Two Poems to Usher in 2010

Pardon me as I post something non-geospatial to end 2009 and begin 2010. To me, these poems are insightful on why it is important check ourselves every so often to make sure we have our priorities in order. Happy New Year.

THE WAYS
But to every man there openeth,
A way, and way, and away,
A high soul climbs the highway,
And the low soul gropes the low,
And in between on the misty flats,
The rest drift to and fro.

But to every man there openeth,
A high way and a low,
And every mind decideth,
The way his soul shall go.
-John Oxenham

THE WINDS OF FATE
One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
'Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.

Like the winds of the sea
Are the waves of time,
As we journey along through life,
'Tis the set of the soul,
That determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox

What is LPS eATE?

LPS eATE is an add-on module to LPS for automatically extracting terrain from stereo optical imagery. The difference between LPS eATE and LPS ATE is the precision and accuracy of LPS eATE is much higher than LPS ATE, requiring less manual editing after the automatic processing is complete.

LPS eATE is a scalable tool, scaling from parallel processing using multiple cores on a single system, to distributed processing using multiple cores on multiple systems on your network.

Because of the processing power and the new algorithms a highly dense point cloud (matching on almost every point in the stereo coverage), can be output.

LPS eATE is being released soon to customers as a technology preview. If you have collected elevation points using optical imagery in the past, you will want to test-drive LPS eATE. (And ERDAS would like your feedback on your test drive.)

ERDAS APOLLO Benchmarks with Open Source Image Servers

Chris Tweedie, and ERDAS employee did some image server benchmarking on his own time. The results indicate ERDAS APOLLO is as strong in the image server world as its name indicates.

Chris' tests are an extension to the initial OGC Web Map Service raster benchmarks conducted at FOSS4g 2009 in Sydney. Unfortunately ERDAS were unable to participate. Chris took in upon himself to not only run the same suite of tests but expand and test on a completely different platform.

Have a heavy image server load to lift, you owe it to yourself to have a look. http://blog.webmapper.com.au/image-server-benchmark/

ERDAS Announces Joel Campbell as new President

ERDAS, Inc. just released this to the press:

ERDAS Announces Joel Campbell as new President

Norcross, GA — ERDAS Inc. is pleased to announce that industry veteran Joel Campbell will join the management team as the new President in January 2010, reporting to the ERDAS Board of Directors.

Mr. Campbell is well known and highly regarded throughout the geospatial industry, where he has been a featured speaker, lecturer and trainer for many geospatial organizations around the world. He has over 20 years of experience in the geospatial industry, in a variety of senior roles including sales, business development and product management. His previous employers include GeoEye, Definiens, EarthData and ESRI, along with operating his own consulting firm.

Most recently, Campbell was the Senior Director of Product Management for GeoEye, where he helped manage the company’s expansion into new commercial markets and supported the launch of products from the recently launched GeoEye-1 earth imaging satellite. During more than a decade with ESRI, he held chief leadership and management positions in the U.S. sales operation. These included Director of U.S. Sales, supervising regional offices and several hundred staff members, as well as expanding the company’s presence in the Washington D.C. area.

“Joel brings invaluable experience to ERDAS.” said Juergen Dold, President, Geospatial Solutions Division, Hexagon “We are pleased that he will be joining the management team, where he can apply his diverse experience across the geospatial value chain from capture to delivery.”

“ERDAS offers a compelling suite of products to the geospatial community, providing the world’s most respected desktop remote sensing and photogrammetry solutions, complimented with innovative enterprise solutions,” said Campbell. “I am thrilled to join the management team as we continue to focus on serving the full spectrum of our customers’ needs.”

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My comment: Joel met with the ERDAS employees last week for a question and answer session. My fellow ERDAS employees (and I) are excited about Joel becoming an Erdasian. Welcome aboard Joel!

ERDAS IMAGINE 2010 available for download...

Customers may download ERDAS IMAGINE 2010 by going to the ERDAS IMAGINE Product page Download tab: http://www.erdas.com/products/ERDASIMAGINE/ERDASIMAGINE/Downloads.aspx

The "ERDAS IMAGINE 2010 What's New" and "Increasing Workflow Efficiency with ERDAS IMAGINE 2010" documents found in the Product Literature tab should be very beneficial.

