The Next Stage in the Evolution of the ERDAS Field Guide

What is the next stage in the evolution of the ERDAS Field Guide? Hexagon Geospatial has released the next version of ERDAS Field Guide. It has been wikified. As part of that evolution, The wiki version of the ERDAS Field Guide was renamed to “HexGeoWiki.”

Your first question may be, “Can I add/edit content on HexGeoWiki? The answer is, Yes. Your next question may be, “Will Paul change his blog to 'The GeoWiki'? The answer to that is, No. My blog's brand is The Field Guide and I will stick with the blog's brand. As well, this blog has never been about the company, my about ideas and thought I believe people may find value in knowing.

I believe this move by Hexagon Geospatial is the future of software documentation. Provide a solid documentation foundation and then allow a lot of really smart people in the community to collaborate and make documentation much more than it can be in a documentation team.

Check HexGeoWiki out at: https://wiki.hexagongeospatial.com/

ERDAS IMAGINE 14.00.01 Almost Ready for Release

The latest Hexagon Geospatial ERDAS IMAGINE product is almost ready. 14.00.01 will not be a service pack or maintenence release, but will be a minor release adding the following:

• Add support for MS Windows 8.1
• Add LAZ read, display, processing and write support
• Add more point cloud tools
• Expand 64-bit raster data format support (part of faster raster work) 
• Improve tile, strip (BIL) and BSQ TIFF read speed  
• Improve ECW Export 'Orient to Map' capabilities and performance
• Expand ECW metadata support
• Improve ECWP support
• Improve 'Table of Contents' interaction with 2D Viewer
• Add support for NITF 'Long Name' metadata
• Improve JP2 metadata support
• Add create ERS data
• Add HDF5 read and display support
• Add new GeoEye data format support
• Add EVS to shapefile conversion
• Add Inquire Curser 'History' capability
• Add Copy/Paste pictures from MS Windows tools into a Map View
• Add Copy/Paste images from MS Windows tools into a Map View
• Add Copy/Paste text from MS Windows tools into a Map View
• Add more reporting tools using Microsoft Office tools
• Add Min of all bands / Max of bands LUT to 2D View contrast stretch tools
• Add stereo viewing support for Windows 8 and 8.1
• Add add-on products from AAI
• Bug fixes
• And more....

I cannot provide the release date, that is up to Marketing. But, I can say this.... it would not be 'foolish' to expect it very soon.

Hexagon Geospatial a Massive 'New' Geospatial Software Company

Hexagon, AB has made more changes in their geospatial businesses.

Hexagon has pulled the ERDAS and GeoMedia software products out of Intergraph SG&I to form a new company, Hexagon Geospatial. Hexagon Geospatial is focused on delivering high-quality geospatial software and customer services globally. The new organization will leverage the global sales network of Intergraph as well as the global footprint of business partners dating back to ERDAS, Inc.’s reseller network.

The combining of the GeoMedia Suite, the ERDAS IMAGINE Suite, ERDAS APOLLO Suite, Mobil Map Works, ERDAS ER Mapper, ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK, and the ArcGIS Desktop and Server Extensions makes Hexagon Geospatial a massive 'new' geospatial software company.

Who is in the President of Hexagon Geospatial, longtime ERDAS employee Mr. Mladen Stojic.

Read an interview with Mladen here:

http://www.hxgnnews.com/exploring-intergraph-geospatial-2014/

A Poem to Usher in 2014

Happy New Year!

Back in 2010, I write a post on this blog of 'Two Poems to Usher in 2010'. I heard the two I then quoted poems put together as complementarity poems by during a church meeting. Mormons (of which I am a Mormon), have average church members (not the bishop/minister/pastor) give talks to the local congregation in weekly sacrament meetings (worship service). I have had the opportunity to speak in such services. Those two 2010 poems came from such a meeting.

Late last year, I heard a poem quoted by Thomas S. Monson (President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; 'Mormon' is a popular nick-mane name for the church and it's members). The poem he quoted, and I have quoted below, explains how difficulties can mold us into stronger people.

