Bringing Reality into the Information Space

Interview with Dr Bernd-Dietmar Becker, Chief Technology Strategist and Evangelist, FARO

FARO is known as a trusted source of high-precision 3D measurement, imaging and visualisation technology. In the surveying and mapping field, the company is particularly well known for its laser scanning solutions. On behalf of 'GIM International', Wim van Wegen recently met with Dr Bernd-Dietmar Becker, chief technology strategist and head of FARO Labs (the company’s research and innovation department), to discuss what we can expect from laser scanning and its role as key reality capturing technology in the years ahead. You recently announced that you have divided your business into six vertical sales and product management business units. What is... (read more)

2017-07-10 11:00:08

Capturing, Modelling and Building the Reality

Interview with Aidan Mercer, Bentley Systems

Bentley Systems held its latest annual Year in Infrastructure Conference in London, UK. The event proved to be an excellent opportunity to take a look behind the scenes at Bentley, a leading provider of software solutions for advancing infrastructure. 'GIM International' talked with Aidan Mercer, global industry marketing director for utilities and government. In this in-depth discussion, he zooms in on the role the company plays in advancing the world’s infrastructure and how geomatics is a key element of many of Bentley’s applications. (By Wim van Wegen, content manager, GIM International) We’re hearing a lot about reality modelling at Bentley’s Year... (read more)

2017-02-01 10:04:53

Geo-ethics Requires Prudence with Private Data

GIM International interviews Professor Yola Georgiadou

In today’s datafying world, we continuously leave – unintentionally – digital traces of our daily lives. These traces can reveal a lot about us, our beliefs and our actions to parties who are not the intended recipients of such information. In May this year, Professor Yola Georgiadou held a compelling keynote speech during the FIG Working Week in Helsinki. She called for prudent use of data acquired during the rapid land surveying of developing countries and for action to protect citizens’ privacy. 'GIM International' talked to her about the topic that has become so dear to her: ‘geo-ethics’. What actually is... (read more)

2017-10-05 11:42:20

Mapping an Oil Pipeline

DEMs and Ortho-imagery for Colombia from Dual-band Side-looking Radar

Adverse weather and terrain conditions meant the Cano-Limon oil pipeline in Colombia had never been accurately mapped until orthorectified images and digital elevation models covering an area of 94,000km2 were created using airborne dual-band interferometric IFSAR simultaneously acquired X and P-band data. The authors report on main aspects of the project. The Cano-Limon oil pipeline extends nearly 780km from the Cano-Limon oilfield in Colombia’s Arauca region along the north-western border with Venezuela to a port in Covenas. When fully operational the pipeline can carry up to 20% of Colombian petroleum production, a major source of national revenue. In collaboration with... (read more)

2006-07-24 12:00:00

Solving Land Conflict in Africa

Cadastre Alone Not Enough

The governments of many African countries are currently investing in improving land administration with the aim of developing an efficient land market. A side objective is to reduce conflicts over land through implementation of a functioning land-registration and/or cadastral system. Experience teaches that additional preventative measures are required, such as conflict resolution, land management and psychotherapeutic approaches. Not even a perfect land market can prevent conflicts unless regulated by governing institutions. There are two types of institution: constitutive and regulative institutions. Constitutive institutions are needed to enable an economically efficient land market through land rights, land registration and rule of... (read more)

2006-05-22 12:00:00

Precise Point Positioning from Combined GNSS

Fugro Marinestar G4+ PPP-RTK Developments

Currently there are four global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs) available: GPS, Glonass, BeiDou and Galileo. The satellites of these systems are used for positioning, and the accuracy is greatly improved if precise satellite orbit, clock and uncalibrated phase delay (UPD) corrections are available when using the precise point positioning (PPP) technique. Fugro operates a worldwide network of reference stations capable of tracking GPS, Glonass, BeiDou and Galileo systems. This network is used to calculate precise satellite orbit and clock corrections of all four constellations in real time for maritime applications. The corrections are broadcast to users by eight geostationary L-band... (read more)

2017-02-06 10:20:00

Indoor Positioning

Technologies, Features and Prospects

Outdoor positioning and navigation techniques using GNSS have been well explored and are now a vital part of daily life all over the planet. Since GNSS was initially designed to support the military during open-air combat, there was no need for the signals to be able to pass through walls and roofs. Indoor positioning therefore requires the alternatives to GNSS. How can geomatics contribute to the deployment of indoor positioning solutions? In aiming to find answers to that question, this article also examines current technologies and the various types of applications they originate from. An indoor positioning system is a... (read more)

2013-10-28 01:54:29

UAS-supported Agriculture: Still for Innovators

Greatest Potential on Small Farms

While unmanned aerial systems offer huge possibilities in modern farming, most of them lie in the future. These airborne vehicles currently mainly deliver images that are subsequently combined with other input in the farm-specific management system. In the future they will be able to contribute to land management and individual crop-product delivery based on real-time analysis. Another very promising segment for UAS-supported precision agriculture is water management. Precision agriculture is a relatively young concept, dating from around the turn of this century. The first products were focused on add-on guiding systems for tractors. These give a good return on investment,... (read more)

2016-04-28 10:30:33

Towards Optimal 3D Point Clouds

Automation in 3D Mobile Laser Scanning

Motivated by the increasing need of rapid characterisation of environments in 3D, the authors have designed a robot system that automates the work of an operator of terrestrial laser scanners. The built system makes it possible to work without markers or targets, saving surveyors more than 75% of the time spent in the field. Another impulse for developing the platform was the demand for a remote inspection tool. The robot is capable of surveying remote sites or danger areas, such as plants, underground mines, tunnels, caves or channels. The availability of the robotic platform further enables the study of mobile... (read more)

2013-10-28 11:30:47

A Smarter Future for Geomatics

GIM International Interviews Thomas Kersten

Thomas Kersten is a professor of photogrammetry and laser scanning at HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany. He is currently also one of the ‘directors’ of the Oldenburger 3D-Tage, an annual conference on 3D optical measurement techniques, laser scanning and photogrammetry. GIM International spoke to him in February 2014 at the most recent edition of that event. Here, he talks about future technologies in the geomatics profession, data processing, archaeology as one of the many possible applications for geomatics, and HafenCity University’s philosophy. Which major developments do you foresee in terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) geodata acquisition technology in the next five years?... (read more)

2014-06-06 10:09:34