Rebranding = ERDAS APOLLO Collaboration

With the release of ERDAS 2010 products, the ERDAS TITAN server-side products have been reclassified under the comprehensive ERDAS APOLLO umbrella as "ERDAS APOLLO Collaboration."

ERDAS APOLLO Collaboration is now part of the ERDAS APOLLO Advantage product tier. The rebranding is as follows:

Old TITAN Name	New APOLLO Name
ERDAS TITAN GeoHub	ERDAS APOLLO Collaboration
ERDAS TITAN Master Server	ERDAS APOLLO Collaboration Registry
ERDAS TITAN Web Cache Server	ERDAS APOLLO Collaboration Web Cache
ERDAS TITAN GeoHub Admin Tool	ERDAS APOLLO Collaboration Admin Tool
ERDAS TITAN Master Server Admin Tool	ERDAS APOLLO Collaboration Registry Admin Tool

The ERDAS TITAN Client, including Geospatial Instant Messenger and ERDAS TITAN Viewer, has not been rebranded and is still available as a free download.

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

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.

ERDAS Rocks World Tour…Coming to a City near You!

ERDAS announces the ERDAS Rocks world tour promoting its 2010 Software Release, providing an opportunity for attendees to experience the power and excitement of this significant release locally. With more than 30 years of experience pioneering geospatial solutions, attendees will see the fusion and culmination of innovation in the ERDAS 2010 Software Release.

In collaboration with TecnoGeo, the first ERDAS Rocks event will be held in Madrid, Spain on October 30 at the Conference Center Hotel Meliá Avenida de América. Other cities on the world tour in 2009 include Johannesburg, South Africa; Moscow, Russia; Rome, Italy; Atlanta, Georgia, USA and Alexandria, Virginia, USA, with more events planned globally in 2010.

ERDAS Announces New 2010 Software Release at GEOINT

ERDAS just announced the release of ERDAS 2010 software products from a big ERDAS booth at GEOINT 2009 in San Antonio. ERDAS 2010 product release is a major event for both desktop and enterprise products.

Key announcements include

• A total makeover for ERDAS IMAGINE organizing features and functionality into tabs and toolsets in a ribbon interface.
  
• Debut of the ERDAS Geoprocessing Service, an implementation of the OGC Web Processing Service (WPS) specification (v1.0) with the capability to publish, discover and execute processing algorithms on spatially referenced data using the IMAGINE Spatial Modeling Engine on the internet.

Server-side geoprocessing is provided as an end-to-end workflow across ERDAS desktop and enterprise products. Image analysts use ERDAS IMAGINE to create robust, custom models and publish them to the APOLLO catalog. From APOLLO catalog, the models are made accessible and executable by consumer users, on demand, from 2D and 3D clients like the ERDAS APOLLO Web Client (2D), and the ERDAS TITAN Viewer 3D virtual globe.

Here's a screenshot showing input parameters and results of an executed geoprocess, an NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), in the 3D TITAN Viewer:

ERDAS TITAN Beta has Begun!

ERDAS TITAN 2010 BETA has begun! Products are officially beta-released and available at http://beta.erdas.com, and are supported by detailed installation and admin guide, powerpoints, what’s new, FAQs, product description, system specs and more.

One of our hottest new features of the upcoming release is Geoprocessing (WPS) directly from the ERDAS TITAN Viewer. Users may now connect to ERDAS APOLLO Catalogs via the TITAN Viewer to discover and execute geoprocesses and visualize results in a 3D virtual globe.

Contact your ERDAS Sales Rep or call +1 (877) GO ERDAS now to participate!!

OSM (actual) Mapping Party Event, Sept 11-13

The Open Street Map registration page for the Atlanta Mapping Party (Sept. 11-13, 2009) is now open. City o'ATL residents are gearing up to have the biggest, baddest, most feature-mapping mapping party ever! Register now!

The most digitally mapped city on Earth

You're never too old to go to a Mapping Party, and be a part of something special...

In a landmark initiative that YOU can participate in, OSM seeks to make Atlanta “most digitally mapped city on Earth." OSM points out that you do not have to be GIS or GPS enthusiast to participate, you just need a healthy desire to help put Georgia “on the map”!

