicrosystems.com/L4E_uav_market.htm

Dengan kadar R&D di universiti-universiti serta pihak swasta yang pesat pada masa ini, maka kita akan saksikan akan ada lebih banyak lagi UAV digunakan didalam pengunaan applikasi awam dimasa-masa hadapan.

Had Penggunaan UAV

UAV adalah pesawat ringan yang kecil, iaitu 1/3 atau 1/5 dari saiz pesawat berpemandu sebenar. UAV juga terhad dari segi muatan serta jarak penerbangan. Maka tidak semua misi sesuai menggunakan UAV. Dari segi penyelengaraan, penerbangan UAV memerlukan perancangan yang teliti kerana sebelum sesuatu misi penerbangan dilakukan perancangan penerbangan (flight planning) harus dilakukan bagi mengenal pasti bentuk muka bumi kawasan penerbangan, ketinggian, ancaman-ancaman ganguan signal, ramalan cuaca dan sebagainya. Walaupun terdapat perisian perancangan penerbangan,namun pengendali UAV harus juga mengadakan lawatan tapak awal bagi memastikan keadaan semasa.

Antara had-had penggunaan pesawat UAV adalah:

1. Kuasa batteri (LiPo) - Pesawat mikro UAV menggunakan LiPo batteri dan hanya bertahan selama 30-40 min penerbangan, maka liputan adalah terhad, dalam 0.5 km persegi – 0.8 km persegi bagi satu misi atau jumlah penerbangan sejauh 17-20 km. Penggunaan gasoline membolehkan UAV terbang lebih jauh dan lama namun engine bergasoline akan menghasilkan bunyi yang kuat serta menganggu ketenteraman penduduk serta tambahan berat UAV melebihi 20 kg adalah lebih berisiko dan memerlukan kebenaran pihak berkuasa seperti agensi penerbangan awam bagi tujuan pelepasan dan sebagainya.

2. Had muatan juga terhad, sebagai contohnya glider UAV seperti Cropcam hanya mampu membawa muatan kurang dari 1 kg dan dengan ini hanya sistem kamera yang ringgan dan biasa sahaja dapat digunakan bagi mikro UAV.

3. Cuaca semasa, angin dan hujan merupakan faktor cuaca utama yang menghalang pengunaan UAV. Mikro Glider UAV hanya mampu bertahan untuk tiupan angin headwind selaju 30 knot se jam, jika lebih kuat dari ini maka akan memerlukan tenaga throttle yang lebih serta jika operasi mengambil gambar, ianya akan tidak stabil dan hasil yang tidak memuaskan. Begitu juga dengan hujan, akan menyebabkan air masuk ke dalam sistem pengoperasian di airframe UAV dan merosakkan sistem-sistem elektronik serta menyebabkan kegagalan misi. Liputan awan tebal juga boleh menganggu kualiti imej yang diperolehi dari UAV, kerana gambar yang diambil akan lebih gelap dan bertompok-tompok, menyebabkan kurang terang dan menarik apabila imej-imej diproses atau stitch bagi mendapatkan gambaran liputan kawasan yang luas.

4. Kawasan perlancaran dan pendaratan yang luas diperlukan walaupun ianya pesawat kecil seumpama RC aircraft. Kawasan perbandaraan terdiri dari kawasan-kawasan perumahan, perniagaan dan industri yang hanya mempunya kawasan tanah lapang yang terhad sedangkan mikro UAV memerlukan kawasan sekurang-kurangnya 200-300 meter air clearance. Maka ini tidak memungkinkan UAV digunakan dengan meluas ditempat-tempat yang padat melainkan ubah suai dilakukan bagi memastikan endurance serta radio komunikasi pesawat yang juga jauh.

5. Lindungan Conopy seperti pokok, khemah – sesetengah area yang diliputi oleh pokok-pokok yang rapat dan rimbun, maka kawasan tersebut adalah terlindung. Ini menyebabkan gambaran sebenar objek-objek dibawah lindungan tidak dapat diambil gambar dan dikenal pasti.

6. Hasilan imej UAV juga adalah terhad, kerana had kamera yang digunakan dan juga mutu imej yang diperolehi berdasarkan keperluan remote sensing Kamera yang digunakan adalah jenis digital biasa 10-12 megapixel RGB dan tiada mempunyai integrasi dengan sistem geo referencing maka imej yang dihasilkan adalah berhad bagi tujuan visualization bukan untuk tujuan analisa lanjutan remote sensing yang memerlukan pelbagai spectrum serta kalabrasi ketepatan optik kegunaan pemertaan udara.

Walaupun terdapat had-had pengunaan seperti diatas, teknologi adalah sentiasa berkembang kearah yang lebih efektif dan efisian sebagai contohnya kuasa bateri sentiasa meningkat dan memungkinkan dimuatkan ke UAV bagi tujuan penerbangan yang lebih lama. Begitu juga dengan teknologi-teknologi lain seperti sistem kamera langsung, telemetric dan sebagainya. Had-had teknologi ini sepatutnya bukan menghalang kepada kita untuk memanafatkan pengunaan UAV bagi tujuan kebaikan awam.

Geo Sense Sdn. Bhd. merupakan sebuah syarikat tempatan yang memyediakan perkhidmatan mengambil gambar udara menggunakan UAV, pembangunan pemetaan Internet dan juga mereka bentuk dan membangunkan sistem UAV Mikro. Contact: 0197266411 atau email ismaili@geosense.info

Geo Sense R&D UAV System

2009-07-21T16:10:00.005+08:00

Geo Sense is using CropCam, a Canadian glider based UAV system for AirSense high resolution aerial mapping project. Cropcam UAV is installed with a stable miropilot chipset, an autonomous system and can only manage by Horizon (tm) a ground control software that does pre-flight planning and on flight navigation monitoring. The software will calculate the flight covering areas, altitudes and number of waypoint based images to be taken for required resolution. Cropcam and Horizon belong to an innovative 19 staffs Manitoba company, Micropilot. Micropilot is not like Boeing but they are couriering their products to 60 countries, and Geo Sense is one of cropcam proud owners, and also the first Malaysian private customer. Leagues of their own, Cropcam has made an impact to future of autonomous technology in aerospace industry. Geo Sense sees the opportunity in autonomous flight system beyond military utilization and we hope to extend our roles. As a small company we always have our own limitation when it come to R&D.
Last May 2009, I had an opportunity to visit few Taiwan aerospace players who are also involved in designing and producing UAV. One of Taiwanese aviation companies that I visited was Yoshine, the President of Yoshine is Mr Charlies, who lectured at Ohio University (Columbus) prior to setting up Yoshine in Taiwan. He asked me to look at all G8 countries, and their strength similarity, in order to reach a well developed nation a nation must established an aviation or aerospace industry as the values spin off from this industry is much higher and greater than others. We also learned history that for centuries East had conquered most of the world commercial shipping line but the West took over after they establishing and controlling the world airspace technology.
We are a new nation, in many instances, Malaysia has started with the right note, in Telecommunication, Biotechnology and Aerospace. We always want to prove to the world that we can (Malaysia Boleh) and we are the first. Which is good spirit for young country like us to send one or two heroes to the outer space. Yet not many know how far the values are created from our astronaut experimenting juggling balls in the space. We are lucky because we are relatively a rich country with a far sighted leadership, thus we invest world class facilities in an abundance. In UTM Automotive and Aviation Faculty for eg. we have the biggest wind tunnel system in South East Asia, the most technology parks in South East Asia, the advance here and there. But, can we produce the right value beyound Malaysia Boleh but to a real value that change the world or build a real impact to the inventor, company and nation.
One of the main agenda in Geo Sense is not just to provide services in aerial photo and remote sensing but also to design and produce our very own UAV system. We are working closely with UTM Aviation Faculty in various planning and designing stages, especially on endurance and airframe system. I personally see the need to have our microprocessor designing team and having our own flight autonomous system. Right now we do not have much choice, we can only rely on USA, Canada and European suppliers or producers. We are living in a risky and uncertainty world. When it come to money often time wiser friends keep reminding us, why need to re-invent the wheel, create applications, utilization. This kind of statement has been keeping us at consumer bay for years, we never try to search for reasons of things come to work. We never try to explore andd open the new possibility at it based. There come a time, when the producer will come together in term and restrict the distribution of this autonomous system in the name of security. Than there stop innovation at this side of the world, are we ready.