ERDAS IMAGINE 2010 is supported on the following platforms:
Windows XP Professional x32 and x64 SP3 or higher
Windows Vista x32 and x64 SP2 or higher, Business, Enterprise & Ultimate
Windows 7 x32 and x64 Professional & Ultimate
Windows Server 2008 x32 and x64 SP2 or higher

Note: Microsoft Windows XP x32 has limited large output file sizes. The maximum file size depends upon system configuration and rarely exceeds 70GB. All other supported OS versions do not experience this limitation.

Signed, Sealed and Delivered: ERDAS 2010 Software Release Now Available

ERDAS, Inc. Press Release.....

Norcross, GA – ERDAS Inc. announces the availability of the ERDAS 2010 annual software release, which includes new and updated versions of ERDAS’ products to author, manage, connect and deliver geospatial information.

The ERDAS 2010 Software includes new versions of ERDAS IMAGINE, LPS, ERDAS ER Mapper, ERDAS Extensions for ArcGIS, ERDAS ADE, ERDAS APOLLO and ERDAS TITAN Client. In addition, ERDAS is introducing several new products, including IMAGINE Feature Interoperability and IMAGINE SAR Interferometry, as well as a technology preview of a new automated terrain extraction capability in LPS eATE. Product downloads, collateral and licensing information are available on the ERDAS website. Media kits will begin shipping later this month to software maintenance customers.

“The ERDAS 2010 software is a significant release, bringing remarkable productivity, performance, interoperability and value to geospatial users throughout the industry,” said Mladen Stojic, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Marketing, ERDAS. “ERDAS 2010 caters to the needs of our users worldwide. This release provides a renaissance in the usability of ERDAS IMAGINE through the new ribbon interface, parallel processing support and a fully integrated enterprise geoprocessing offering based on the OGC WPS specification.”

ERDAS IMAGINE 2010 is an all in one, fully integrated desktop authoring platform, incorporating image analysis, remote sensing and GIS capabilities. Featuring a new ribbon interface, ERDAS IMAGINE makes it easier for users to streamline workflows and customize their workspace. ERDAS IMAGINE also provides enhanced tools for parallel batch processing, spatial modeling, map production, mosaicking and change detection.

LPS 2010 is a powerful softcopy photogrammetry system for a variety of workflows, including defense, remote-area mapping, transportation planning, orthophoto production (for basemap generation) and close-range applications. LPS eATE enables users to generate high-resolution terrain information from stereo imagery like never before, ensuring speed and accuracy, providing an unparalleled environment for processing terrain data from airborne and satellite sensors.

ERDAS APOLLO 2010 is equipped to fully understand, competently manage and rapidly serve large volumes of vector, raster and terrain data. ERDAS APOLLO implements an out-of-the box Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), that provides a publish, find and bind workflow for any data type. Integrating ERDAS Image Web Server and ERDAS TITAN, ERDAS APOLLO is now available in three tiers to cater to any organization’s management, collaboration and delivery needs. From a low-cost, remarkably fast image and feature server to a comprehensive data management and on demand geoprocessing system, ERDAS APOLLO provides unprecedented performance, even when handling the largest data archives.

To learn more about ERDAS 2010 Software, please call +1 770 776 3400, toll free +1 877 GO ERDAS, or visit www.erdas.com.

JPEG2000 Performance

When the former ER Mapper, Ltd (purchased in May 2007 by ERDAS) began work in 2003 to add support for JPEG2000 (JP2) to the ECW SDK, ER Mapper noticed JP2 specifications were very broad. As a result, JP2’s speed would not approach ECW speeds for decades, if ever. Think of it this way, JP2 is a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV or 4-wheel drive) and ECW is a Formula 1 Ferrari.

The geospatial industry deals with dozens to thousands of images at a time and speed is critical. While geospatial users need the Formula 1 Ferrari, they must drive on public roads (lowest common IT standards), and thus must use the SUV not the Formula 1.

How can SUV owners get more speed from their JP2 beast? By using the ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK’s J2I file. This ‘index’ file to the JP2 file allows customers to more rapidly access JP2 data in a viewing technology that uses the ECW SDK to read ECW and JP2 files. The J2I file will significantly improve your performance by fine tuning your existing engine.

The improvement in speed depends on the encoding method. Some encoding methods mandated by less geospatially sophisticated IT departments are like pulling a loaded trailer behind the SUV. An engine tuning helps, but slow starts cannot be avoided.