The flyer has info on the next planning meeting, July 15 at Gordon Biersch brewery in Midtown ATL, including more complimentary food and libations.

See you there!

TITAN Disaster Response Tool on GEOSS

The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) is a 'system of systems' providing environmental data and decision-support tools to end users. The goal of GEOSS is to link together worldwide observation systems, and ultimately become a global public infrastructure that delivers comprehensive, near-real-time environmental data and analysis.

ERDAS contribution to the 2nd GEOSS Architecture Implementation Pilot is the ERDAS TITAN “geosspilot2” instance, geospatial collaboration and information sharing infrastructure deployed for GEOSS user communities. ERDAS TITAN enables the rapid establishment of ad hoc, spatially-enabled data sharing networks between corporate servers and users desktops. Learn more and connect to the geossPilot2 network here.

See a short movie demonstrating how TITAN fits into the architecture of the GEOSS Societal Benefit Area of Disaster Management, here. On the left menu, under "SBA Scenarios" select "Disaster Management." The movie shows the TITAN Viewer displaying SPOT 5 WCS coverages from a geoprocessing workflow, then integrating ALOS data from a separate server.

"The ERDAS TITAN Client mash ups support pre and post analysis by collaborative sharing of the acquired imagery among map producers, decision makers and emergency responders."

You know you use desktop data..

Thanks Randy at NRGS GIS Blog for posting about this reality: In the ideal world, all data in your organization would be centrally organized, discoverable and served. But in the real world, so much data still lives on the desktop, for a variety of reasons. For Randy's customers:

"My biggest issue with server components is that all of my customers currently don’t deal with a server since they are all too small. For them life is about getting accurate data and sharing that data with customers and clients. they aren’t big enough to be able to afford a typical server solution."

Randy describes how TITAN solves this problem, noting that 'Titan is a component that ties things together - or ties data and people together."

"If I’m working on a project and someone two buildings over wants to use my data I can load it into Titan and they can see it. Say they are working in Arcmap and need to see it - I can publish it out as a WMS. I Instant message them and let them know what I’ve done and discuss the data with them."

Download and try TITAN and see why Randy knows it's so great.

OSM Mixer in ATL

OpenStreetMap (OSM) will be hosting a happy hour and social mixer on June 17th in Atlanta, at Front Page News in Midtown. There will be a brief intro to OSM, Q&A and then opening the floor to the community while we eat, drink and brainstorm ideas for a city-wide Mapping Party in late July.

OSM is the default basemap in the TITAN Viewer.


Event details are:

Link: http://community.cloudmade.com/event/custom/generic/show/209
Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Location: The Front Page News – Mid-town (1104 Crescent Ave NE Atlanta, GA 30309)
Time: 6:30 PM to 8:45 PM

I also learned that OSM will have the entire roof top patio and CloudMade will be providing a huge spread of food and drinks. Folks are encouraged to RSVP.

TITAN in 2012 Olympics

Your organization is a national police force providing security and surveillance for UK railways, and is tasked to provide a transportation security monitoring system for the Olympics in 2012.

You must collaborate and share both real-time and static data with a dozen other police forces. You'll need to provide the means for data discovery and visualization into a variety of client applications. Your solution must allow for simultaneous monitoring of hundreds of CCTV feeds that regularly update in a 3D environment. Situational awareness is crucial, 24/7.

What do you do?

You implement a solution based on ERDAS TITAN and ERDAS APOLLO.

British Transport Police Implementing ERDAS TITAN 2009 to Share Data

Looking towards the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the British Transport Police (BTP) will build a transportation security monitoring system. To do so BTP is implementing ERDAS APOLLO 2009 to manage large volumes of geospatial data and ERDAS TITAN 2009 to quickly share and visualize dynamic data.

Preview the Future: ERDAS Labs

ERDAS Inc. just announced the launch of ERDAS Labs (http://labs.erdas.com/), an informative new site highlighting technology currently being developed. The site is regularly updated with short postings, screenshots, movie clips and other media showcasing projects as they progress through the developer cycle.

Whether it is an innovative new idea being explored or a major new feature being implemented for the next version of a product, ERDAS Labs provides a forum for discussion with the development team.

To see more, please visit http://labs.erdas.com/.