AirSense UAV system

2009-07-15T02:03:00.004+08:00

el
AirSense is a project in designing and developing glider based UAV system based on Ardupilot and Cularis Multiplex glider RC airframe. The autonomous UAV will be utilized in taking high resolution aerial images on selected areas within Iskandar Malaysia Development Region, a development corridor in South Johor, Malaysia. The images will be dislayed online on AirSense High Resolution Aerial Image platform http://airsense.geosense.info/as application showcase. UAV able to fly under the cloud and lowest to the ground providing the highest resolution up to 7 cm per pixel compare to satellite of 60 cm. Individual images taken from UAV are mosaic or stiched for bigger area and is useful for mapping planning and monitoring visualization.
Air Sense UAV system is also installed with video system that can provide live and recorded video monitoring. The technology is useful for small and targeted areas. Existing AirSense micro glider UAV can cover 0.5 km sq (240 acres) in 45 min flight time. Air Sense is also working with UTM in designing and developing Solar powered LALE (low altitute Long Endurance) UAV system, the R&D objective is to fly 24 hours endurance UAV, an ultimate survellience system and future telecomunication relay. Geo Sense is an MSC Status company, private company located in Cybercaya and Skudai, Johor Bahru. Geo Sense in a small way is promoting small aviation project within Iskandar Malaysia Economic Region. Geo Sense is getting used with VC rejections.

uav for high res aerial images - urban monitoring

2009-03-26T01:06:00.002+08:00

Navigating

2009-02-19T14:08:00.016+08:00

My name is Ismail Ibrahim, I am a struggling Johorian entrepreneur who is working out on a bootstrapping venture that provides location information services (geographical data) by Geo Sense Sdn. Bhd. an MSC Status company locates in Cyberjaya and Johor Bahru.

Prior to Geo Sense, I have had extensive experiences in planning and implementing ICT infrastructure, software and entrepreneurship developments. Among my previous working experience were from 1995 to 1998 when I have had an opportunity managing various projects under Johor eGovernment initiative, known as Johor Information Infrastructure. JII gave first hand experience in dealing with Government process, which later help me a lot in understanding what works and not in public offices. Late 1998, I worked with Yayasan Pelajaran Johor and Perbadanan Usahwan Johor in formulating the strategic plan for local entrepreneur development. I co-founded among Malaysia first business and technology incubation centers, Johor Incubation Center (JIC), which at that time were regularly highlighted in various Internet and technology news. JIC exposed me to local and oversea entrepreneurship development especially in the area of managing innovation, people with ideas, venture capital and navigating irrational exuberance. It was until mid. 2002, I left a salaried position to become full time entrepreneur.

My first entrepreneurial venture was M-Apps Solutions Sdn. Bhd., which was among the first few Johor based MSC Status company. M-Apps is specializing in mobile and wireless solutions. M-Apps solved and enhanced eGovernment applications by linking Government information with comprehensive content management platform and channel the data to user mobile devices such as PDA and Mobile Phone. Empowering users to access critical information via mobile devices. In 2005, M-Apps was acquired by The Media Shoppe Berhad (TMS) and co-listed in MESDAQ market. Since 2006. I sits as board member of TMS.

Upon listing, I relinquished my management position and move on to area of my great interest, which is Geography in the form of location information, technically known as GIS. Since 2006, I have been a frequent participant to Where 2.0 annual conference in San Francisco, where innovative Web people meets GIS conscious people. I learned how information can be geographically classified, stratified and the fact that the vast critical data are geographically based (geo data). This is true to Government data as they are very much territorial in nature. The tools to manage strata data is know as Geographical Information System (GIS), every geographically large and complex organization such as Government needs GIS but not every office can effort to have one. This is mainly due to the complexity of GIS itself, the cost of putting up the infrastructure, acquiring the data and lack of expertise. Often time there are duplicated investments in GIS initiatives, issues in data ownership and communication breakdown between GIS and IT. These have somehow played down the potential of location information to help organization in visualizing their existing and future positions and making better strategy decision.

Realizing all this issues and with a new game plan, in May 2007, I formed a company known as Geo Sense Sdn. Bhd. our mission is to provide simple web based platform for untrained GIS users so that the majority of managers will be able to make sense out of their existing proprietary location information data. Geo Sense is inspired by Google Maps and Google grands plan in indexing world information geographically. Geo Sense platform was recognized by Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) with Pre-Seed grant and followed as finalist to 2008 MSC APICTA award under eGovernment category.

Along the ways, Geo Sense saw the opportunity to provide much premium data which is in the form of imagery. People understand and interprets images faster than anything else. Users, being GIS expert and non-GIS start using earth visualization media such as Google Earth to share location information. Aerial photo provides better visualization for decision making and becoming useful tool for planning and strategy support system. Unfortunately Google aerial imagery comes from Satellite and for Malaysia; most of the imagery are out dated with low resolution. Tropical cloud further hindered the usage for critical planning and monitoring. Thus the only alternative is small aircraft or helicopter. Unfortunately due to it cost and service limitation, not all organization has the access to this facility .

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has been known in defense industry, in 2008, more than a million UAV flight hours were logged in Iraq and Afghanistan. UAV able to be pre-programmed to discreetly fly lower to the ground taking optical high resolution aerial photo and feeding live video footage to the ground control. UAV is also being studied in many universities worldwide for various military and civilian applications. One of Geo Sense ideas is to deploy UAV for high resolution aerial photo services. Since early 2008, Geo Sense has been working with various organizations locally and internationally on civilian UAV technology development for applications such as land management, mapping, town planning, environmental changes etc. Geo Sense has unveiled a project called AirSense, a showcase of high resolution aerial imagery on demand, UAV is deployed in updating more than 200 sq km involving more than 50 urban areas. AirSense is a showcase of how Government especially local and community can share geo data using contents aerial imagery. It is also twofold objective to develop professional team in managing services of civilian UAV development and applications.

--

Autostitch™ :: a new dimension in automatic image stitching

2008-10-03T23:13:00.001+08:00

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

Aerial photos could track home projects County mulls deal with high-tech firm THE FLINT JOURNAL| March 20, 2005 By Marjory Raymer To learn more

2008-10-01T01:43:00.000+08:00

Aerial photos could track home projects
County mulls deal with high-tech firm

THE FLINT JOURNAL| March 20, 2005
By Marjory Raymer

To learn more about Pictometry Visual Intelligence, check out the company's Web page at www.pictometry.com. Registered users also can see examples of detailed pictures and limits on photo resolution under the Frequently Asked Questions link.

New technology soon could let government officials look right into your back yard to see your new deck - and then check whether you filed the proper permits.

Genesee County officials are considering using Pictometry Visual Intelligence, a new, ultra-detailed data and aerial photograph system that can show a picture from up to 12 different angles and lets users combine the pictures with all sorts of material - even a tool to measure how big that deck is.

