geomaticsworld 2015€¦ · geomaticsworld november / december 2015 scanning for heritage bim...

GeomaticsWorld NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2015

Scanning forHeritage BIM

modelling

Laser scannerproven for topo

survey

3D-Icons projectcaptures Ireland’s

heritage

Uberisation forgeospatial services,UAVs for tripods?

SurveyorsRendezvous on

USA / Canada border

Issue No 1 : Volume 24

Surveying for geographical and spatial information in the 21st century

FREE DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION FOR PROFESSIONAL SURVEYORS see page 3

Geomatics: 3D Heritage Modelling

F

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GIS: a resilient future? We find out at GeoCom 2015

p.05 Editorialp.06 Newsp.08 Calendarp.09 Chair’s Columnp.10 Undercurrents

p.21 Legal Notesp.30 Downunder currentsp.31 Products & Servicesp.34 Classified & Recruitment

Geomatics World is published bi-monthly by PV Publications Ltd on behalf of the Royal Institutionof Chartered Surveyors Geomatics Professional Groupand is distributed to group members and othersubscribing professionals.

Editor: Stephen Booth

Technical Editor: Richard Groom

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Editorial BoardIan Coddington, Pat Collins, Professor Ian Dowman,Richard Groom, Alan Haugh, James Kavanagh,Professor Jon Mills, Dr Stuart Robson, Dr Martin Smith

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November / December 2015 Geomatics World 03

Contentsp.12 Laser scanning for topo surveys

Breheny Contractors’ surveyors have been busy using a Trimble TX8 laser scanner toconfirm levels on a paved area rather than a total station.

p.14 Scan to BIM: parametric objects and procedural modellingA project to create a library of classical building elements to ease the creation ofhigh-resolution architectural 3D models is described by Conor Dore.

p.18 Ireland’s 3D-ICONS projectTechniques used by Ireland’s Discovery Programme to simplify the viewing of dense pointcloud imagery are described by Robert Shaw..

p.22 Developments in PhotogrammetryProf Ian Dowman provides a insightful account of two events that took place inStuttgart at the same time as the InterGEO.

p.24 Open Geospatial Consortium’s Technical CommitteeThe work of OGC in setting standards for interoperability between geospatial technologiesis described, as Ordnance Survey joins a select group of top-tier members.

p.26 Surveyors Rendezvous 2015John Brock’s travels took him to this annual get-together which this year was held inBellingham, Washington state. Will it come to UK one day?

p.28 KOREC at the ArmouryA posh city venue provided an opportunity for Trimble’s dealer to show off the latesttechnology, reports Richard Groom.

COVER STORYHigh-resolution laserscanning has createdthese impressive imagesof Dublin’s HenriettaStreet, a terrace ofGeorgian town houses.The imaging helped byworking from aparametric library ofshapes to automaticallygenerate the façadestructure.

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Issue No 2 of Showcase for 2015 is now available, including:• UAVs: models compared, a guide to operation and regulations.• Full report of the Stuttgart InterGEO• Monitoring and preserving the Mary Rose• The AiC story: 30 years of survey software development

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surveyingshowcase2015 ISSUE TWO

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Editorial


even the typical ambience of the site – in thefinest of detail and the majority of peoplebecome content with the visitor centre’s digitalexperience, how long will it be before adeveloper suggests that we move say St Paul’sCathedral to a more convenient location freeingup valuable city real estate? After all, with 3Dimagery and immersive reality and perhaps theability to touch surfaces, why would you wantto bother travelling and wandering around achilly old building?

Mind the tripod!In all of these 3D projects the key technology isactually not laser scanning but photogrammetry,a once esoteric technique used mainly bysurveyors for mapping. Today, photogrammetryis at the heart of turning data into usefulinformation for applications as disparate aslandslips, land cover, satellite trajectorydetermination or interior mapping. Prof IanDowman reports from two recent events, PhoWoand Geospatial Week in Stuttgart (something ofa centre for photogrammetry) which reveal thatwhile photogrammetric techniques are certainlybehind the software, the popular platform forcapturing data is rapidly becoming the UAV.Someone has even posited that in future thesurveyor’s tripod will be the UAV. Interestinghow something that essentially had to besecurely positioned and levelled has suddenlybecome highly mobile.

It seems that at almost every academic eventGoogle is never far away. At Geospatial WeekEd Parsons, the company’s geospatialtechnologist, showed how that with theacquisition of Skybox Google now has aconstellation of small satellites with short revisittimes.To learn more about all of this anddiscover what “voxels” are, turn to page 22.

Happy holidaysThis issue of GW is the last for 2015 so I wishreaders a pleasant and peaceful holiday periodand new year. We shall be back with the firstissue of 2016 in early January.

Two articles in this issue, both from Ireland,highlight the rapidly growing popularityacross the globe of high-resolution 3D

modelling in the heritage sector. Critical to bothprojects has been the availability of 3D laserscanners. In Scan to HBIM (heritage buildinginformation modelling) Conor Dore describeshow the creation of a library of classicalarchitectural parametric objects helped create a3D model of an entire street in Dublin. To learnabout this turn to page 14.