Good Timber
Good timber does not grow with ease,
The stronger wind, the stronger trees.
The further sky, the greater length.
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.
-Douglas Malloch

President Monson said in him talk, "Whenever we are inclined to feel burdened down with the blows of life, let us remember that others have passed the same way, have endured, and then have overcome."

ERDAS IMAGINE 2014 Arrives Today!

Today, 64-bit (x64) raster processing is released in ERDAS IMAGINE 2014. All raster formats which support x64 processing with in Spatial Modeler, Spatial Modeler (Legacy), MosaicPro, Export ECW, and more. Because much of ERDAS IMAGINE uses Spatial Modeler (Legacy) for processing, a very wide swath of the product processes raster data in true x64. There are a few very old raster formats that depend on third-party libraries, where the third party has not ported to x64, and these raster formats will run in x86.

Once example ECW Exporter, I ran a test yesterday.... I copied a 22GB file using the DOS cmd.exe 'copy' command. It took longer to copy the 22GB file from local disk to the same local disk than it took to compress the 22GB image file with the ECW Exporter. So, speed is one benefit of x64 bit processing (as if we did not know that already).  

Another example, Image Segmentation... with the x64 processing we released a new version of image segmentation. I will cover that in another blog post at a later time.

LPS Changes Soon in 2014 Annual Release

Intergraph recently notified LPS customers the annual release of ERDAS IMAGINE (2014) will mark the next phase softcopy photogrammetry in ERDAS IMAGINE and LPS.

The ERDAS IMAGINE product line has a long history of digital (softcopy) photogrammetry. Softcopy photogrammetry was first introduced in ERDAS IMAGINE 8.0.2 with ‘IMAGINE Digital Ortho’. The next major upgrade came with the release of ‘IMAGINE OrthoMAX,’ which was introduced in 1995. ‘IMAGINE OrthoBASE’ was the next major upgrade and was introduced in 1999.

In 2004, LPS 8.7 was the next major upgrade and was developed and marketed alongside ERDAS IMAGINE 8.7. In LPS 2013, the ERDAS IMAGINE ribbon interface adoption was part of a major LPS upgrade, and created the tightest product integration to that time.

In the 2014 release version, the integration is even tighter. LPS product family and components have been rebranded and repackaged to become part of the ERDAS IMAGINE 2014 once again. Softcopy photogrammetry in ERDAS IMAGINE suite has been upgraded and expanded yet again.

The packaging of the ERDAS IMAGINE Suite (of which LPS is now part), has been simplified. The details of the packaging will be rolled out by Intergraph soon, as the release of Intergraph Geospatial 2014 is imminent.

There is much more for the LPS community, but I will leave that to the press releases... I will expand on those after they are released.

Did you know... OrthoBASE was the first software product Mladen Stojic managed. Mladen and I often reminisce of OrthoBASE creation days, and the fun we had creating it. (Well he created it; I was someone he could bounce ideas off.)

Are you surprised by a veto on spending from Georgia's Republican governor?

Many in the State of Georgia’s (USA) mapping community were surprised by Republican Governor Nathan Deal’s veto of Georgia Senate Bill 11.  The goal of the bill was to formalize the role of director of Georgia Geospatial Advisory Council (GGAC). This Geographic Information Officer (GIO) position was presented as the only pathway to facilitate managing geospatial data collection and maintenance across the Georgia.

As re-read the Georgia Geospatial Audit (GGA) it again stands out that GGAC is proposing a specific pathway to accomplishing the primary goal of creating and maintaining consistently solid geospatial information to support better and more timely legislative and executive decision making. That singular pathway in and of itself is the problem.

Having a governmental unit responsible for resource mapping in the state of Georgia can be argued as the best way manage mapping in Georgia. Notwithstanding the clear logic, as has been proposed by GGAC (as outlined in the GGA), a GIO approach has not in the past, and will not likely occur in the next few legislative sessions in the State of Georgia.

It is my opinion, as long as GISCC and the Georgia Geospatial Advisory Council (GGAC) push for a new tax payer funded position or department, we will see a failure to accomplish the real geospatial need in Georgia; consistent up-to-date and accurate geospatial information that supports better decision making in Georgia, available to both the legislative and administrative branches.
 