"What we tell our customers is, with this system you can see everywhere, measure anything and plan everything that you want to plan," said Dante Pennacchia, senior vice president of marketing and sales for Pictometry International Corp.

The program would allow firefighters to see how tall buildings are, SWAT teams to plan escape routes and 911 operators to see exactly where people in need are, Pennacchia said.

The Pictometry system would cost an estimated $250,000, with Genesee County and local municipalities picking up the tab.

But some taxpayers may not be thrilled by the Big Brother aspects of the system and the prospect of government peering too closely into their space.

Pat McDougall, 53, of Flint, whose taxes keep going up because assessors find improvements to his property, said he doesn't like the idea.

"I just personally think it's very intrusive," McDougall said. "What if your daughter is laying out in the back yard sunning herself?"

Gregory Gibbs, chairman of the Greater Flint chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said courts have ruled that aerial photographs are not an invasion of privacy, but he worries how far government will push the technology.

"The back yard - that is a special place. It's an extension of the home for a lot of people," Gibbs said. "From (the ACLU's) standpoint, we are very concerned about the use of technology that invades the privacy of the average citizen. We watch it very closely."

Company and local officials said protecting personal privacy should not be a concern for residents.

Only government entities are supposed to have access to the photos, and the pictures are taken only every two years, so it's not like the government can look and see what's happening in your back yard at any given moment, said Robert Carra, director of geographic information systems for the county, who is heading a committee considering the project.

And, Pennacchia said, it's important to realize that the system's zoom capabilities are limited because the pictures become blurry squares called pixels under high magnification. Faces and license plates are never distinguishable using the software, Pennacchia said.

"We've chosen just the right balance between privacy and being able to see things on buildings," he said.

As for that deck scenario, though, it's real life.

Craig Witmer, district manager for Pictometry out of Indianapolis, last week showed a group of township officials how the detailed images could show line striping on roads, home plate on baseball fields and backyard decks.

As a first-time homeowner, Witmer said, he didn't realize he needed a permit for a deck on his house and got caught by county officials using his own software.

Aerial photography including pictures of back yards across the county is nothing new. Genesee County, like most counties, has long used aerial photographs in planning offices.

Traditionally, though, the photographs are taken looking straight down, which show outlines of buildings. Taken from a higher altitude, the photos also have less detail.

Pictometry takes pictures at an angle from multiple cameras mounted on the bottoms of planes, and at two altitudes to give perspective.

It also combines the pictures with other data so users can pick out addresses or coordinates, see property lines, calculate distances and areas and even measure the slope of hills.

"This is something brand new for us and fairly new in the industry," said Bob Slattery, director of information systems and planning for the Genesee County Road Commission. "It's not just the newness that's cool about it. It's the uses."

The federal government, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and 125 counties nationwide already use Pictometry, a 4-year-old system.

Genesee County could be the first in Michigan to employ the system, although Jackson County also is considering it.

Genesee County officials are still in the early stages of considering Pictometry. The earliest the system could go into effect is probably this fall, Carra said.

Eid Wishes

2008-09-30T12:06:00.002+08:00

Navigational Brains

2008-09-14T23:48:00.002+08:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7613621.stm

weekend break lagi

2008-08-01T17:24:00.000+08:00

Welcome Summer

2008-07-26T02:55:00.001+08:00

look a like

2008-07-17T20:26:00.000+08:00

Weekend back to back from pier to pier

2008-06-29T00:15:00.006+08:00

Cradling old baby

2008-06-26T23:00:00.002+08:00

Break - Park Drive Ku Cuba

2008-06-23T00:49:00.000+08:00

Brief History of Geo Sense

2008-06-22T12:48:00.003+08:00

Communicasia 2008 Singapore EXPO

2008-06-18T19:38:00.003+08:00

Weekend Break

2008-06-15T22:36:00.005+08:00

Geo Sense Data

2008-06-11T23:56:00.001+08:00

Take a bite, iPhone 3G Out

2008-06-10T10:02:00.000+08:00

Malaysia UAV initiatives

2008-06-06T23:29:00.003+08:00

Following is some local initiatives on UAV system:-

http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2007/5/16/technology/20070516133831&sec=technology
http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/Thursday/Nation/hsapu.xml/Article/index_html
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/12/4/nation/19652979&sec=nation
(pls scroll to the bottom section in here - http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t95071.html
http://utusan.com.my/utusan/info.asp?y=2008&dt=0529&pub=Utusan_Malaysia&sec=Sains_%26_Teknologi&pg=st_01.htm

a bunch of local university efforts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_ThqUD3BJY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KORH1IUw-c8
--

Eye oN MaLaysia

2008-06-06T23:23:00.001+08:00

This guy/s have been flying around taking Malaysia aerial photo (actually not really Malaysia, he is taking heli in and around Klang valley, he said, it cost a bomb to fly away from KL. http://eyeonmalaysia.wordpress.com/

Investment in MLB UAV

2008-06-03T23:43:00.002+08:00

| View | Upload your own

Where Jungle

2008-06-01T21:15:00.002+08:00

Behind Street View

2008-05-31T22:38:00.003+08:00

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4232286.html
http://labs.live.com/photosynth/
http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/
http://www.cio.com/article/354013/Google_Takes_Street_View_Snaps_in_Paris_Lawsuits_May_Follow

Google Street View Tech Talk

Speaker: Luc Vincent, Google
Date: Thursday, February 14 2008
Time: 12:00PM to 1:00PM
Location: 34-401A (Grier A)
Contact: Victoria Palay, 617.253.8924, palay@csail.mit.edu
Relevant URL:

Unveiled in May 2007, the Street View feature of Google Maps is the result of a substantial engineering effort by a team including mechanical engineers, software engineers, UI designers, computer vision scientists and scores of others. As is true with a number of other projects at Google, the initial vision for Street View was actually provided by Google co-founder Larry Page, who personally collected a street scene video from his moving car in order to bootstrap research in this area. Turning this initial vision into a product required developing major new pieces of technology, including: a robust data collection platform (i.e., a van with lots of camera equipment), a fancy system for computing accurate pose from several imperfect sensors, various software components to stitch, blend, color correct and warp collected imagery, efficient systems to manage a Gargantuan flow of data, JavaScript and Flash software components to integrate Street View to Google Maps, and many others. This presentation will go over some of these components and give the audience a peek at the Street View project from behind the scene.

Luc Vincent joined Google in 2004 as an 'Uber Tech Lead' and is presently responsible for several engineering projects centered around computer vision, including Google's Optical Character Recognition (OCR) efforts and the recently unveiled Street View project, which he
helped bootstrap.

Before Google, Luc was Chief Scientist, and then Vice President of Document Imaging at LizardTech, a developer of advanced image compression software. Prior to this, he led a large research and development team at the prestigious Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). He was also Director of Software Development at Scansoft (now Nuance) and held various technical management and individual contributor positions at Xerox Corporation.

Luc has over 60 publications in the area of vision, image analysis and document understanding. He recently served as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI) and for the Journal of Electronic Imaging. He has also served
as chair for SPIE's conferences on Document Recognition, the International Symposium on Mathematical Morphology (ISMM), and in the program committee of numerous conferences and workshops.

Luc earned his B.S. from Ecole Polytechnique, M.S. in Computer Science from University of Paris XI, and PhD in Mathematical Morphology from the Ecole des Mines de Paris in 1990.