Meanwhile, Robert Shaw describes the 3D-ICONS project, funded by the EC, to capturesome of Ireland’s iconic archaeological sitesfrom a list of candidates for UNESCO worldheritage status. The interesting aspect of thisproject for surveyors is the integration oftechnologies: airborne LiDAR, RTK GNSS,terrestrial laser scanning and optical scanning.The result, of course, produces very large filesbut the twist, as they say on the cookeryprogrammes, is that in order to view theimagery on the web the files have had to be“retopologised” (horrible word!). Turn to page18 to learn more.

Planning for the worstThe drive to capture the world’s great heritagesites, whether in war-torn Syria or earthquake-prone regions, is laudable. A detailed record ofthese sites can only contribute massively totheir restoration when the worst happens. Inthe meantime researchers and the generalpublic can view the sites in glorious detail. Tohelp with this development a project backed byOxford and Harvard archaeologists intends todistribute some 5000 cameras around the worldfor residents to capture their historicmonuments in case of natural or manmadedestruction. Again, very laudable.

But should we be worried that as technologyprogresses and is able to deliver ever betterviewing experiences, we might lose sight of thevalue of actually visiting the site? To someextent it has already happened at Stonehengewhere you can no longer wander amongst themighty Sarsen stones but have to be contentwith the “visitor centre” experience (incidentallya visitor centre is the best description yet thatI’ve heard as to why the ancients created thegreat henge!).

As we get closer and closer in being able tocapture absolute reality – form, colour, texture,

Photogrammetry isat the heart of somuch geospatialmodelling but willthe surveyor of thefuture need atripod? And whatbecame of acompany thatdevised a way ofasking questionsacross the web?

A horrible word is the twist thatenables web viewing

The editor welcomes yourcomments and editorialcontributions by e-mail: [email protected] by post:Geomatics WorldPV Publications Ltd2B North RoadStevenageHerts SG1 4ATUnited Kingdom Stephen Booth, Editor

NEWS

06 Geomatics World November / December 2015

Chartered engineer statusfor surveyors?A new scheme to enablemembers of the CharteredInstitution of Civil EngineeringSurveyors (CICES) to achievechartered engineer status waslaunched recently at theInstitution of Civil Engineers(ICE). CICES has worked closelywith ICE to ensure the scheme isacceptable to the EngineeringCouncil, which grants charteredengineer status to suitablecandidates. The move comes asthe construction industry issetting its sights on becoming‘world class’ by 2025. Backingthe move, rear admiral NigelGuild of the Engineering Councilsaid “Society needs to know thatengineering is done byprofessionally competent people.Peer review is at the core of theEngineering Council’s work andunderscores the diversity ofengineering”.

Ian Cowling, CICES’s chiefexaminer, introduced the processfor candidates, which has beenaudited and approved by ICE andis based on an Individual ReportRoute to professionalregistration that takes as itsstarting point three primarypoints one of which specificallysays that to be eligiblecandidates do not “require aspecific academic qualification”.This may come as a surprise tomany who dutifully followedcognate courses approved byCICES (and RICS) in the past butis a reflection, according to onespeaker at the launch, ofchanging times which now offermore varied routes, includingapprenticeships, to professionalqualification.

Loom to the Moon!Supporting a very worthy cause,Glanville Consultants providedthe expertise for a world recordattempt at the longest ever LoomBand Bracelet. Measuring 41,106feet (nearly 8 miles), the LoomBand Bracelet was painstakinglymeasured by the Geomatics teamand successfully registered as anew World Record on 23rd July2015. Blue Skye Thinking is aCharity which supports researchso that all children diagnosedwith brain tumours will have a

better chance of survival and abetter quality of life post-treatment.http://www.blueskyethinking.org/loom-to-the-moon/

Big neigh from HMRC forsurveyorA chartered surveyor, whoattempted to steal almost£213,000 in Income Tax and VATby failing to declare his earningsand submitting false repaymentclaims for the upkeep ofracehorses has been jailed for 18months. Lawrence Conway fromLondon was investigated byHMRC after he submittedfraudulent VAT repayment claimsof £135,325 for the cost ofkeeping a racehorse from 2003to 2013. However, HMRC’sinvestigation revealed that thehorse had failed to race since itsninth place at Lingfield Parkracecourse in 2001.

HMRC also discovered thatConway had worked as achartered surveyor, but neverdeclared his earnings for tenyears, evading over £61,500 inIncome Tax and NationalInsurance Contributions. He hadalso charged VAT on invoices,even though he was not VATregistered, to pocket a further£16,000 of taxpayers’ cash. Onthe plus side there’s no record ofConway having practised ingeomatics!