By a large margin, Georgia is dominated by an electorate and legislative culture who are currently opposed to the of new departments and opposed to adding personnel to the state’s payroll. Indeed, these electorate and legislative cultures demand spending be intelligently trimmed now and continuing over the next decade. These demands would wrongly be considered austerity measures. Rather, clearing out wasteful spending before new spending is considered. The pathway GISCC and GGAC have proposed, cannot be done in the current political climate.

GISCC and GGAC need to think outside of the 'GIO is the only way' box. The GIO approach will not work in the in the Georgia's current electorate and legislative cultures. Georgia needs a truly innovative approach to the  real challenge of providing solid, accurate, timely geospatial data to decision makers. 
 

What computer should I buy to use ERDAS IMAGINE?

I often get system configuration questions. Actually, very often. People ask, what computer should I buy to use ERDAS IMAGINE? The posted System Requirements explain the minimum needed. Minimum requirements give the same results, but take a long time to get there.

 

For me, my computer is considered the cheapest employee the company can hire. Pay for it once and use it 24 / 7 / 365 for 3 or 4 years. That is a good employee. :)

 

Here are what I usually tell folks:

1. Everyone using ERDAS IMAGINE should use a 64-bit OS. Everyone. A 64-bit OS is far more valuable in time savings than the cost of the US$125 upgrade from a 32-bit OS.
1. ERDAS IMAGINE has used large address aware (on 64-bit OS) to allow a process to use up to about 3.4GB memory (if needed) in some form or another since ERDAS Desktop 2010. All ERDAS Desktop products are large address aware in v2013 and higher. All.
2. Everyone should use a 64-bit OS, and use more than 8 GB RAM. We use their resources they have invested in. Below you see how you easily exceed 8GB RAM on a typical day.
1. MS Windows OS often uses about 2GB of memory.
2. MS Office uses about 500MB of memory. 
3. The ERDAS IMAGINE Viewer/Ribbon can use up to about 3.4GB of memory. 
4. MosaicProcessPro (MosaicPro engine) can use up to about 3.4GB of memory. 
3. Everyone should use a 64-bit OS, use more than 8GB RAM, and use multi-core processors.
1. ERDAS desktop products has used multiple threads in some form or another since ERDAS IMAGINE / LPS 8.7.
2. We do more work in this area every major release of ERDAS IMAGINE, and salso do some work in some SPs.
3. Even in areas with limited threading,using multi-core processors improves performance.
4. Everyone should use a 64-bit OS, use more than 8GB RAM, use multi-core processors, and use fast disks.
1. This is why moer than 8GB RAM helps so very, very much. Greater than 8GB RAM keeps process intensive memory usage from paging to virtual memory (disk file). All the while you have other applications open on your Windows OS desktop.
2. Because geographic data are so large, reading and writing of these data is a significant slow-down point. Use one fast disk for reading and another fast disks for writing and most valuable disk RAIDs when ever possible.
3. Never process large files using an external USB drive. The time (and money) you waste will likely pay for another internal hard disk.

 

GDAL Work to Support ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK v5 Almost Complete

To support the ERDAS ECW Plug-in for ArcGIS Desktop 10.1, work was done to add support for the ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK v5 into GDAL. The new ECW SDK adds support for ECW v3, which supports 16-bit data, RPC, statistics, histograms, and much more in the new ECW file format. The new ECW SDK also supports ECWP v3, which faster than ever.

In the process of working on the ArcGIS/GDAL work, we learned a few things that help the use of the SECW DK in GDAL, and these will be rolled into the final ECW SDK and GDAL products. You will see the GDAL changes about the same time the ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK v5 is released.

In addition to ECW v3 and ECWP v3 things noted above, the new SDK version will decode JP2 faster thatn ever. Our goal is to be faster than any other tools that decode JP2 data (go big or go home). The new ECW SDK will support Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 compiler and Linux.

So, when will the new ECW SDK v5 be released?

