Microsoft Seadragon Ajax for Photogrammetry?

This is some really interesting new stuff. I did a little experiment to illustrate how this might come into play for some of our photogrammetry projects.

This comes from Microsoft Live Labs and is the call Seadragon. It is part of their new visualization technologies. You can see evidence of it in PhotoSynth and Deep Zoom. The neat thing here is you don't have to have any additional components installed. I will post some other samples coming soon, but what I through together real quickly was this.

The images are from the F3 tornado that hit Enterprise, Alabama a couple of years ago. I downloaded the images from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA). Then I used Deep Zoom Composer to generate "composition". Then I put it on my web server and used the URL in the "Seadragon Ajax" page to build the script to embed in this blog.

There were 24 source image files that equaled 73.2 Mb in size. After the mosaic and export from Deep Zoom Composer the there were 13,715 files that equaled 1.49 Gb in size. This is because of the tiling system that is created. One of the amazing things is how much data can actually be shown via a really thin pipe.

The only trouble I had with the process was figuring out what file the "Seadragon Ajax" page wanted to use to generate the script. They don't give you any instructions, so even though it is relatively straightforward, I had to do a little trial and error. It turns out that Deep Zoom Composer creates an XML file in the process of generating the composition. The file is named "dzc_output.xml". You will need to reference this file on the Seadragon page.

Anyway here is the results. Enjoy! :)

The most relevant presentation I have found in quite a while...

This presentation by Dave Bouwman is awesome. It really hits on the issues GIS professionals are faced with in moving to WebGIS, also the graphics are excellent.

Usability in the GeoWeb

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: geoweb usability)

Speaking at the Rocket City Geospatial Conference

Ok, so this is shameless self promotion. :)

It would be awesome if I could pack this session, so if you’re interested in dynamic KML generation, you’ll probably find this one interesting.

Here’s my abstract:
“This presentation describes a Web service that dynamically generates a KML from user-selected layers. The service, originally designed on the Alabama Resource Management System for Virtual Alabama, uses computational geometry to generate thematic layers on the fly. Users choose map layers of interest and a KML is then made available to them for download. This discussion will show how quickly a novice user can utilize a Web service to locate and visualize thematic data layers of interest without having to use anything more than their browser and KML displaying application.”

Here’s a link to my session on the agenda: AGENDA

After I’m done, I will post my presentation on SlideShare.
Hope to see you there!

Mansour Raad at Adobe MAX

Just wanted to advertise some for a really great guy. Mansour Raad is a Senior Software Architect for ESRI. He lead the technical discussions on the Flex API in the Holistic Testing Lab a couple of weeks ago. If you have ever heard one of Mansour's talks, then you know he is brilliant and hilarious. If you haven't been to one of his sessions then I would highly, highly recommend it.

Here is a link to Mansour's blog so you can see where he will be next. Also he posts really awesome samples for Flex developers here.

Thunderhead Explorer -
http://thunderheadxpler.blogspot.com/

The next big thing is coming up next week, but regretfully I won't get to be there. If you are going to Adobe MAX this year, please try to pack out Mansour's session. Here are the details.

Delivery of a Mission-Critical RIA for NATO

Adobe Consulting and ESRI will discuss the real-world implementation of a Mission Support System for AWACS aircraft, built in Flex for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). See this powerful example of leveraging ESRI mapping technology with Flex and LiveCycle Data Services ES.

Speakers:	Peter Martin, Mansour Raad
Audience:	Architect, Application Developer
Skill:	Intermediate
Products:	LiveCycle DS, Flex
When:	Tuesday, November 18, 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm, Moscone West 2011

Here is a PDF of the details.

http://gisinnovations.sicsconsultants.com/Docs/MAX%202008%20Filtered%20Session%20List.pdf

The Lab - Day 2 (other notes)

Several topics were discussed on Day 2 in the ESRI Holistic Lab for the Flex API. Here are some highlights and links.

