Thursday, October 29. 2009

"AmericaView" Bill Passes House

The House passed the bill (2489, "To authorize a national cooperative geospatial imagery program through the United States Geological Survey to promote use of remote sensing data.") that would provide $10 million a year for a national grant program to make geospatial imagery more available and usable. The funds would go to the Dept of Interior and be distributed until 2019.

- FCW

Friday, October 23. 2009

Podcast: Press Conference of Vice Admiral Robert Murrett at the #GEOINT Symposium 2009

This podcast is a recording of a press conference by Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) at the GEOINT Symposium 2009 on October 21, 2009 in San Antonio. Murrett discusses the new NGA charter, the situation with aiding and supporting both domestic and military missions and other issues related to the agency's work.

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Wednesday, October 21. 2009

Liquid Galaxy: An Immersive, Multi-screen Version of Google Earth

If you had six, 42" flat screen monitors what would you do? If you are unsure, you may want to configure something like Liquid Galaxy, Google's immersive environment that takes Google Earth from impressive website application to simulation environment. Stepping in side a small booth at the GEOINT Symposium, the user is surrounded by flat screens, and a small podium mounted with the SpaceNavigator joystick from 3DConnexion. Yes, it's very cool, and everyone should have one for their game room (see below and click for larger image).

Remote Sensing on a Shoe String Budget: The Icarus Project and $150

I spoke to Oliver Yeh, one part of the duo of MIT students that created Project Icarus. He along with fellow student Justin Lee sent a small digital camera into near space to get a bird’s eye view of eastern Massachusetts. Now, people have been launching objects skyward to photograph the earth for a long time. But, this only cost Yeh and Lee less than $150.

How did they do it? With a $30 digital camera they bought used on Amazon, a latex balloon from an online supplier (somewhat thicker than a party balloon), a Styrofoam cooler, some insulation, a small parachute, a prepaid cell phone with extended battery and antenna, and about 65 cubic feet of helium.

In order to track the balloon, the team downloaded an application that runs on the cell phone to capture the GPS coordinates and transmit the location data. The phone could not send information once above 3000 feet so it also stored the track of the balloon’s flight. Software was also downloaded to the camera with instructions to snap a photo every five seconds.

The result is a sequence of photographs of the balloons journey. The most amazing are those taken at the balloons apex of near 93,000 feet.

Oliver said they had a good idea how long it would last and the approximate altitude the balloon would reach. The entire flight took about two hours and he eventually retrieved the balloon when it landed in a small field.

You can see the photos and read more details about this amazing project at the space.1337arts website. What's next? Perhaps a transatlantic flight where Oliver says the challenge will be to try and maintain a more constant altitude during the journey.

Center for Am. Progress: Open Up Classified Imagery for Human Rights

William F. Schulz, senior fellow for human rights policy at the Center for American Progress co-authored a report (pdf) recommending the government deploy social networking, satellite mapping and other technologies to combat oppression overseas. Schultz is looking for more National Science Foundation funding for human rights work.

One specific suggestion: "publishing parts of a classified Defense Department database of satellite imagery." Per NextGov:

The government either should update the public database or release specific portions of its classified, comprehensive system that cover at-risk areas such as Darfur, Burma and the Congo, according to the report.

Tuesday, October 20. 2009

First WorldView-2 Imagery from DigitalGlobe

DigitalGlobe has released the first imagery available from WorldView-2.