See other events happening in February 2008

VTOL UAV

2008-05-30T15:15:00.000+08:00

Jack Dangermond of ESRI & me of Geo Sense

2008-05-24T22:26:00.004+08:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Dangermond

Where Google Camp From Google Campus to Skudai Malaysia

2008-05-23T07:54:00.004+08:00

WhereCamp 2008 - Program

2008-05-19T01:34:00.005+08:00

Day 1 Program at Wherecamp 2008 / xcrosspath.com was in Beirut 5:30pm

Day 2 : Geotude Day

Wherecamp 2008 : Google Campus Mountain View CA

2008-05-18T07:56:00.003+08:00

BAT3 Demo with MLB near Gilroy CA

2008-05-16T05:54:00.006+08:00

where 2.0 2008

2008-05-15T13:37:00.001+08:00

where 2.0 Day 2 13 May 2008. conference

2008-05-15T07:46:00.001+08:00

It a sunny much warmer morning in Bay Area.

9am – utilizing mapping, google map disaster relief works.
OpenStreetMap (OSM) http://www.openstreetmap.org/
Utilizing available online services such as twetter, sms geo chat, InsTEDD + HumanLink, etc.

915am Eye-Fi – making geotagging effertless. http://www.eye.fi/ eye-fi is wireless card in digitl camera to connect/uploud to wifi & to services like flicr, etc. Integrated with wayport http://www.wayport.com/ (10k hotsport in US).
(can apply for cradle grant – inventorized South East Asia hotspot :)

930am http://www.frogdesign.com/ – form follow function. design object, look landmark, route, maps. form follow emotion. trusted trip content about icon design, guide users etc. Personalize travel guide (product). (what about a visitor arried at airport buy the simcard with gps chip & the card guide/advice where&where to go :)
Merian Scout navigator UI (ggogle)

940am – http://www.djangoproject.com/ http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/GeoDjango – houston crime maps etc. web application onlie. commoditization technology :) nerd centric presentation :)

955am – your car get an API - your content in the car – dash – dynamic search API, http://www.dash.net/
(cool!!!)

10am – NAVTEQ we only been about where – http://www.navteq.com/
mobile information revolution, pushing contents to users.
locally relevant. navteq is enabler. horizontal vs vertical. Asia LBS challenge in Spore (2008). http://www.navteq.com/developer

break 45min (chat with UCLA researcher doing vrml for history on google)

11am – http://www.flickr.com/ – tagging & geocoding, proximity,

1115am – www.locationware.org – lOCATION Able channels. www.geocaching.com drive highly relevant contents. KISS (keep it simple stupid).
collaboratuion – mozilla labs + skyhook wireless

1125am – groundspeak / geocaching – www.geocaching.com
geo gaming. whereigo (creating media rich experience) experience geo caching game to content development
jeremy@groundspeak.com

1137am – PlatnetEye GeoData – crawler
structuring image to relevant data
standard of addresses – varies between countaries,
low resolution geo coding, ???
challenge to match address to the same location
flaw in current visualization technique
Retrieval of dataset
juan@planetEye.com

115pm – google map demo – 9 features announcements. google maps is google.
google is updating more enabling layers (indexing services such as wikipedia and pictures) in mapping and searching options capability. web on google map. enabling user read news on google maps. bring contents on maps, vizualization.bring from geo web data.

140pm – history joker pt 3

150pm – VC venrock http://www.venrock.com/
http://nextwave.com/
geo is impacting many industries
stressing PND important USD30bil in US.
area of interest:
geomobile
geocar (new media company)

210pm – http://www.openlocation.org/
twitter vision local
about location and proximity
about increasing access to opportunity
GeoHash

220pm – what did public interest on satellite
integrate satellite imagery
orbinal marketing scheme
realtime imagery

235pm – locating handset
http://developer.wavemarket.com/veriplace/about

245-250pm – autodesk digital cities
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=11053875&siteID=123112

3pm – breaks – visualization add up map. the challenge in not just accuracy but relevant and visualizing stunning map on geo sense, what tools needed? and available iconic options .

330pm – INSTEDD - TED – funded google.org
geo info in humanitarian or disaster situations. using available tech

350pm – Lifemapper.com http://www.lifemapper.org/

405pm – google GMM
cell-id – collecting cell power info
gps vs center of the map,
clustering algorithms – gps clustering vs non gps
approximately 300m
collecting info about cell tower
improve accuracy, to use Android, Gear (SDK)
http://code.google.com/android/

420pm – http://www.freebase.com/
semantically structured data
relevant search http://www.metaweb.com/about/mgmtteam.html

435pm – http://www.afrigadget.com/
gis + gps being easier to use
ushahidi (google)
crisis scenario mapping – how to help ngo visualize data

bye

where 2.0 2008, Burlingame San Francisco Tue. 13, Day 1 Conference

2008-05-14T11:38:00.001+08:00

presentation – where 2.0 – open for change
list of speaker http://en.oreilly.com/where2008/public/schedule/speakers

9-915am – http://www.everyblock.com/ – chicagocrime.org all public complain etc on the maps. question;who really contribute the data? taking advantage of existing data. Gov should focuses not on data. adrian@everyblock.com
adrian advices service provider offering their own maps, use some map tools like http://mapnik.org/demo/ everyblock is funded by grants. they dont know how make money, may be local advertisers. req. getting city and neighborhood's boundaries.

930am- Nokia LBS http://www.ovi.com/ovi/app/ovi/web/index/
nokia maps 2.0 global mapping solutions. maps on Ovi. you 'r good to go. contents web centric. internet and mobile internet.

935am – geography of the web. support by CIA http://www.inqtel.org/
http://www.geocommons.com/
http://finder.geocommons.com/ *** download data to KLM, SHAPEFILE and SPREADSHEET !!!!
rating the services and map them
Isnt this what we want to do years ago.
silos of geodata
federate geo data
sean@geocommons.com

950pm – google john hanky, vision of geographic web, documenting web pages, geography in organizing data. geoweb is spreading. geotagging media. geosearch. launch Geo Search API - http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/2007/07/google-maps-geo-search-part-12.html
google – KML is part of OGC
ESRI founder – ESRI is into mashup + integrated to consumer mapping, into Geoweb 2.0 (metadata directory, KML, Javascript/Flex), search distributed application. modeling and projectory.

1015am-break, brief I had the opportunity to hai and photo shot with ESRI Founder Jack Dangermond http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Dangermond and his vision http://www.govtech.com/gt/247185 he looking forward to revisit Malaysia. will upload the pic in the blog.

11am – https://loopt.com/loopt/sess/index.aspx –
https://loopt.com/loopt/aboutUs.aspx
social networking, mobile location clients. / platform. Location Access Management – dev location aware app and publish on web.

1115am – modeling crowd behavior
this is what my paper on managing haj (2002).
synthetic data analysis http://geosimulation.org/crowds/
apply to real world issues, identifying, contingency,
applying mapping simulation for diseases etc

1130am – poly9 freeearth http://www.poly9.com/
http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/14631/
??? not to be mistaken with http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?capId=1532471

1145am – Autodesk in mapping construction and infrastructure (in US). inc. fatality due to bad road conditions. geospatial enable. Building Info Modeling (BIM, 3D Vizualization (simulation) for LEED cerification , COO etc. demo transparent view of underground facility,
citizen participation / involvement if enough info such as spatial and mapping data is available to everybody.
creating interactive environment.

break – lunch

130pm – http://fireeagle.yahoo.net/
brokerage to location contents
user location with fireeagle
dopplr – social network for frequent travelers
OAuth – security & verification
updating location
users/collaborator services; – navizon, loki, zonrtag, brighkite,spot (gps logging-good for xrosspath, but why ppls what to be tracked??), wikinear (wikipedia pages near you), Lightpole, outsidein, fireball, proximizer, moveabletype.twitter. friend on fire

fireeagle has the intention of geotude/xrosspath except they really tag to ready services.
& why malsingmap not evolve like this directions, or we can approach malsingmap community for add value services.