Presentation #1: "Custom Geometry" - (continued from Day 1)

Presentation #2: "How to build an application"
The second presentation of the day focused on core principles of how to build an application, focusing on frameworks and unit testing.

Frameworks

1. Cairngorm: "Cairngorm is the lightweight micro-architecture for Rich Internet Applications built in Flex or AIR." - (http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/cairngorm/Cairngorm)
2. PureMVC: "PureMVC is a lightweight framework for creating applications based upon the classic Model, View and Controller concept." - (http://puremvc.org/)
3. Swizframework: "Swiz is a framework for Adobe Flex that aims to bring complete simplicity to RIA development." - (http://code.google.com/p/swizframework/)
4. Mate Flex Framework: "Mate is a tag-based, event-driven Flex framework." - (http://mate.asfusion.com/)

Unit Testing

1. FlexUnit: "FlexUnit is a unit testing framework for Flex and ActionScript 3.0 applications and libraries. " - (http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexunit/FlexUnit)
2. Fluint: "Based loosely on the concepts of FlexUnit and its ancestor JUnit, fluint provides enhanced asynchronous support, a graphical test runner, integration with continuous build systems and an optional Adobe AIR client for directory watching." - (http://code.google.com/p/fluint/)
3. FlexMonkey: "FlexMonkey is a unit testing framework for Flex apps that provides for automating the testing of Flex UI functionality. FlexMonkey can record and play back Flex UI interactions, and generates ActionScript-based testing scripts that can easily be included within a continuous integration process." - (http://code.google.com/p/flexmonkey/)
   

Unit Testing Coverage Tool

1. Flexcover: "Flexcover is a code coverage tool for Flex, AIR and AS3. It incorporates a modified version of the AS3 compiler which inserts extra function calls in the code within the SWF or SWC output file." - (http://code.google.com/p/flexcover/)
   

Other topics:

1. AlivePDF is an open source project that lets you generate PDF files with ActionScript 3. ( http://www.alivepdf.org/)
2. Flash 10 FileReference Class - (http://www.flashmagazine.com/news/detail/flash_player_10_new_feature_load_and_save_files_using_filereference/)

The Lab – Day 1 (and Day 2)

So I mentioned I would be in ESRI's Holistic Testing Laboratory all this week, well this is day 1.

We covered a lot through the day, and it's late, but here are some of the major points.

Major topics:

1. Creating a framework of overrides to allow you to display custom symbols or system symbols as scale dependent.
   
2. The ongoing saga of what is the best method of data integration.
   

I worked mostly on replicating my environment in the lab for testing. Tomorrow is on to interface and data connectivity.

More too come…

Update (includes Day 2):
Mansour Raad, Senior Architect from ESRI, gave lectures on these topics. He focused largely on the override of 2 methods in the ESRI Flex API.
1. override public draw
2. override public clear

The sample code draws 10,000 random points across the globe at various rotations using a bitmap.

I have included Mansour's sample code here.

ArcGIS API for Flex version 1.0 just released!

I have been working with this API for a little while now. It is definitely coming along. The potential is huge and for all of us who have struggled with the Web ADF in an internet environment this offers an excellent alternative. Besides all that it is freakin' fast!!!!

I will be out in Redlands next week working in the ESRI Holistics Testing Lab on the Flex API with ArcGIS Server and SQL 2008. I will post what info I can afterwards. I think we will get some gold nuggets!!!

ARMS wins the ESRI 2008 Vision Award!

The Alabama Resource Management System (ARMS) has received the international “2008 ESRI Vision, Service, and Communication” award. This is a really big deal for us. The award was presented at the 2008 ESRI Health GIS Conference in Washington D.C. There will be several press releases coming out, so I will add them as updates to this posting.

Been away too long...

I have been away entirely too long. It's been a really busy year, but I am back and the site has a new look.

I have plenty to write about, so I will try to get some the Alabama activities out soon!