New Video: Query multiple APOLLOs and GeoHubs at once...directly from a 3D globe!

Take 2 minutes and watch how easy it is to query multiple data management systems at once from a 3D virtual globe!

Use the ERDAS TITAN Viewer 3D virtual globe (or you can use the Geospatial Instant Messenger as well) and simultaneously broadcast a query across multiple data management systems, including ERDAS APOLLO Image Managers (EAIM) and ERDAS TITAN Network GeoHubs. There are also advanced search parameters available for searching APOLLOs, including time stamp, type and availability.

Discover data and metadata, and immediately visualize layers in the TITAN 3D Viewer, or load layers directly into Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth.

TITAN Collaborative Environment

This slide does a nice job of summing up the TITAN solution:

Tracking Invaders

Was that funny looking bug I flicked off my arm while gardening this weekend a local...or is it an invader?!

Should we be concerned about the risk of invasive species? A study by UF professor Andy Tatem measures global risk of invasive species using an interesting mix of climate data and transport geography.

Check out the article and the map showing projected "traffic-scaled climatic similarity index" for international airports in April 2010. Tatem's map would suggest Europe has the highest risk.

Watch the Recording: What's New in TITAN 9.3.3 Webinar

Learn about all the new features in TITAN 9.3.3: Log into the ERDAS Archived Webinars site to see the webex from earlier today.

http://www.erdas.com/Company/ArchivedWebinars/tabid/175/currentid/2756/objectid/2756/default.aspx

ERDAS TITAN new version! Query APOLLO directly from TITAN Viewer!

I'm pleased to announce the release of ERDAS TITAN 9.3.3 today! Plus I had the timely opportunity to host a webinar highlighting the new features earlier this morning... the day of the software release!

This release is marked by two big features in the TITAN Viewer:

1. TITAN Viewer is a standalone application
2. Query ERDAS APOLLO Image Manager(s) directly from the TITAN Viewer
   

The TITAN Viewer can now operate as a standalone application. It can even operate offline from the Internet. The Search and MyServices features from the GeoIM have been replicated in the TITAN Viewer, so users can now maintain their list of web services and kick off searches directly from the TITAN Viewer.

And that's right, users can now broadcast one search query across multiple APOLLO Image Manager(s), as well as TITAN Network GeoHubs and your local data! Plus EAIMs can be queried with advanced catalog search parameters like time stamp and type (dataset or aggregate).

Other hot new features include:

• Measurement Tool: The annotation tool now includes distance and area measurements, plus x, y and z (elevation) for points.
• Camera Feeds: Add live camera feeds to the TITAN Viewer, resize and pin to terrain.
• Local Scene Files: Mash up local data, data consumed from others, web services, location-based content and save everything, including the spatial extent, in local scene files.
• New Web Service Support: WFS and ImageX (simple HTTP protocol from ERDAS Image Web Server)
• Video and Images in KML Placemark Balloons
• Bounding Box: Narrow search area by bounding box

See the news release here.

No auto update this go-around, but if you are participating on the public ERDAS TITAN Network, you will be prompted to download the new ERDAS TITAN Client version 9.3.3.

Here's a screenshot of a search made with one query to 2 EAIMs and a TITAN Network GeoHub.

OpenStreetMap (OSM) downtime this weekend

Possible downtime this weekend for OpenStreetMap (OSM). Seems to affect only the editor, but it may effect the tile display as well. OSM is the default basemap in the TITAN Viewer.

http://mapperz.blogspot.com/2009/04/openstreetmap-going-read-only-upgrade.html

OpenStreetMap API 0.6 is scheduled to go live on 17-19th April, 2009.

"Expect server downtime during that period. The current API will go into Read Only mode at 10:00am BST (9:00 UTC) Friday 17th April. You might need to upgrade your editor to use the new API after the work is complete. There may also be some hiccups in the following days."

We will keep the API up and running in read-only mode for most of the weekend, and the website displaying maps, however we will need at least a short period of total downtime.

Sneak Peak #3

A cool new TITAN Viewer feature for this upcoming release is HTML support via KML placemark balloons, including support for images and video.