1:50pm – SAP presentation on how VR stimulation help business corp.
tracking nad tracing
utilizing in building maintenances and city maintenance.

2pm – panel. how get pay.
- adv relevancy, marketing services platform,location targeted. subscription, pay per access, etc.
in conclusion, they all not really sure how to make money from location info services.

240pm – Bugs Labs http://buglabs.net/ – creating programmable GPS with BUG. hardware mashup, buglabs, devices with sdk = = rendered into web services
- telematic module,
challenge is who going to fund in connecting every devices wit bug labs.

235pm – feotate – http://geotate.com/
geo tagging

C&P
SwGPS – connect to laptop and geotate server ?? – for prison tagging. contact – Johan.Peeters@geotate.com

3pm – earthscape – http://www.earthscape.com/
hand on augmented heli demo.

310pm – Vincent tao, microsoft virtual earth. – what is where, where 2.0- location matters. info indexed by location. ppls cme to site not because of the mapping but the contents/apps of the site. location is enabler, (geosense is enabler??) destination search,
Microsoft invests in imagery – aerial photo, – automated image processing pipeline. automated 3D city model generation. crowd sourcing.

430pm http://secondlife.com/ – secondlife mashup with google maps.
digital urban, taking street & building data to real world data. immersive map of real worlds, retention f memory/experience.
represent idea/data in 3D = we life, dream in 3D. www.nwn.blog.com

440pm anthony – http://www.earthmine.com/
http://www.earthmine.com/beta/
provide based layers to services

450pm Pict'Earth – http://pictearthusa.com/
cover few hundred acres
applications
accuracy, freshness and availability

5pm Everscape.com – http://www.everyscape.com/
record, search and share
what about the inside. indoor tagging!!
POI - most POI inside
eyes level visual presentation
visual touring test
what about the inside.
what the address of the thing / tag / geotude???

Teleatlas – Pat McDevitt http://www.teleatlas.com/index.htm
the long tail of map content
for long, all navigation is local, where is relative
y=hit base x=niche based
paleogeographers & neogeographers
when you rich, you can be more philosophical about what you doing :)

515pm ESRI - launch ArcGIS server 9.3, emphasized on KML
http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgisserver/about/whats-coming.html

530pm – weathertrend – http://www.wxtrends.com/
relation weather to commodity and now supply of foods etc.

540pm- Open Source UAV - http://diydrones.com/
http://valleywag.com/tech/chris-anderson/a-drone-debate-leaves-wireds-editor-unmanned-293211.php
why – long term access to the sky
stabilization + navigation
http://www.thelongtail.com/the_long_tail/2007/08/can-open-source.html
infrared stabalizer – PTGUI (stick images) 3cm resolution !! resolution frm UAV - 3cm. low cost access to the sky
- gps hardware on the loops
- ArduPilot, open source auto pilot.
- BlimpDuino – autonomous blimp
what is regulation –
co need to apply for export license.
cheap, easy and ubiquitous – open sourse technologist.

cheers

where 2.0 2008, Burlingame San Francisco Mon. 12, May. Workshop Day 1

2008-05-14T11:35:00.002+08:00

Forum from user experinence on Google API
1. Travel site of
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/1/en/hotelsearchresults?bcFrom=null&packageRatesFlag=null&_requestid=455374
replace MQ maps with google maps http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/6c/1/en/hotelsearchresults?bcFrom=null&packageRatesFlag=null&_requestid=457995

- tourism industry want maps that less complicated, simple hotel location finders,
- travel industry will need more mapping
-
2. navx - http://blog.navx.com/
http://beta.navx.com/connect/
- french startup
- cool project
- hope we can help this program in geo sense
- sharing location etc
- community platform to publish community generated geo contents. - this is how to populate geo content in a platform.
- & use google map as platform
- study their beta site, they use FLEX , javascript and google api , http://coenraets.org/blog/2006/06/google-maps-collaboration-using-flex-flash-media-server-and-ajax-updated-for-flex-2-ga/

3. www.realestate.com - http://www.realestate.com/tipsandtools/
- there is 97 million property addresses in US :)
- home valuation
- giving controls to user - i find this is key to most mapping services, giving features for user to do it them self DIY.
- property application is among the priority in geo sense platform, easy to make money and valuable contents to not just property buyer/owner but also valuer, lawyer, banker, insurance, etc.
- the presenter stress user experience, he stress, cache at proxy, local process. I think this matter, if slow, people don't use the map/application

4. www.kayak.com
- making informed travel location
- educate user thru experience
- idea - how to make in geosense such like easy cataloging system to user to list down their location info.
- building API for other to use our application.

Questions / Comments
- question on how to monetize (make money) from mapping application
- what motivate people to share location info.
- provide right platform to motivate people to share info (location info)
- user corrected geo coding
- mapping inaccuracy issues -
- proxy for secured connection
- post GIS post queries,
- make mapping very-very easy to use
- privacy issues

Open Source workshop

The Geo Stack
- tutorial on installing geoserver
- . 1. need to install java
2. http://geoserver.org/display/GEOS/Welcome
- I wonder why mapserver people are not around
3. styling feature using SLD
4.it all about publishing maps
I have all the files to install geoserver & openlayer, pls let me know if needed to try.

I am too jetlagging to continue the tutorial, when out for some cookies & lemonade.

Tutorial Web 2.0 Enterprise mashup from Autodesk.
1. tutorial on installing mapguide and mapguide studio
2. many copies, pastes and scroll downing.
3. I have the trial CD of mapguide, if need to try, pls let me know.

note. Autodesk is serious about going web 2.0 & mashup.

salam

Evening - Ignite 5 min presentations

Can we catchup with them;

Ignite and launch pad is event (7pm - 9pm) where 20-30 startup talk about their project in 5 min.
I share some interesting projects being presented this evening in where 2.0 Burlingame SF.

http://mapufacture.com/

http://www.patientslikeme.com/ - to push for moh
http://crashmap.us/cgi-bin/index.pl
http://gpsmission.com/
http://www.whrrl.com/
http://www.ipoki.com/
http://databasin.org/ - this project has most functionalities that geosense try to explore, (pls study) ***
http://www.maponics.com/Neighborhood_Data/neighborhood_data.html

neighborhood data from prof of berkley UC. ??? good

http://www.greenmap.org/
http://www.greenmap.org/ -

UK access data - a finance dude that presenting the need for free geo data access in UK, without data you can't built services
changing gov mind on data access

http://www.pushpin.com/ - launching free API
http://rest.alpha.pushpin.com/states/CA/cities
http://www.concharto.com/home.htm - vs crosspath? www.xcrosspath.com - it does not cross to other data.
http://www.focation.com/sg/ - location grid
http://en.oreilly.com/where2008/public/schedule/detail/359 - can outsource mapping project?
http://openspace.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/openspace/index.html
http://wheresthepath.googlepages.com/wheresthepath.htm

salam

where 2.0 2008, Burlingame SF.

2008-05-13T10:25:00.005+08:00

What in my bag

2008-05-10T00:30:00.000+08:00

CEO Workplace

2008-05-10T00:13:00.000+08:00

Where 2.0

2008-05-03T14:12:00.000+08:00

Geo Sense Value Proposition

2008-04-16T08:20:00.000+08:00

Value Prop (VP) is important to investor and buyer. Strong VP deliver tangible results like:

Increased revenues
Faster time to market
Decreased costs
Improved operational efficiency
Increased market share
Decreased employee turnover
Improved customer retention levels

GSSB value proposition by comparing traditional GIS with open web GIS model,

enabling more user to spatial analysis for faster and accurate decision making.
reducing time to make right decision greatly improve service delivery turn to business friendly administration which translate to increase tax revenue.
GSSB GIS collaboration platform optimizing resources translate to cost saving to Governments.