I have been asking the same thing. (I am not longer the ECW SDK Product manager). While I have not gotten a definitive answer, because we see the ECW SDK being used in ERDAS IMAGINE and ERDAS APOLLO 2013 products, many GeoMedia 2013 products, in ECW Plug-in for ArcGIS Desktop 10.1, and the GDAL work now complete (but not checked-in) we can know we are real close.

Latest Version of ERDAS ECW Plug-in for ArcGIS Desktop

The ERDAS ECW Plug-in for ArcGIS Desktop 10.1 has been released by Intergraph. The plug-in is free. This plug-in version will not work on ArcGIS for Desktop versions earlier than 10.1. Esri customers having an earlier version of ArcGIS for Desktop should use the earlier version of the plug-in.

The ERDAS ECW Plug-in for ArcGIS Desktop 10.1 enhances the native ECW / ECWP support Esri has built into ArcGIS for Desktop. This new version of the ECW Plug-in for ArcGIS Desktop adds over 35 enhancements. Among these enhancements are the following:

• Support for Esri's ArcGIS 10.1 for Desktop, released in June 2012
• ECW v3 file support has been added
• Local files will read and store statistics information within the ECW fileheader
• Display speed of ECW v2 files has been improved when compared to Esri’s default v10.1 capabilities
• ECWP v3 has been added for improved streaming performance when connecting to ERDAS APOLLO 2013 servers over low bandwidth and secure environments
• ECWP will continue to work on older ERDAS APOLLO versions
• An automatic 99% clip is now applied to >8 bit JP2 or ECW v3 files when streamed over ECWP
• Projection handling of ECWP layers has been significantly improved to support additional EPSG and now also Esri's defined coordinate systems
• Numerous enhancements to ERDAS ER Mapper ERS and ALG file support
• Added support for catalog searching of ERDAS APOLLO Advantage 2013 servers
• Esri’s ArcCatalog now fully supports managing ECW v2, ECW v3, ERS and ALG files
• Resolved side-by-side compatibility with ERDAS Extensions for ArcGIS. Both products can now coexist in the same ArcGIS for Desktop install

The plug-in is available from Intergraph here:  http://geospatial.intergraph.com/products/other/ecw/ECWPlugins/Downloads.aspx 

ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Version 13.00.0002 in testing

ERDAS Desktop 2013 v 13.00.0002 (ERDAS IMAGINE, LPS, and ERDAS ER Mapper SP2) is complete and is undergoing quality assurance testing. The post below gives an outline of a few areas we have worked on in the release. We have added support for creating ECW opacity layers using shapefiles. The user no longer has to convert the shapefile polygon into an AOI.

Now that the product is in QA testing, I believe SP2 will be delivered before mid-April 2013.


I will be attending GIA/CAMA is Albuquerque this week. I have a huge interest in Parcel-based change detection and will be speaking at an Intergraph sponsored luncheon on the topic.

ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Version 13.00.0002 in development

We are always improving our products. Sometimes in major releases and sometimes in service packs (SP). Work is well underway for improving ERDAS Desktop 2013 (ERDAS IMAGINE, LPS, and ERDAS ER Mapper). These improvements address customer reported improvements as well as improvements defined by product managers. The expected product deliver version number is 2013 Version 13.00.0002.

This SP may be limited to customers with current customer support only as it has a lot of enhancements. I am not in a position to outline exactly what we are improving in the SP, yet. But, what I can say, we are improving LAS, ECW, JP2, NITF, Spatial Modeler, Spatial Modeler (Legacy), Virtual Mosaic, and much more. This SP, and what we did in the ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 release (released early December 2012) are very powerful.

This SP development period will be a short time-frame one. I would expect ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Version 13.00.0002 to arrive on the website well before the Hexagon 2013 conference in Las Vegas (June 3 – 6).

ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK v4.3 Available

The latest versions of the ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK (SDK), version 4.3 are now available on the Intergraph Geospatial Products website. These versions are a maintenance release. While addressing some maintenance issues, there were some slight improvement in memory handling of ECW and JP2 data, as well as some performance improvements.

This release it likely the final release for version 4 of the SDK. Version 5 of the SDK is in the final stages of development, and is already being used in various Intergraph products. Version 5 of  the SDK is shaping up to be a powerful product. There is no official date for release, but should not be far into the new year (2013), is my best guess.