After running through a very quick and easy tutorial for Google Spreadsheets to KML, I created a KMZ of ERDAS offices around the world, complete with images and an embedded video from YouTube. The screenshot above shows a placemark balloon containing information, links plus an illustration of our ERDAS office in Belgium.

History of Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry

ASPRS is documenting the history of aerial photography and photogrammetry which will be available here: www.asprs.org/films....although at this time the page is still under construction.

If you find one on YouTube you'll see links to others, like

Geospatial Intelligence in WWII - Stats like: "WWII: TVA and USGS effort alone = 500 men and women; 11 countries mapped; 1.5 million hours worked
Photogrammetry in Space Exploration including a very interesting way maps were utilized in the Apollo 17 mission :)

Here is an interesting one on Aerial Survey Pioneers, documenting the very beginnings of imaging from the air:

ERDAS TV

If you haven't seen it already, many of us here at ERDAS have gotten into the movie making biz... Well, we're not on the cover of a Hollywood magazine yet but we are getting a lot of hits on ERDAS TV.

Be sure to check out Webisode 6: ERDAS TITAN What's New in 2009

Sneak Peak #2

Sneak peak #2 highlights new coordinate display preferences. Along with decimal degrees, the user will now also have degrees minutes seconds and degrees decimal minutes as coordinate display options.


These coordinate changes show up in various places in the TITAN Viewer, including the display at the bottom left and also within the Find Tool.

Sneak Peak #1

Welcome to a TITAN Sneak Peak, where we take a sneak peak at some new features coming in the next release of TITAN, which will be version 9.3.3.

For the first sneak peak, we're highlighting the upcoming measurement feature in the TITAN Viewer.

This feature will be integrated into the existing Annotation Tool, where you can already draw points, lines and polygons and save any of these annotations to KML. Now, you'll also be capturing distance and area measurements for lines and polygons respectively, and also x, y and z (elevation) for points.


Users can set their preferences for distance and area units and also use a dynamic adjustment tool for changing measurement units on the fly for existing captured shapes.

MS2525 Military Symbology

TITAN is fully capable of displaying and even sharing attribute based symbology for point files. To sweeten the pot even further, we now have the ability to easily create complete Order of Battle overlays based on MS2525 symbology within the TITAN Viewer.

See the (very faked up) example below that shows the (very real) utility of MS2525 symbology. No war in Boise though...:)

OpenStreetMap - State of the Map Conference

This is a shout out for the OpenStreetMap conference "The State of the Map," to be held this summer, July 10-12, 2009 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. My favorite stat from an announcement: that OSM is "a worldwide movement of over 80,000 volunteers who are making a new map of the world." That's a lot of community cartographers that make updates to this unique open source map project.

ERDAS has received a good deal of praise for integrating OSM as the default basemap in the TITAN Viewer.

There is a conference schedule available at the State of the Map website. Here is some more information from OSM about the State of the Map conference:

The State of the Map is the conference of OpenStreetMap - the worldwide movement of over 80,000 volunteers who are making a new map of the world.

Over three days in July 2009, the worldwide OpenStreetMap community will be meeting to share ideas and stories as they continue their re-mapping of the world.

Have you ever looked at Google Maps and wondered what's going on in there? Were you shocked by the price of the last map you bought for your TomTom? The answer to all these questions, and more is waiting for you at the State of the Map.

For newcomers to the project, the event is a great opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the leading example of crowd sourcing in the world.

Experienced OSMers will enjoy the opportunity to catch up with old friends, put faces to email addresses and share stories of mapping missions gone awry.

Historical ads

It's fun to look through old volumes of industry journals that you've kept around for years and years. For one, you marvel at how far things have come. Looking at PE&RS journals all the way back to the mid 80s you see names like Wild, Kern, Kodak and ERDAS of course! Paul at the Field Guide scanned a few of the very first ERDAS ads and now has a history of ERDAS ads running down the right column of the blog.

Here's a great old ad featuring a Stereo Facet Plotter from OMI (Otto Meccanica Italiana) from 1985. Wow those are some lights!!

Here's one of our own from Wild, also from 1985. (Wild-Leitz merged with Cambridge Instruments to form Leica back in 1990):

If you're into old photogrammetry tools Ryan was just at Leica Geosystems headquarters in Heerbrugg last week and took some pictures.