Value proposition as a centralize outsourcing ASP GIS services
Typical GIS implementation will cost around RM350k to 1.5Mil including the software licensing, database, server hardware, training and data complexity.

Cost	Traditional IMS Approach	Geo Sense
IMS Software License Fee	RM15k to RM35k one time	None
Annual IMS Software Maintenance/Support Fee	RM5k annually	None
IMS Deployment License Fee	No specifics available - but very significant	None
Annual Subscription Fee	-	Supportive
Monthly fee for bandwidth to host the mapping server	~RM2,500/month for a T1/DSL connection	None
Custom software/web development	RM50-500/hour	None required
Server administration	~M250/hour	None
Server hardware	RM25k to RM100k	None

Time	Traditional IMS Approach	BeyondGeo
Custom Development	Weeks - at a minimum	None
Ongoing Administration and Maintenance	Are you in the web server hosting business?	None

Feature	Traditional IMS Approach	Geo Sense
Full-blown enterprise-wide GIS functionality	Yes	No
Essential “Show and Tell” features – Reset, Zoom in, Zoom out, Recenter, Find, Query, Bookmark	Somewhere in the mix	Yes

The VP is
Geo Sense platform is

Geo Sense Presentation - Not So Brief

2008-03-28T16:12:00.000+08:00

| View | Upload your own

2008-02-21T09:19:00.000+08:00

MSC MGS Grant, another alternative to fuel Geo Sense

wakaf gis

2008-02-17T01:24:00.000+08:00

Geo Sense is engaged in consulting, designing and developing State wide wakaf assets management system by using GIS.

Airview

2008-02-01T00:43:00.001+08:00

Airview is an online collection of NSW,Aust aerial imagery. The archives contain thousand of aerial photo images taken by Airview air crews. User able to browse through Airview web mapping interface, choose area to view and purchase. User buy the images for various reasons such as property study, town or land planning, investment study, marketing kits and etc.

While, Geo Sense is providing the biggest high resolution web archives of Malaysian aerial photography taken by Geo Sense UAV system. Similair to Airview, users browse the web mapping and click to the cell for image close up and eventually online purchase in the softcopy and poster print out purchase.

Next step is to provide platform that overlay images with other spatial information such as street map, zoning, demography and cadastral map. User also can order for new tasking on certain area.

Phone that will rock Geo Sense

2008-01-31T21:21:00.001+08:00

making GIS Rock

2008-01-30T00:50:00.000+08:00

Geo Sense is transforming typical geo related services from turnkey project basis to open 24 hours next door store, by providing subscription Geo channels and services. Geo Sense offers a slice of GIS functionality with much deeper emphasized at end user requirements rather than full blown spatial analytical tools. Anyways, typical end user only use about 25-30% of GIS functionalities, while cartography, surveyor and specialize Geo related firms are the real users that appreciate the full functionalities. Thus Geo Sense emphasizes simplicity and collaboration platform rather than shrink wrap software.
..... how to make GIS rocks
variety of geo data and how each are related to each other and make sense for decision making.
How to take user to the next stage of GIS is by providing a platform that encourage volunteering Geo data updating or geo tagging and at some level provide simulation platform for greater understanding.

luck run low

2008-01-07T14:38:00.001+08:00

Golf Anyone

2008-01-04T09:50:00.001+08:00

Everybodys Golf

Click here to play this game

Rembau and beyond

2008-01-01T19:09:00.001+08:00

Geo Sense Product Development

2007-12-27T17:25:00.001+08:00

Year End Bye 2007

2007-12-27T10:14:00.000+08:00

I would like to end this 2007 with following

Geo Sense Web Site - Introduction 1

2007-12-16T00:33:00.000+08:00

Information about location is very important to every one of us; overtime, every organization as well as individual generate and accumulate location related data, eg. Government generate data about citizens, taxpayers, land utilization, planning, and zoning, while businesses keep updating their customer addresses, businesses need to locate new potential for marketing purposes or for opening new branches. Bank and insurance able to provider more tailored scheme if they can related customers and demographic data with location information. Politician needs to know where their voters and opinions to maintain their leadership.

Organization invests in software such as Geographical Information System or known as GIS to manage all these complex data. GIS mainly help storing, visualizing and analysing geo related data for better understanding and decision making. Besides GIS complex system, organization also has to keep investing in updating geo contents such as mapping, aerial imagery, topology survey, demographic, zoning, economic data etc.

In a typical Government office, GIS is normally under planning (or town) department and specially operate by trained technician. Often time GIS is isolated from Information Technology Departments, and less coordination from both departments which create investment redundancy and data silo, referring to data which is potentially useful to organization is being underutilized.

With all the system, data and managing this complex system, making GIS initiatives too expansive to many organizations, yet typical organization only used 15-20% of the system functionalities. Our study shown than only 70% of municipality or town council in South East Asia can’t efforts to invest in GIS despite the benefits and demand of such system.

With the widespread Internet broadband services, many complex enterprise platforms can be delivered or outsourced via web delivery model. Examples are in online banking, ticketing, recruitment, accounting, procurement etc. Google with Google Earth is paving mass awareness about geo related information and enabling innovating services such as Geo Sense.

Geo Sense is a location information provider, offering GIS software, geo data hosting, and basic geo content services “on demand” or via Internet. Saving users from investing in such complex software, hardware, extended data and dedicated staff. Geo Sense is enabling organization to focus their resources on their core organization mission.

Iteration from platform services to market place

2007-12-11T18:11:00.000+08:00

| View | Upload your own

GODCHA at Singapore ASOCIO.APICTA

2007-11-26T08:01:00.000+08:00

http://www.sitf.org.sg/Singapore2007/index.html

GODCHA is participating at S'pore ASOCIO.APICTA 2007

GODCHA General Arch.

2007-11-16T10:03:00.000+08:00

RC Aerial Photo

2007-11-05T16:42:00.000+08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysGQveyciOM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-GjFhMcNZM
http://www.askmanap.com/qa.html

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2006/11/emw475940.htm

http://www.minizepp.com/English_zepp.html

http://www.skypix.com.my/v1/

Business Intent & Clear indication of intended business activities.

2007-10-26T12:56:00.002+08:00

Company Background

2007-10-26T12:56:00.001+08:00

Geo Sense Sdn. Bhd. was incorporated on 21 May 2007. with the objective to become the successful company in providing geographical (geo) related solution technology services. GSSB is developing and offering Geographical Information System (GIS) in form of web services; enable clients to use enterprise GIS software capability on Internet or GIS on demand. GIS on Demand Community Holistic Application short as GODCHA is the project development code to signify the important concept of Geo Wiki or GIS community driven contents development. SSSB believes that collaborative efforts on maintaining geo related data will reduce cost of ownership and benefits the whole user communities. GODCHA has a simple vision, to provide the most comprehensive South East Asia location information services online, materially speaking “an hotmail to GIS”.

The concept of web GIS on demand was approved for MDeC Pre Seed funding grant reference TPF 2-4019/2007 and since July 2007, GSSB development team is in progressively developing showcase or alpha GODCHA portal services. GODCHA is fully developed using open source and open GIS platform. GODCHA showcases the combination of GIS and web development technologies in bringing geo information for much better meaning to especially non technical users. GODCHA is a subscription business model and is mainly targeting organizational related customers especially Governments. GSSB is seeking RM5mil seed capital investments in order enable GODCHA to provide sizable geo related contents and enough features to attract pilot subscribers. The whole Malaysian nationwide geo contents data is cost at RM21mill which will be required in venture capital investment stage.

