Monday, April 21. 2008

Toward the Killer App for Imagery?

Years ago I interviewed imagery guy Gerry Kinn (then at EMERGE, now at ESRI) about the killer apps for aerial and satellite imagery. He told me a story of how you'd go into the Home Depot (or the like) and the clerk would use an imagery based app to determine how much fertilizer you needed for your lawn. I think we are a getting there!

Enter Sungevity. The company uses imagery (from MS Virtual Earth since it need the obliques from Pictometry) along with information from one's electric bill to estimate the return on installing solar panels, which the company sells and installs. The "no visit" estimate cuts time and cost from an implementation.

The company's secret sauce is a trigonometry-heavy application that can take satellite imagery and create a 3D model of a house. From the model, Sungevity calculates the pitch of the roof, the azimuth (for instance, where the house faces in relation to compass points) and the available area.

"You introduce errors when you put a guy on the roof," Kennedy asserted.

Sungevity uses data from Microsoft Virtual Earth rather than Google Earth for its satellite imagery. Google Earth only provides a top-down view of a roof. Virtual Earth gives data from different angles, which lets Sungevity calculate pitch.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Remote Sensing at 06:15 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0) |

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

A reader notes a similar idea regarding imagery use at large retailers was put forward in 2003 by Ken Dooley at Trimble in this article by Joe Francica.
http://www.directionsmag.com/editorials.php?article_id=367

I first heard of it and wrote about it in EOM in 2004.
http://www.eomonline.com/Archives/FebMar04/schutzberg2.html

Adena

#1 Adena Schutzberg (Link) on 2008-04-21 14:02 (Reply)

A while ago, I came across an interesting research project at the Fachhochschule Osnabrueck in Germany http://www.al.fh-osnabrueck.de/21325.html - Laser scanning data was used in combination with other geodata to determine the solar power potential of house roofs. What I think was most interesting about this application is that they mainly used datasets which were NOT specifically produced for this project. In fact, all data was already there - it was a matter of finding that data and combining it in clever way. I am sure there are thousands of killer applications waiting out there. One of the main problems I see is finding the (right) data to enable these killer applications. Geodata are often hidden deep down in university, government and company basements. If all these hidden gems were easily findable and usable, we would see many more killer apps!

#2 Martin (Link) on 2008-04-21 16:19 (Reply)

They've been doing the same calculation modeling at RealSite and Sanborn for years now. Or, just pick-up Precision Lightworks' Nverse, you can pretty much do the same in-house with obliques. Probably more accurate as well, since they've been at it for a while now and have that stuff refined. Just sayin'.

#3 Daniel (Link) on 2008-04-21 19:11 (Reply)

Ann Arbor, MI now offers "solar energy potential" information for properties in the city boundaries.
http://www.wwj.com/Ann-Arbor-Web-Site-Shows-Homes--Solar-Power-Potent/2059297

#4 Adena Schutzberg (Link) on 2008-04-24 07:43 (Reply)

Inherent flaw in that approach is to not do a simple change-detection for time-of-day to see where shadows fall on rooftops. At least, in residential areas/regions of interest -- this would be critical information to determine the best course of planning, and to highlight given owner landscaping that might be in conflict with solar potential.

As was highlighted in the recent news piece about the neighbors in California -- where the one neighbor planted a tree that may or may not have been sustainable in his yard anyway (those trees grow huge!) -- municipalities or neighborhood associations would benefit the most by organizing and analyzing such data to reflect on their rules and ordinances, so that all home-owners can benefit from solar potential.

Common-sense stuff, really.

#5 Daniel (Link) on 2008-04-24 22:24 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to	[ Top level ]#1: Adena Schutzberg on 2008-04-21 14:02 #2: Martin on 2008-04-21 16:19   #2.1: Daniel on 2008-04-24 22:24 #3: Daniel on 2008-04-21 19:11 #4: Adena Schutzberg on 2008-04-24 07:43
Comment	Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_. Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
	Remember Information?   Subscribe to this entry