Technology Innovation in Photogrammetry Award for Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation, USA, and its subsidiary Vexcel Imaging, Austria, were the winners of the Technology Innovation in Photogrammetry award at the Geospatial World Forum Conference for the company's UltraCamXp Wide Angle digital aerial camera and for the monolithic stitching capability of its UltraMap workflow software. The honour was received on 18th January 2011 in Hyderabad, India, at a ceremony attended by more than 800 delegates.

The UltraCamXp Wide Angle camera, released in September 2009, features a proprietary, high-performance, high-resolution lens system with a shorter focal length than the UltraCamXp. This allows the sensor to deliver the same ground sample distance (GSD) as the UltraCamXp at lower flight altitudes. As an alternative to the UltraCamXp, the UltraCamXp Wide Angle provides small-scale mapping capabilities to customers with lower-flying airplanes. The UltraCamXp Wide Angle successfully completed the USGS Sensor Type Certification Process in April 2010. USGS certifies that the UltraCamXp and UltraCamXp Wide Angle are "capable of providing quality, consistent image data to support civil government programs at the performance level specified in the USGS sensor type certification report."

The Technology Innovation Award also recognised the significant value of the monolithic stitching technique first released in version 2.0 of the UltraMap software in January 2010. The improved stitching algorithm combines both pan and color tie points to compute a more accurate and more robust stitching result, which is particularly effective when used on unstructured terrain.

The objective of giving Excellence/Technology Innovation awards is to recognise, honour and spot light the best applications or uses of geospatial technologies that are worthy of emulation. The nominations for the awards are sought from across the globe. The winners are selected through an elaborate multilevel assessment process overseen by a panel of seven international judges. Shri. Narendra Modi, Chief Minister, State of Gujarat, India, presented the Excellence and Technology Innovation Awards to the 16 winners.

Sanjay Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, GIS Development said, "GIS Development, as a propagator and promoter of geospatial technologies is very pleased to see the spread of geospatial technologies to such an extent and we feel that such great efforts need to be acknowledged."

"We are honoured to receive this award as recognition of our contribution to the geospatial community," said Alexander Wiechert, business director of Microsoft and managing director for Vexcel Imaging. "The UltraCam team will continue to focus on developing practical and efficient hardware and software solutions to encourage the use of digital aerial data for a multitude of applications."