Download ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK v4.3 at the following web page:  

http://geospatial.intergraph.com/products/other/ecw/ERDASECWJPEG2000SDK/Downloads.aspx

The Release of ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 is Coming Soon

The work on ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 is in the final stages. Indeed, all ERDAS Desktop products (ERDAS IMAGINE, LPS, ERDAS ER Mapper) are preparing for release. Keep an eye out for a press release from Intergraph before the end of this year (2012).

What do I like?

• The Model Maker transition into Spatial Modeler 
• Pull architecture for real-time processing to viewer 
• Faster file creation 
• Write real-time to 2D Viewer and create a file faster than Model Maker can make a file  
• Pull architecture based on ERDAS ER Mapper concepts 
• Python in Spatial Modeler 
• Use custom designed applications in a Spatial Model 
• Access other licensed software products in a Spatial Model 
• GeoMedia vector and raster processing objects used in Spatial Modeler 
• High performance asynchronous raster data engine 
• Faster data access in 2D Viewer and Spatial Modeler 
• Will be expanded in 2014 release 
• Use of the new v5 ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK 
• Used in ERDAS IMAGINE, LPS and ERDAS ER Mapper 
• Multi-threaded encoding 
• Introduce ECW v3 file format (ECW v2 has been around since 1999)
• ECW v3 supports up to unsigned 16-bit data 
• ECW v3 uses GeoTIFF standard for coordinate reference system definition 
• Expanded ECW metadata 
• Faster encoding of ECW 
• Faster decoding of ECW 
• Faster ECW v2 and v3 opacity layer calculation 
• Reduced need for J2I files with JP2 files 
• More robust support for non-standard JP2 data 
• More robust support for ill-defined JP2 profiles 
• Support reading MrSID MG4 Raster  
• Support reading of MrSID MG4 LiDAR 
• Point cloud (LiDAR) support 
• Viewing 
• Automatic classification 
• Manual classification 
• Data preparation 
• Support read and write of LAS 
• New LPS user interface 
• Improved Terrain Prep Tool 
• Improved MosaicPro (we never stop making MosaicPro better) 
• New swipe tools (transitions ribbon) 
• New measurement ribbon for height from shadow and height from building lean and ortho measurements  
• Real-time spectral indices (using Spatial Modeler technology) 
• Vegetation 
• Snow / Ice 
• Minerals
• Water 
• New unsupervised classification tools 
• Faster unsupervised classification tools 
• Use of SAM and SCM in supervised classification 
• New image segmentation algorithm in IMAGINE Objective 
• Numerous interface improvements to make ERDAS IMAGINE and LPS more intuitive to expert and novice alike 

There is more, but these are what I really like. 

So, keep an eye out for the press releases... from Intergraph. Don't forget, ERDAS is part of Intergraph and   Intergraph is part of Hexagon. The Erdasians have helped our fellow Intergraph employees integrate well within Hexagon. 

ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK GDAL Driver Updated

The ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK team in Perth Australia has done some work to update the ECW drivers in GDAL. These have been submitted to the GDAL community, and should make their way into a future version of GDAL.

There are multiple changes, but what I want to raise in this post, the performance of GDAL driver was improved in two main areas. While these bottlenecks were not in the ERDAS Desktop and Server product lines, we wanted to ensure our GDAL users had as similar a decoding performance as possible. 

1.  GDAL 1.9 and earlier versions have a performance bottleneck when a single band is decoded line by line. This is not the preferred method of reading ECW data; nevertheless it is done by some folks. 
2. GDAL 1.9 and earlier versions did not use the SDK’s implementation of supersampling, and GDAL’s own implementation was slower. Switching to supersampling using the SDK implementation halved time of the execution. 

While working on this small project, we did notice other areas where we can improve ECW support in the GDAL drivers going forward.

The Perth Team in Australia will improve the GDAL drivers more so when we upgrade GDAL to support the v5 of the SDK and the new ECW v3 file format early in the upcoming new year.

As has been policy, developer tools for decoding ECW and JP2 data using the SDK on desktop continue to be free.