You may ask, how do I create these on JP2 J2I files in ERDAS IMAGINE 2010? For one image at a time, just touch the file with any ERDAS IMAGINE function, and like the aux file, it is automatically created.

For batch creation, use the Edit Image Metadata (aka Image Command Tool). Select one image needed, select ‘Batch’, the select all images needed in the batch tool.

You may be asking, why is there no check-box function for creation the J2I file on Edit Image Metadata? All you need to do is touch the file with any ERDAS IMAGINE function and it is created. Thus only touching the file in Batch Mode is needed.

And with the IMAGINE Advantage 2010 batch mode, you can touch up to four images at a time with each IMAGINE Advantage floating license you have available.

Back to our cars (image file formats); what I want from my GIS and remote sensing data format and software is a street version Ferrari (has a roof, stereo, leather seats, electric windows, air-conditioning, and of course GPS).


Ref: What are J2I files? and Why compress? 

See info on the latest ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK.

GEOINT 2009 Interview with GISCafe

Here is an interview with me at GEOINT 2009 found in GISCafe.

http://www10.giscafe.com/video/display_media.php?category_id=10197&link_id_display=29522

Transparency with MrSID background data

For many years ERDAS IMAGINE has not provided correct transparency creation with the IMAGINE MrSID Encoders. This was addressed in 9.3 and continues on through the 9.3 Service Packs and into ERDAS IMAGINE 2010. Yet, it is not obvious how to do this.

The user must set the NoData (NullData) in ImageInfo (LayerInfo) or in Image Command Tool (Image Metadata Editor in 2010), then use the IMAGINE MrSID Encoders. Voilà you have a true transparent background data.

ERDAS will make the correct transparency creation ability more prominent and flexible in a future release.

Here is one big thing to remember; ERDAS uses 0 as the transparent value while ESRI uses 255. ERDAS as well as other remote sensing and photogrammetric packages have a black background page while ESRI has a white background page. The more careful image providers now create 8-bit data with a range from 1 to 254 rather than 0 to 255. All 0 and 255 values will be outside of the actual image footprint. This approach allows their customers to be flexible with whatever package they they are using at the moment.

MrSID Performance on MosaicPro and more....

ERDAS has researched, researched, tuned and tuned.... now we are processing 3982 MrSID DOQQs (all the state of Georgia, USA) into one seamless mosaic. The memory usage does not exceed 1GB at any point. We did not get an exact time, and file size.... but it took about 3 days and produced a >700GB output file.

3982 is NOT the maximum number, just the largest number we have tested. The steady memory usage indicates the maximum number is much, much higher than 3982.

One thing to note..... There is a bug in Microsoft's XP x32 operating system affecting very large file creation. Our conversations with Microsoft have lead to the conclusion the bug was introduced between XP SP1 and XP SP2. The bug keeps the operating system from supporting very large files. The maximum file size you can create depends on your system configuration. The largest we have heard of is 70GB. Most systems cannot exceed 35GB.

We have tried rolling back the XP operating systems back to SP1, or back to the original Windows XP, but that has not been successful. Once Windows XP SP2 is loaded, something is not being unloaded. This is a puzzle for both ERDAS and Microsoft.

What is the solution for large file creation in ERDAS IMAGINE 9.3.x? Use Windows XP x64 or Windows Vista. ERDAS will expand operating system support for ERDAS IMAGINE 2010, the versions to be announced later.

** A post-post clarification, if I may. I received a few emails concerning the XP x32 file size limit. This limit is not related to any specific file format. Rather, it is limited to the operating system not allowing the creation of a single large file of any type. Again, there are some variations, but if you need large files of any type you must move from Windows XP x32. For all its bad press, Vista x32 does not have this problem.

More on Consolidated Mosaic

Well, it has become well known by now that MosaicPro will be included as a native part of IMAGINE Advantage and LPS Core in ERDAS IMAGINE 2010, due Fall 2009. The new MosaicPro had an internal working name of Consolidated Mosaic. MosaicTool, MosaicPro, lessons from ER Mapper and more were used to create the new MosaicPro (http://field-guide.blogspot.com/2009/06/consolidated-mosaic.html). Moreover, we have optimized MosaicPro to be much more RAM and CPU scalable, and that it touches each pixel the fewest times possible.