Geo Sense has five (5) team members, web open GIS developer, system architect and web designer. Ismail Ibrahim and Kegan are both GSSB founding members and fulltime GODCHA evangelists.

Web Services

2007-10-24T16:31:00.000+08:00

GODCHA is using basecamp from http://www.37signals.com/ It a fantastic project collaboration web services. Basecamp suites well GODCHA collaboration and simplicity motto.

GODCHA VC Pitch

2007-10-24T13:20:00.000+08:00

GODCHA is an idea stage. Idea is like dream, can we dream of an idea or dream our ideas. We might as well keep dreaming.

But GODCHA is not just a dream, since conception in July 2007, GODCHA under Malaysian limited enterprising company Geo Sense Sdn. Bhd. have been embarking in the serious prototype development of Web GIS service portal.

The project is progressing since July 2007 until now, we have work in progress snapshot at GODCHA alpha site and project management site at http://geosense.projectpath.com/ you need to be the team member to login.

Geo Sense has officially 5 team members, web open GIS developer, system architec and web designer. Practically we have 2 full time team members and 3 others are supporting part timely. I am GODCHA fulltime evengelist. GODCHA does not have physical office, we meet day and night in our virtual office http://geosense.projectpath.com/. Until Oct 2007, GODCHA has more than 50 physical highly connected offices through out Malaysia and South East Asia our office addresses are link here.

Our current funding enough for GODCHA to stay sober until Feb. 2008. GODCHA alpha site will be ready for human comprehension by Nov 2007 as well as the begining GODCHA road show. The purpose of the road show is to meet as many potential GODCHA users as possible and to impress them on how GODCHA can solve their problems and along the ways finding angle that believe in our project and willing to take us beyond Feb. 2008.

Since early 2006, I have been meeting and discussing GODCHA to many different backgrounds, from the GIS, mapping industries, Government officer, corporate executive, professor, engineer, business owners, students etc. I can group them into two categories, a technical users and non-technical users. Technical users, are mainly GIS, cartographer or mapping experts, professors, officer and researcher from JUPEN (Malaysian Mapping Dept.), MACRES researchers, GIS engineers and programmers. Most of them have cynical opinions about GODCHA and believe that our Malaysian or even Asian organizational users are not ready for open GIS, let alone Geo Wiki and it only happen on Google Maps and virtual earth. Most of the discussion will end up with serious issues on accuracy, standard protocol, reliability and security concerns. The GIS technical users with less or no IT services background are much harder to convince, this is fair. For years, they are responsible in building data silos in our public and private offices and such a way never been presented properly for non technical workers at the top levels to comprehend and making better decisions. Unfortunately Government spents million to such silos but never get enough benefits without the concern of the GIS key keepers.

Now we can see smart non GIS technical users starting to access Google Map from their laptop and visually pin pointing concerned location. There are more data or content layers lock up in the silos and will be much powerful if only it is make available.

GODCHA has a simple vision, to provide the most comprehensive South East Asia location information services online , materially speaking “an hotmail to GIS”.

GODCHA is developing a platform for corporation and Government to make geo related data available online and to collaborate with other decision support system. GODCHA is addressing multi million duplicating investment made in many conventional GIS implementation. GODCHA is providing fresh collaborative geo contents online with all basic tools for typical non-GIS users to benefits. GODCHA is stressing on simplicity, collaboration and intelligence.

System spec - very draft

2007-08-08T20:38:00.000+08:00

WBRB

A User-Centered Model for Community-based Web-GIS

2007-08-02T16:59:00.001+08:00

http://www.urisa.org/publications/journal/articles/a_user_centered_model
http://nkla.sppsr.ucla.edu/master.cfm?Language=English&Look=Graphic&SessionOn=Yes

Government initiative- MyGDI

2007-08-02T16:16:00.000+08:00

I have encountered several friend questioning me about Geo Sense and roles of MACGDI and MyGDI.
MyGDI is as in her website is an initiative by the government to develop a Geospatial Data Infrastructure to enhance the awareness about data availability and improve access to geospatial information by facilitating data sharing among participating agencies.

http://www.mygeoportal.gov.my/index_new6.cfm#

MyGDI provides indexing of geo spatial data online.
Public be able to access, order and purchase online.
Assuming agencies already GIS platform in place.
Agency knows how to manage spatial data.

There is no online GIS tools provide by MyGDI.
Geo Sense provides platform and data.

will government & enterprise turn to Google for their GIS needs

2007-07-29T01:22:00.000+08:00

http://www.google.com/enterprise/government/
yes and no

yes
1. why need to invent the technology
2. Google streaming is unmatched - Google infrastructure
3. continue improvement - urban images are regularly update and getting better
4. simple user interface - non technical proof
5. comparatively low rental rate
6. etc

no
1. security concern
2. not enough local coverages
3. data obsolete
4. less control (perceive no control)
5. no on site support
6. scalability issue - limited

Traditionally businesses and gov opted enterprise GIS application than an online model (web GIS).
ASP model is only limited within and inter related organizations.
One of the reasons is data security
Organization is open for web GIS model that provide by comthey trust.
Why they trust depend on
- local presence, connection, eligibility
- superior product and services
- branding
- track record
- etc

By the nature of typical Asian government and Google setups, Google will still have to wait
While, Web GIS ASP model can be acceptable, why - ref, ePerolehan, bina.com, etc. Sharing platform with trusted organization is acceptable among Gov agencies.

Critical Success Factors of Implementing Web GIS

2007-07-23T23:50:00.000+08:00

to think
http://www.appliedgis.com/docs/adk_user_group.ppt#268,1,Strategies for Planning and Implementing GIS Technology

Implementing Web GIS - GODCHA approach

2007-07-22T10:27:00.001+08:00

Web GIS is a delicate area between GIS and web development.
GODCHA will be having both GIS expert and web development programmers.
- is a service setup than a GIS technology company.
- is addressing GIS to non technical, end user customers.

GODCHA platform is stressing on "simplicity, structure and collaboration"
- is promoting wiki style data collection and collaboration approach. - refer Geowiki project and Wikimapia - wiki is a collaborative website that is contributed and edited by everybody. Wiki means fast in Hawaiian language, is a quick way for information collaboration. Wiki promotes virtual common platform (online community) and eventually motivate each of the member with common interest in contributing toward inputting and editing data which normally expensive to do in a commercial ways. Among local successful online community portal is Malsingmap, with more than 200 active members nationwide, MalsingMap motivate each member to contribute toward updating Malaysia and Singapore street and routing maps. Malsingmap is now considered as one of the complete online street routable references. The same effort will take years and million ringgit for typical mapping company to complete. (malsingmap is a forum not wiki architecture portal)

GIS as a complete package, - 3 main areas platform, which is i) engine, a gis software, web development tools and database. ii) a based contents, fixed spartial data, images (mapping, satellite images, demographic and economy zoning data) iii) client data hosting services (option). In future GODCHA will provide clients API to interface with the platform.
GODCHA research team will continue to update relevance data layers as a based layer.
In a way subscriber will not have to own based data but only responsible to their personal dynamic spatial data.

Architecture

Following is an overview OpenGIS Consortium (OGIS) Web Mapping Testbed system flow within the testbed:-

More information regarding OpenGIS implementation is at GISdevelopment.net.