See: http://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/ticket/4822

Example Python Code from ERDAS IMAGINE's Upcoming Spatial Modeler

The chief Python developer, Fengliang provided me an example Python script that will run a resolution merge (pan sharpen) in the upcoming Spatial Modeler. This example model (below) runs outside of the ERDAS IMAGINE User Interface, indeed ERDAS IMAGINE is not running at all when the Py scipt is launched. ERDAS IMAGINE is installed and licensed, but not running.

The Py script finds all the ERDAS IMAGINE Spatial Modeler functions, and runs the model. This model runs 100% in the background. The ERDAS IMAGINE UI never launches. If the user wants to, they can run the model, start the UI and display the results as a real-time preview in the Viewer. Note, the preview is realtime modeling to screen, like ERDAS ER Mapper Algorithms. When using preview, a new file is never actually created. (But you can create one when you need to!) 

This example Py script, and others will be provided when the software is released.

-------------------------------------------

def Sharpen( model, band, summary, panband ):
      return model.CastToFloat( model.Multiply( model.Divide(band, summary), panband))

# import erdas python module for spatial modeler
from erdas import modeler

# create a process
m = modeler.Model();

# create input operators
pan = m.RasterInput( "E:/Demo/Brovey/le7039035000009250_pan.img", "Float", "Nearest Neighbor");
multispectral = m.RasterInput("E:/Demo/Brovey/le7039035000009250_multi.img", "Float", "Nearest Neighbor");

# add three bands together
r = m.SelectBand(multispectral, '4:4');
g = m.SelectBand(multispectral, '3:3');
b = m.SelectBand(multispectral, '2:2');
sum = m.Add(1, r, g, b)

# calculate R, G, B bands for stacklayer
stack = m.StackLayers( Sharpen( m, r, sum, pan ), Sharpen( m, g, sum, pan ), Sharpen( m, b, sum, pan ) )

# to output operator
m.RasterOutput(stack, "E:/Demo/Brovey/output/brovey-output-python-6.img", "u8", Thematicity=modeler.Thematicity.continuous)

# finalize the process
m.Execute();

Last Few ERDAS Desktop 2012 Development Weeks Deliver Solid Results

During the last few weeks the ERDAS Desktop software development teams have delivered solid results.

1. We have seen Point Cloud (LiDAR) display performance speed up significantly.
2. User feedback from the Hexagon 2012 Conference prompted refinement in the LiDAR Ribbon controls.
3. ERDAS IMAGINE’s Spatial Modeler providing real-time results from over 30 indices as well as pan sharpening.
4. Python is now running Spatial Modeler without launching ERDAS IMAGINE UI.
5. Asynchronous multi-threaded raster data delivery engine plugged into Spatial Modeler and into the 2D Viewer.
6. Began work placing the latest ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK into ERDAS IMAGINE, LPS, and ERDAS ER Mapper.
7. MosaicPro improvements improves how customers can handle mosaicking images with clouds. 

There are more, but I can’t talk about all of them. There are a lot of great things happening in Atlanta, Perth, Singapore and Hyderabad as we march towards the 2012 ERDAS Desktop Products release.

Oh yes, and did I tell you that ERDAS IMAGINE functions are being placed into GeoMedia? Yes... Vector coming into ERDAS IMAGINE and raster id going into GeoMedia. 

Finally, I had wanted to do some webinars on the LiDAR tools, but have decided to wait until we complete the changes gathered from user feedback at Hexagon 2012. I expect to do the webinars before too late in July.

Intergraph Announces Point Cloud support Coming in ERDAS IMAGINE 2012

The announcement below is the fruit of software development work being done in Atlanta, Georgia USA; Pasadena, California USA; and Singapore as well as the press release written in Atlanta. The Intergraph corporate headquarters are in Huntsville.

Steve du Plessis and I will begin a series webinars on this topic later this month.

The reason we use the term Point Cloud rather than LiDAR, point cloud covers more data sources than LiDAR. LiDAR is but one data source.

