Newsletters
LizardTales Newsletter – February 2010
FROM THE MANAGEMENT TEAM
All of us here at LizardTech hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday and a great start to the New Year. As we kick off 2010 we are busy wrapping up an office remodel that started in mid December. The new place looks great and everyone is excited to get moved into their new offices.
We are also extremely pleased with the support that MrSID Generation 4 has been getting. The new format is now supported in Merrick MARS 6.0, Global Mapper 11.01, and in ESRI’s ArcGIS 3D Analyst via LizardTech’s MrSID Plug-in for ArcGIS 3D Analyst. We are also expecting to some more good news in the very near future regarding LiDAR Compressor as well as additional support forMG4 in other applications. Furthermore, be looking for news later this year on the new features that will be included in the next version of GeoExpress. If you haven’t done so yet make sure to visit http://www.lizardtech.com or subscribe to our product updates feed athttp://www.lizardtech.com/files/rss/updates.xml to keep up with the latest news.
As always, we thank you all for your business, your support and all the feedback we receive. You can catch up with what is going on with LizardTech at our Blog, Z00M, athttp://www.lizardtech.com/blog and the LizardTech Forum at http://www.lizardtech.com/forums. Without you, we could not be here. Thank you!
GEOSPATIAL
Now that support for MrSID Generation 4 in third-party applications is growing, many people have asked just how we compress LiDAR data. After all, compressing raster imagery is relatively easy for us. Images are on a regular grid, so you can safely predict what the next pixel is going to hold and make some assumptions on how to most efficiently compress that information.
LiDAR data, on the other hand, is much more challenging. If you’ve ever looked at raw LiDAR returns before the data has undergone any processing, you’ll see that the returns are essentially random. Points 1, 2, and 3 can each be two inches apart from each other, while points 4 and 5 are three feet apart! As you may know, most compression routines rely on being able to find redundant information and finding a more efficient way to represent that data. The randomness of LiDAR data made compressing it a challenge for our engineers.
Luckily for us, however, randomness or predictability is not the only thing that influences compression. We’ve been using wavelet technology for years in our raster compression algorithm, and we were able to adapt that algorithm for LiDAR. By performing a transformation on the data into wavelet space, we’re able to more efficiently represent it. Furthermore, we used some more advanced techniques (like bitplane encoding and creation of a spatial index) to make the file even smaller and reduce the time it takes to view the data.
Techniques and innovations like these are what has allowed us to continue to develop advanced compression methods and provide you with the tools you need to quickly and easily do your job.
WHERE IS LIZARDTECH?
Upcoming Events:
ESRI Federal User Conference
February 17-19, 2010 - Washington, D.C. LizardTech booth # 208.
http://www.esri.com/events/feduc
2010 Indiana GIS Conference
February 23-24, 2010 - Bloomington Monroe County Convention Center, Bloomington, Indiana
http://www.igic.org/conference
ILMF 2010
March 3-5, 2010 - Hyatt Regency, Denver, CO. LizardTech booth # 103.
http://www.lidarmap.org
ESRI Business Partner Conference
March 21-23, 2010 - Palm Springs Convention Center and Renaissance Hotel. LizardTech booth # 209.
http://www.esri.com/events/bpc
Complete schedule of LizardTech Events.
UPCOMING WEBINARS
Every month we offer free informative Webinars covering our line of geospatial products.
Register today so you can explore the powerful features in LizardTech’s complete geospatial line of products: GeoExpress™ for compression and manipulation, Express Server™ for high-performance delivery and publication, Spatial Express™ for storage, and LiDAR Compressor™ for turning giant point cloud data into efficient MrSID files – focusing on the benefits of managing, distributing and storing digital content and compressing LiDAR data.
Following are the details for the upcoming webinars:
Date and Time:
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 11:00 AM PST
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 11:00 AM PST
Tuesday, March 30, 2010 11:00 AM PST
Duration:
Who should attend:
If you have questions about this seminar e-mail us at info@lizardtech.com.
Tips and Tricks
Express Server
Did you know you can combine and serve datasets from multiple coordinate systems?
Even though each “Catalog” must consist of images from the same coordinate system, you can create a “MultiCatalog” which combines several “SubCatalogs” into one, even if each SubCatalog has a different coordinate system. Express Server will reproject and mosaic each SubCatalog into the desired output mosaic and coordinate system. This is how the State of North Carolina is able to use the same data to simultaneously serve both individual counties and the entire state.
Hot Tips?
Do you have tips that you want to share? Send them to suggestions@lizardtech.com and we might publish your tip in the next issue of LizardTales.
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
LizardTech is always seeking great talent. To learn more about current opportunities to join a dedicated, talented and close-knit team, please visit our Careers Page.