WebGIS Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is as follow:-

Overview of GODCHA sys architecture:-

GODCHA is evaluating GIS engine, between enterprise and open source.

GODCHA showcase (beta) overall system flow:-

Work Around Google Maps
Google maps create big impact in public awareness or understanding about geo information and GIS. It is not just awesome satellite images but most importantly demand for GIS has been drastically increased in recent years. Google or Google Map will still create less in pact in term of business engagement in Asian region, this is due to the fact that the concentration is still very much in North America, Europe and Australia. These is because Google still lacking data in many part of the world and the opportunities are still very much concentrated at or near their origin. Nevertheless, Google deliver the most innovative online mapping and GIS form application on the web, and by monitoring it development will help GODCHA works around what Google is missing and help in offering best solution to GODCHA focus groups.

Three (3) areas that Google is missing are:
i) Data structure
ii) Local contents & support - this is important as enterprise and Goverment a like perceive GIS data are sacret to their organization.
iii) Formal structure collaboration tools

One who browse on Google map will admit far better experience in interface and speed. Google massive infrastructure (server cluster etc) give them great advantage to the rest of online GIS services. (high note on hosting-bandwidth and database design)

There are 3 main modules under GODCHA showcase development:

i) User registration - from registration, profiling (personalization) and verification
ii) GODCHA GIS engine (functionality and layers control) - GODCHA is benchmarking google map in process flow and UI. Among important features are fully web browser access with image in tile,
iii) Collaboration tools

Pioneer Team Needed

2007-07-22T09:53:00.000+08:00

Geo Sense is developing a web GIS showcase portal

Office is based in Cyberjaya

intern, fulltime and partime are welcome
We are urgently looking for following expertise (should start by August 2007)

1. Software programmer
2. Highly self motivated
3. Basic skill:- (either one group skill)

Group (A)
- Javascript programming (having successfully coding min. 2 online working application)
- php, MySQL
- Knowledge of Google Map API is an advantage.

Group (B)
- .Net
- ASP
- Visual Studio

Send resume to ismaili70@gmail.com or ym me at "flixmill"
important points
skill set
past project description and (url link if any)
expected salary
date available to start

snapshot of expected GODCHA project.

Welcome to GIS on Demand Community Holistic Application (GODCHA)

2007-07-21T12:48:00.000+08:00

GODCHA is a GIS project under Geo Sense Sdn. Bhd. GODCHA vision is to offer geograhical based data and business analysis tools via web GIS to public.

GIS history can be tracked since mid 19th Century, when Dr John Snow solved the cholera outbreak source by utilizing multiple theme maps to a contaminated wells.

Since than, several factors the caused the change cartographic history.
1. computer technology - improvements in hardware, esp. graphics
2. development of theories of spatial processes in economic and social geography, anthropology, regional science.
3. increasing social awareness, education levels and mobility, awareness of environmental problems.
http://www.geog.ubc.ca/courses/klink/gis.notes/ncgia/u23.html#SEC23.1

This blog will address issues such as
1. The CSF of implementing Web GIS
2. GIS as Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) - GIS on Demand business model
3. Location intelligence business - local support to win local
4. User Interface Design (UID) and Data representation in web GIS - why Google win

Before we come to issues that concerning GODCHA, let revisit on how GIS come about and general existing implementing issues.

Following is overview of GIS elements:

http://www.edc.uri.edu/nrs/classes/NRS409/Lectures/3GISdefined/5%20Points%20of%20GIS.jpg

GIS Software has evolved from humble simple computer display that enable inputting point, line and polygon to database to today much complex, business intelligence capability. Now GIS software are available in commercial and open source packages. Following link give list of current available GIS software http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_GIS_software.

Handling Complexity

GIS has always been a technical analysis tools in the hand of technician. Most organizations that deployed GIS have special unit or dedicated staff that handling GIS technicality. eg. town council will have planning unit personnel, GIS personnel in utility companies or Government setup, etc. A visit to Johor Bahru Tengah Local Council (MPJBT) eg. found that a standalone MapInfo is managed by a technician who is part of engineering team and even the IT dept. has little knowledge about it existance. Often time, GIS data is highly sensitive and confidential to organization, thus GIS unit is perceived as secret unit and is rarely connected to the rest of the organization network. Making GIS an isolated and standalone unit. Key management rely on GIS to make better decision but most of the time only for ad hoc analysis reporting, such as in crisis or disaster. Decision makers do not have direct access to the system and are not technical enough to handle the GIS complexity. Fallacy of having GIS as just a glorifying unit in organization will not help organization, GIS has to be shared and integrate to organization mainstream application. Making GIS accessible while addressing data sensitivity will help.

Nevertheless GIS has greatly improved decision making process of many organization worldwide. eg, GIS is being linked to the executive information system (EIS), realizing the strategic value of location data to organization.

In most organization, GIS unit is treated as secondary functional supporting element and push back to lower priority level in budget or investment. In worse situation GIS unit is neglected and some big organization making double investment in GIS because they did not realized that other units already invested in the same system. The true potential of GIS is not fully realized because it was not reaching everybody and making impact to the organization.

GODCHA is addressing the issue of "does GIS suppose to be that complex and technical".

Not until Internet advancement of 21st century, GIS comes into center stage in form of online virtual earth representation such as Google earth, virtual earth, NASA WorldWind and they touch everybody. Net and media companies like Google, Microsoft, yahoo provide API and SDK for public to develop services that can be linked with their mapping platform. In less than 2 years, more than 50k geo mashup web services are available on the net like http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/, and the list continue growing . Location awareness is coming into the mainstream. Prominent enterprise GIS software companies like ESRI and MapInfo are also quickly jump into the web by offering GIS as web services. MapInfo with location intelligence and ESRI with ArcWeb Service.

Companies like ESRI, MapInfo, Manifold etc overtime spend billion on developing great GIS functionalities. Selling GIS software and services to thousand of enterprises worldwide. Google earth offers in a way everybody can GIS. Now geo information sharing has becoming part of web life style. Geo or location information effect everybody and with Internet, gathering and collaborating geo information has becoming much more easier than before, in the footstep of Wikimapia.

GIS just a platform, Data is still the King.

Having a three lanes toll highway without traffic is the like of investing in sosphicated GIS infra with not enough data to crunch (analogy that we use in multi million eGovernment infra without enough application to drive). Most of GIS companies like ESRI and MapInfo are providing superior GIS software and expertise and overtime drive enough application. MapInfo Location Intelligence Seminar in Marina Mandarin Raffles Hotel, Singapore 12 June 2007, showcase interesting the important of location information to businesses and Government. There are a bundle of applications that are deployed on MapInfo platform for enterprise, from analysing customer information, geo marketing to health sensitive information. Most of the applications are driven by based data availability. Politically, geo information is very much liberalized in United States than in Asian countries. In Malaysia case eg. geo data, such as cadastral map, demographic data etc are overtime gathered by different organizations within Government, land surveying firms and utility companies but are restricted to public due to legal constrain etc. Nevertheless most of demograhic information eg. town or economic zoning area etc. are public domain and need effort to present in GIS format. Thus location intelligence needs local representation to massage local data. Collecting data can be prohibitively expensive and most of the time legally constrained to many organization. Often time similar concerned data are repetitively invested by many organizations and to some worse senario by different unit in the same organization. Most of this organization are end user and should never be burden with owning data.

How to make data available is part of GIS services and often time are not part of the package. This is where companies like Geo Sense, R7 and MapChart come with much realistic business solutions such as gis on demand, geo marketing, georoom etc.

Geo Sense is a hotmail to GIS, Geo Sense is inspired by R7 and MapChart.