The announcement is as follows: 

Intergraph® Highlights Advanced Point Cloud Capabilities at Hexagon 2012

New ERDAS IMAGINE® Features Enable You to Better Understand Your LiDAR Data

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., June 6, 2012 – At the Hexagon 2012 conference, Intergraph® is demonstrating a new technology that enables you to fully leverage the wealth of information in point cloud data. The centerpiece of the new functionality is the augmented viewing capability embedded in ERDAS IMAGINE®, which allows users to simultaneously view LiDAR spatially linked in 2D, 3D and as a user-specified profile that can reveal cross sections of the point cloud.

“Intergraph’s new functionality truly unlocks the potential of LiDAR, taking full advantage of its rich three-dimensional content,” said Steve du Plessis, Global Product Line Executive – Remote Sensing, Intergraph. “You can open up these dense point clouds, see inside them and break them apart to reveal the information they contain to gain a new perspective of the world.”

Within the three new views, ERDAS IMAGINE provides a range of options that make it easy to understand and extract the information contained in the point cloud. Different filtering options allow you to view the points in dozens of permutations. For example, you may only want to see first-return points classified as vegetation. To improve interpretability, flexible colorization settings offer the ability to view by elevation, return, classification, file, intensity or the RGB encoding of each point which provides a lifelike, three-dimensional color view of a point cloud. Additionally, you can view the point cloud draped over your 2D imagery, thereby obtaining a better understanding of the above-ground features portrayed by the points.

The profile view provides unique capabilities for analyzing point clouds. While the standard profile view is defined by a user-specified box drawn over the 2D view of the point cloud, you can also use a polyline vector to obtain a profile view of a longer strip within the cloud. ERDAS IMAGINE can then automatically roam at a user-specified speed along this long profile view. These features are especially useful in the utilities market, where they can be used to inspect power line corridors for encroaching vegetation or other line issues. As problems are visually detected, you can pause, make measurements, record the position and add notes. ERDAS IMAGINE can then export this information to a spreadsheet that can be given to field crews who maintain the corridors.

ERDAS IMAGINE’s new point cloud technology also offers a set of tools to classify, RGB encode, subset and filter your point data. The classification tool will enable you to specify criteria for automated point classification. Users can then leverage the editing tools within the 2D and profile views to refine the results. For example, you can delete, reclassify, bias or set a constant elevation on selected points with the security of multiple-step undo and redo capabilities. In addition to thorough views of the point clouds themselves, ERDAS IMAGINE provides comprehensive views and editing of the associated metadata. You can batch and distribute all these functions for faster processing, which is especially helpful since many users opt to create smaller tiles from large LAS files.

“Intergraph is in a unique position to provide the leading point cloud solution on the market,” continued du Plessis. “As part of Hexagon, our portfolio includes in-house airborne and terrestrial LiDAR hardware technology from our sister division Hexagon Geosystems, powerful GIS analytics from GeoMedia®, the world’s leading remote sensing capabilities in ERDAS IMAGINE and LiDAR data management and serving capabilities in ERDAS APOLLO. In addition, Intergraph’s vertical market approach offers extensive domain expertize in utilities, transportation, government and security. Together, not only will our point cloud technology strengthen any organization’s LiDAR-handling capabilities, but also its user-centric implementation streamlines workflows so users can quickly and easily obtain the most from point clouds and maximize the return on your LiDAR investment.”

To learn more about the Intergraph geospatial product portfolio, please visit http://www.intergraph.com/geospatial/products

ERDAS IMAGINE 2012 is looking really good.

This release is going to be hot. What’s going to be in it?

The upgraded Spatial Modeler is more than an upgrade. This is more than an update of Model Maker that sits on top of the Spatial Modeler Language. All the Modeler Maker capabilities that Esri copied to create Model Builder are there, plus the things customers have demanded.

• Faster file to file processing
• On-the-fly raster processing (lessons learned from ER Mapper) 
• On-the-fly vector processing (lessons learned from GeoMedia) 
• Replacement of Model Maker User Interface 
• Python Scripting 

But this is the beginning. Spatial Modeler is being designed with 64-bit processing as well as sharing tools with GeoMedia in mind. The architecture has been designed in a manner that will allow features and functions to be added in service packs.

