In the Spotlight

The eleventh edition of the annual Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) conference was held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, from June 15 to 19. At this conference the GSDI Association, an inclusive body of organizations, agencies, firms, and individuals from around the world, promotes international co-operation and collaboration in support of local, national and international spatial data infrastructure developments. That was not all: this GSDI conference was jointly organized with the 3rd INSPIRE Conference and a Dutch national SDI conference on ‘Public Sector meets Science and Industry'.

Magellan Professional introduced GPSDifferential for ESRI ArcPad 8, a post-processing software extension for the MobileMapper 6 with ArcPad 8 mapping application. The GPSDifferential for ArcPad 8 enables the MobileMapper 6 GIS/GPS handheld receiver users to achieve outstanding sub-meter accuracy for GIS data collection and mapping at low cost. "Today, there is no other product on the market which can provide a similar GPS accuracy for this price range", said Jacek Pietruczanis, GIS Marketing Manager of Magellan Professional. "I encourage the mobile GIS customers to read our latest white paper online to learn how our device beats its competition."

COMPASS09 includes many presentations that we hope will be of interest to you and all colleagues who work with geospatial data in a number of thematic areas - both those involved in GIS and data management and those end users outside the technical area.

SOKKIA BV, European head office, announces the release of the new -generation leveling lasers, the LP410, LP415 and LP415S. SOKKIA has added three new products to its highly popular LP Series of rotating lasers for leveling applications in construction and building. These new products provide improved durability, reliability, and ease of operation for higher efficiency in a variety of leveling applications, from large-scale construction to interior work.

Blom has completed the production of the first 40 high quality 3D models, Blom3D, of European cities. The Blom3D models have been delivered to Tele Atlas for integration into navigation; LBS and mapping solutions.

Experts at the INTERGEO preview in Karlsruhe hosted by former DVW President Hagen Graeff and addressing the topic "3D - dimensions of geodata" called for a change in mindset: People must get used to thinking three-dimensionally rather than seeing in three dimensions but thinking in two. The tenor of the discussion at Karlsruhe's ZKM (Centre for Art and Media Technology) involving Karl-Otto Funk of the Landesamt für Geoinformation und Landentwicklung (Regional Authority for Geoinformation and Land Development), Thomas Hauenstein from the City of Karlsruhe's real estate office and Jörg Herrmann, CEO of Infoterra GmbH, was that an appropriate geodata infrastructure (GDI) needed to be created to expand the dimensional perspective. The preview also marked the debut of a new communication channel - INTERGEO TV.

This Envisat radar image features six of Hawaii's eight major volcanic islands. Visible from right to left are the Big Island of Hawaii, Kahoolawe, Maui, Lanai, Molokai and Oahu. In addition to two other major islands, there are also 124 islets.

High resolution aerial photography from Bluesky is helping to boost the provision of services across public sector organisations in the North East of England. Purchased by Tyne and Wear Research and Information (TWRI) on behalf of a consortium that includes local councils, emergency services and the Passenger Transport Authority, the GeoPerspectives imagery will provide benefits for a variety of applications. These include frontline use within emergency service response vehicles and supporting decision-making within the planning application process. At an impressive 10 cm resolution the digital aerial photomap is detailed enough to view individual property boundaries, specific land uses and even street markings.

Vexcel Imaging GmbH, Microsoft's Photogrammetry division, announced another flurry of recent sales for its UltraCam large and medium digital aerial mapping cameras. The newly reported sales have occurred since an early March announcement from the company speaking to multiple sales of the systems for the first quarter of the calendar year. These latest sales bring the number of UltraCam large format systems sold worldwide-which includes the UltraCamD, UltraCamX,UltraCamXp and UltraCamL models-to 123, making the UltraCam arguably the leading selling large format aerial camera on the market. Meanwhile, two orders were placed for the UltraCamL medium format system just eight months after its development was announced from the XXIst International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Congress in Beijing and two months before it is scheduled for actual production.