Last July we unveiled the MrSID® Generation 4 Decode SDK to coincide with our release of the first groundbreaking version of LiDAR Compressor™ software. The new version of the MrSID format (MG4) supports LiDAR compression. We released a plug-in for using MG4 in ArcGIS 3D Analyst last October and unveiled our own MG4 Decode tool for decoding MG4 back out to LAS or ASCII text format earlier this year, but we’ve obviously been just as eager to see third parties use the SDK to integrate MG4 support into their own products.

Late last year, Merrick & Company and Global Mapper Software announced support for MG4 in their products, MARS® (Merrick Advanced Remote Sensing) software and Global Mapper 11.01. We were very excited about those early integrations.

Last week another important integration of the MG4 technology was announced, this time by Overwatch, an operating unit of Textron Systems, a provider of imagery and geospatial solutions to Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and the intelligence and forestry communities. Overwatch is the maker of LIDAR Analyst, a plug-in for ArcGIS and ERDAS IMAGINE that provides tools for automatically extracting bare earth terrain, 3D buildings, trees and forests, contour lines, and terrain characteristics.

LIDAR Analyst is used for feature extraction by user groups requiring high-resolution terrain information. With the release of version 5.0, LIDAR Analyst customers will be able to process LiDAR data that has been compressed using LizardTech’s LiDAR Compressor.

We’re excited because, as our director of marketing Jon notes, our customers in the Department of Defense and elsewhere have frequently requested MG4 support in LIDAR Analyst, and this integration will provide them with the ability to efficiently compress their LiDAR files and use them in one of their most commonly used applications.

Overwatch is excited because, according to LIDAR Analyst’s product manager Matt Morris, “The MrSID format is best in class for raster imagery compression and we are quite pleased with LizardTech’s specific innovations in point cloud compression.”

We’re blushing, but it’s true.

The venerable Smith Tower, built in 1914 by manufacturer Lyman Cornelius Smith, is just a few blocks away from the LizardTech offices. Despite this proximity, none of us on the Dev team had ever been to the observation deck on the tower’s 35th floor, which we felt was pathetic. To rectify the situation, we went on a field trip over there today and got a big eyeful of panorama.

It was quite an experience. There are other observation spots around downtown. The most famous one is the Space Needle at the other end of the city. Most tourists go there instead. It’s a humdinger of a view, but the Needle is pretty removed from the downtown core, so that it seems a little like you’re looking at an effervescent photograph. There’s also an observation deck on the 76th floor of the Columbia Tower, Seattle’s tallest building (the curvy black one). I’ve never visited that viewpoint but I’ve seen the view from “43″ and even from half the building’s height, the city looks flat. You can’t discern any topography. It looks like you’re staring down at an aerial photo.

I thought the Smith Tower was just right. It’s pretty close to the downtown high-rises, so you get a sense of being “among” the tall buildings, but it’s posted almost like a sentinel at the southern edge of the downtown grid, so that views to the east, south and west are expansive. Also, the observation deck is only a little over 500 feet high. You can see a lot of detail in the buildings below and you still get the sense that Seattle is built on hills. We’re thinking of moving our offices. (Jealous? Here’s the link to our careers page: Jobs at LizardTech.)

I thought I’d share with you just a few of the many photographs we took.

A tall drink of water. The observation deck rings the top of the tower. Photo copyright Matt Fleagle.

This is the motor that works elevator #6. Note the famed Otis name. Photo by Walter Wittel, licensed via Creative Commons as noted below.*

Engineers drawing inspiration 500 feet above the city. From left, Walter, John, Michael, Glen, Mike, Kirk. Somehow, Chris got lost. Photo copyright Matt Fleagle.

The downtown core, with some of our old favorite buildings nestled among the newer giants. Photo copyright Matt Fleagle.

Ah, there’s Chris! And John, and the hands of Glen (we think) in the middle. They’re looking east over First Hill here. Photo by Walter Wittel, licensed via Creative Commons as noted below.*

Looking south to the historic King Street Station and to Quest and Safeco ball fields. Photo copyright Matt Fleagle.

*Image by Walter Wittel licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

You’ve heard of Open Street Map, right? You can think of it as Wikipedia for maps: people from all over the world map their own neighborhoods, and the results are made available for free, to all, with no copyright restrictions. For most of the US the road network has been pretty well mapped already, via free data available from the government, but it can get out of date surprisingly quickly and of course it doesn’t list the really important stuff like where to get the best ice cream.