The Python Scripting is very powerful. Customers will be able to connect other software applications with Spatial Modeler as part of their data processing work-flows. ERDAS IMAGINE's Spatial Modeler can act as a agnostic geoprocessing hub.

There is more….

• Point Cloud (LAS, MrSID) visualization in 2D and 3D, profiles, measuring, point editing, RGB encoding… I am working with Steve du Plessis to put together a Webinar on point clouds.
• 16-bit ECW, and ECW is faster… not just a little faster, but must faster and scalable.
• Better and faster support for JPEG2000 data. 
• LPS is fully Ribbonized.
• New Segmentation algorithm that customers are saying  is the best they have seen to date. 
• Improved ER Mapper Algorithm capabilities. 
• GeoMedia Vector and GRID capabilities. The GeoMedia Buffer in Spatial Modeler is real time. You can test your buffer processes in a trial and error method in the viewer and then write to file (if you want to). 
• Faster edge detection in MosaicPro.
• New real-time spectral indices tool. 
• Radar analyst work-flow tools in the ribbon, including ship tracking capabilities. 

There are a lot of moving pieces, and there are more items coming that cannot listed at this time. I have to wait a little longer on some.

Last year at Hexagon 2011 I discussed that the wall between raster and vector was coming down. It is more than that, mush more.... raster, vector, point clouds, imagery, photogrammetry, radargrammetry, and more all in one software.

I am again working on a research love of mine, change detection. We have the algorithms and processing performance we need to make high resolution change detection work for the whole geospatial community, not just the expert. This is expected post 2012. Exciting times are here.

Update on ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK v5.0

As promised earlier.... here is an ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK update

The ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK (SDK) and ERDAS APOLLO Essentials Image Web Server (IWS) development teams in Perth, Western Australia are well along the way towards the latest version of the SDK, v5. The motivations behind this release of the SDK are increasing encoding performance, 16-bit ECW support, decreasing file size without lowering quality, expanding beyond Windows OS support (all without hurting decoding performance).

The best way to improve encoding performance is to more fully utilize system resources by expanding the use of multiple threads. This is being done.

In the v4.x SDK versions we see a 25MB/second encoding throughput of 3-band 8-bit image data. That is very fast for wavelet compression and we could have just sat on our hands and said, “We are the champions (my friend).”

But sitting back and wondering at our own accomplishments is not our way. Tests have confirmed SDK v5 is encoding 3-band 8-bit data between a 65 to 85MB/second. When encoding 3-band 16-bit data, encoding speeds close 25 MB/second are being observed. Final tuning will tell where we end up, but so far when using an 8-core CPU, encoding performance seems to be primarily limited by disk i/o.

To add support for 16-bit, we need to change the ECW file format. So, at the same time the Perth team decided to do some other things to the ECW file format. File format changes have provided a decrease in file size when using the previous target compression ratios. In short, smaller files with the same image quality (the preverbal ..yet true.. win-win scenario).

The work is being done to add support for Linux, with a foundation for the SDK to be ported to other OS versions as demand requires.

Also, metadata support in the new ECW v3 file format has been expanded. We have added better projection definition options, imbedded statistics (min, max, mean, median, mode, etc.), and much more.

Also provided when using the SDK to stream in ECW and JP2 encoded image data via ECWP from IWS, faster ECWP streaming. (BTW, in case you didn't know, ECWP performance leaves JPIP performance in the dust.)

There is one thing to note, the ECW v3 file format cannot be read by earlier ECW SDKs. The old v2 ECW file format could not be expanded to allow the file format improvements needed, so we created ECW v3. Of important note, the desktop read-only SDK will continue to be made available at no charge.

What is the ‘un-official’ time-table? Expect to see ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK v5 in the ERDAS IMAGINE / LPS, ERDAS ER Mapper,  ERDAS APOLLO Essentials (aka IWS), and GDAL after the northern hemisphere’s autumnal equinox, and an upgrade of ERDAS' ECW for ArcGIS Server made available a few months following following the ERDAS Desktop releases.

Keep an eye on the ECW Web Page.