Yet, let me yell this from the house top.... all ERDAS IMAGINE and LPS customers with current Software Maintenance (SWM) will be receiving this 'new' MosaicPro in version 2010. It is a real gem. You will be impressed.

Here are some early tests:
Dual-core 2 GHz CPU, 4GB RAM, standard disks, Vista Business

Load 3840 images:
9.3.2 16:40 minutes; 463 MB RAM
2010 3:05 minutes; 98 MB RAM

Load 4896 images:
9.3.2 35:06 minutes; 669 MB RAM
2010 4:16 minutes; 113 MB RAM

Cutline Generation on 4896 images:
9.3.2 45:47 minutes; 1,606 MB RAM
2010 01:41 minutes; 125 MB RAM

Mosaicking 127 images:
9.3.2 41:41 minutes
2010 29:11 minutes

Dual Quad-core 2.328 GHz CPU, 16GB RAM, average speed disk array, XP-64
Mosaicking 3982 images:
9.3.2 Not possible
2010 >700GB output file in under 2.5 days

Mosaicking 1147 images:
9.3.2 Not possible
2010 >2.6TB output file in under 5.5 days

All processes used a maximum of just over 800MB of RAM. We researched using more RAM with MosaicPro and found it does not help. This is because we have tuned it so thoroughly that the bottleneck is now the operating system’s thread handling, and hard disk I/O. So, it is time to test fast disks.

But, when using the new added ECW / JPEG2000 direct-write from MosaicPro, MosaicPro will need more RAM. We are working on that as well. We expect we can protect the speed while shrinking down the memory requirement significantly. We expect this will occur in version 2010.1 (Sprilg 2010) or version 2011 (Fall 2010).

Now, we are ready to take MosaicPro to 64-bit. As you can see, when ERDAS goes to 64-bit, we will really take advantage of what 64-bit can really do. Many companies have used a 64-bit port to mask their sloppy coding by accessing more RAM. Not at ERDAS! We know there are a lot of issues surrounding true speed improvement and large file handling. We want our loyal customers to have it all! (http://field-guide.blogspot.com/2009/02/benefits-of-64-bit-architecture-in.html)

Personally, I enjoy looking at ERDAS IMAGINE as a CPU race-car entry. Maybe we can get Intel to test MosaicPro as it does ECW in its performance testing matrix?

Return to Singapore

After 16 years and 11 months, I am returning to Singapore. In September 1992 I traveled to Singapore with Karen Willoughby, Bruce Rado and Jack Dangermond; followed up by Adelaide, Australia. The trip was to attend the 1992 South Asia and OZRI User Group Meetings (UGM). In those days, ERDAS and ESRI held joint international UGMs as most of our distributors sold both companies products and the companies were considered business partners.

At the UGMs I presented a pre–release version of ERDAS IMAGINE 8.0.2. The products I presented were the recently released IMAGINE Digital Ortho and the soon to be released WYSIWYG Map Composer, IMAGINE Vector Module, and the graphic flow chart model builder enhancement to Spatial Modeler script language, Model Maker.

During the same meetings, Jack presented ESRI’s soon to be released product, ArcView. This was ESRI’s move to a graphical user interface. While ERDAS IMAGINE had already made the jump in 1991, ESRI was making the jump in 1992.

When we had some quiet time, Jack demoed ArcView to me and answered my questions. I was impressed at the simplicity of the product. I recognized it a difficult task to take niche technology and create a product to reach out to a wider, non-geospatial trained community. As I discussed ArcView with him, I saw that the product could make that transition.

After we finished looking and discussing ArcView, Jack said he wanted to see IMAGINE Model Maker. Of course, I ran the models that I had planned to run and knew the models would run. Then, as I did to Jack, he asked me to do things that were not planned. He wanted a specific model built from the beginning. I cannot remember the models, but I built and ran them… no problems (ArcView had crashed all over the place on Jack when I asked for specific things).

Almost 17 years later, ArcView has grown up to ArcGIS. For the release of ArcGIS 9.0 in 2004, ESRI copied the Model Maker idea to create Model Builder. ArcView targeted a horizontal expansion of the market and Model Maker targeted a deeper penetration in the existing market. Both product ideas are powerful and have succeeded.

Where will geo-processing be in another 16 years and 11 months? As for ERDAS IMAGINE, imagine that ERDAS IMAGINE 2010 is just the beginning.