These brave souls are about to redefine the leisurely walk.

On March 13th, nineteen people from CUGOS (including three Lizards) and one dog met up over on sunny Bainbridge Island for an Open Street Map mapping party. It was a diverse group — academics, kids, hackers, spouses. We met in the morning at the Bainbridge ferry dock, took a picture to commemorate the event, and divided up into four groups. Each group then spent the next few hours walking around a different part of Bainbridge’s downtown core, recording the coordinates of any “features of interest”:

• roads that had changed or been renamed
• “street furniture”: bus stops, park benches, fire hydrants
• points of interest: pharmacies, libraries, museums, pubs, ice cream parlors
• walking trails
• and much, MUCH more

Holly reviews her route while Dane gets “walking orders” from Michael.

Altogether we collected a few hundred different way points, using everything from handheld GPS units to iPhones to laser range finders. Over a leisurely late lunch by the waterfront, and in a subsequent CUGOS meeting, we worked to get all our GPS tracks and waypoints uploaded to the OSM databases.

Leaving no avenue uncharted, no point of interest unheralded, Michael, Walter and Roger investigate.

A walk through Bainbridge on a sunny day with friends — and GPS gear. What more could a GIS geek want?

Roger and Tifani display the elements of their GPS walking kit (bus stop sold separately).

Photos courtesy of CUGOS’ own Roger and Tifani.

Several of us just returned from the ILMF 2010 conference in Denver, Colorado. What was near and dear to my heart there was the interest in LiDAR compression. Several presentations focused on this (linked items below are PDF documents):

• “Storing and Managing LiDAR Data” by Jon Skiffington (LizardTech)
• “Compressing LiDAR Waveform Data” by Dr. Charles Toth (Ohio State University)
• “laszip: Lossless Compression for LiDAR in LAS Format” (poster) by Dr Martin Isenburg (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
• “LiDAR Compression with MrSID Generation 4” by Michael Rosen (LizardTech)

My sense from talking with the other presenters is that this is something for which the industry is hungry. Dr. Toth is researching ways to compress waveform data (as opposed to the spatial and other attributes of the point cloud itself). He presented two approaches:  one based on a wavelet transform and another based on compressive sensing.

Dr. Isenburg presented a poster session describing laszip, a compression mechanism for LAS files. He described it to me as being primarily focused on archiving LAS data and so rather orthogonal to our efforts, which emphasize accessibility and integration. Also, laszip is free.

Mr. Skiffington’s presentation focused on our LiDAR Compressor product while your author’s presentation gave an outline of the motivation for and an algorithmic explanation of the underlying MG4 technology.

I had several people asked for copies of my presentation so I’ve provided the link above.

Michael Rosen
LizardTech, Engineering Mgr
mrosen at lizardtech dot com

GISuser’s Glenn Letham recently blogged about how he found himself unable to connect to one of our webinars via Webex’ PC client but at the last minute he noticed that the Webex invitation had also included a link to an iPhone app that he didn’t even know about. With a little quick emailing, he was able to connect after all and logged in just in time.

We didn’t know about this method either and we thought it was news worth sharing. For those of you who have an iPhone and are curious about how you might use it to attend one of our webinars, here’s the relevant excerpt from his report:

there i was, sitting in a coffee shop grabbing a cup and loading the PC client from WebEx when the app failed and wouldn’t load for me (perhaps I missed something but I looked around and couldn’t troubleshoot the problem). Luckily a link to the WebEx iPhone app was provided.

So, I simply forwarded the email with the link to my gmail account (accessible via my iPhone mail client), installed the application, and logged into my webinar… right on time. The application serves up a slide show, complete with list of attendees and ability to chat (an option to review slides would be good). The app then called me and I listened to the audio portion via phone call streamed to my headphones so i wouldn’t disturb anyone inn the coffee shop - great stuff!

Glenn’s tip is timely because we’ve got another webinar coming up on January 26 at 11 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. In WMS: Behind the Scenes, you’ll learn the technical details of how WMS works to serve map data to network users. Sound interesting? Why not register right now?

For more information about upcoming LizardTech webinars, visit http://www.lizardtech.com/events/webinars.php.