Geovation Topic will beWaterThe ninth Geovation Challengelaunches in November. The topicwill be Water. Use yourgeospatial imagination to thinkof innovative solutions thatglobally recognise problems. Theprize is funding and expertise tohelp realise the most promisingideas. Along the way there’s aboot camp, which is great forpersonal development. Seewww.geovation.org

Recording threatenedmonumentsThe BBC website reports that 3Dcameras are being given out torecord ancient monuments thatmay be at risk of destruction.Residents will be asked tocapture images as part of aproject by Oxford and Harvard

Gap-year student wins award

The top award for the ‘Future Industry Leader Awards’ 2015 hasbeen won by Katie Archibald, a gap-year student from East Lothian,Scotland, who embarks on her degree in General Engineering at theUniversity of Cambridge next month.

Katie, a former Knox Academy pupil who studied for ‘A’ levels atFettes College in Edinburgh, has been taking part in the ‘Year inIndustry’ programme, where gap-year students are placed for up to ayear with top industrial employers. This enables them to gainvaluable business experience and work on real commercial projectswhich benefit their companies.

Her placement was with Finmeccanica-Selex ES, an internationalleader in electronic and information technologies for defencesystems, aerospace, data, infrastructures, land security andprotection and sustainable solutions. During her time with thecompany, Katie developed a project where she significantly enhancedthe accuracy of predictions of modern radar modes, by developingan advanced clutter model which simulates expected clutter (radarreflections from the ground), using free Ordnance Survey map data.

RICS Geomatics evening lectures are free and open to all(especially students) and we would ask that all those wishingto attend contact our PG support team [email protected] toguarantee a place. Evening lectures have proved increasinglypopular over the last few years and are often oversubscribed.All details on future evening lectures and for the latest fromRICS Geomatics can be found at www.rics.org/geomatics.Online resources from the 2014-15 session can be accessed @https://communities.rics.org/connect.ti/Wikigeo/groupHome Doplease feel free to pass these details onto colleagues.

Thurs 12th Nov 2015 – Joint lecture with CICES & RICS –University of East London. Survey4BIM – 5 big geospatial issues.

Tuesday 08 Dec 2015Michael Barrett award 2015 – RICS Christmas lectureResponsible Guidelines for Land GovernanceSpeaker and award winner: Paul Munro-Faure

Tues 26th Jan 2016 – UK Geo-forum annual lecture,Topic and speaker TBC.

Thurs 25th Feb 2016 – Measured buildings and propertymeasurement standards Speaker: Tom Pugh MRICS

Thurs TBC April 2016 – Scottish lectureTitle: Measured surveys 3rd ed guidance and spec – at theheart of every good survey is a strong specification.Speaker: James Kavanagh MRICS, Director Land andResources RICS Location: TBC

Geomatics Evening Lectures 2015-16


archaeologists. The projectintends to distribute up to 5,000cameras in conflict zones acrossthe world and capture about onemillion images of at-risk objectsby the end of 2016. The initiativehas renewed urgency followingthe destruction of a temple inPalmyra. Seehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34085546

Galileo launchEurope’s own satellite navigationsystem has come a step nearer tocompletion today, with thelaunch of Galileo 9 and 10,which lifted off together at 02:08GMT on 11 September fromEurope’s Spaceport in FrenchGuiana, atop a Soyuz launcher.All the Soyuz stages performedas planned, with the Fregat upperstage releasing the satellites intotheir target orbit close to 23 500km altitude. Two further Galileosatellites are scheduled forlaunch by end of this year.

“Production of the satelliteshas attained a regular rhythm,”said Didier Faivre, ESA’s directorof Galileo and Navigation-relatedActivities. “At the same time, allGalileo testing performed up tonow – including that of theground segment – has beenreturning extremely positiveresults.”

Next year the deployment ofthe Galileo constellation will beboosted by the entry intooperation of a speciallycustomised Ariane 5 launcherthat can double, from two tofour, the number of satellites thatcan be inserted into orbit with asingle launch.

Boundary disputeresolution BillThe Property Boundaries(Resolution of Disputes) Billreceived its second reading in theHouse of Lords on 11thSeptember. The Bill provides forboundary dispute cases to bereferred to technical experts first,rather than to litigators. It wouldintercept certain existing casesbefore the courts as well asproviding a trigger mechanismwhere, before action has beencommenced, a boundary issuehas arisen. It then provides for adispute-resolution process similar

to that in the Party Wall Act of1996, under which surveyors areappointed and charged withobjectively considering the issuesand producing a document,known as an award, setting outtheir agreement anddetermination. Visit:http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/propertyboundariesresolutionofdisputes.html .

Satellite imagery growthDigitalGlobe has a geospatialindustry report entitled Engage2015. In it the company gives theresults of a survey of 150 seniorprofessionals. The report sees theavailability of affordable cloudservices and in particular 30cmresolution imagery as key factorsin the growth in use of satelliteimagery and forecasts rapidgrowth in the next few years. Visit:http://go.digitalglobe.com/e30gBW03000BHS0050OH80R

Drone survey at tubestationLanes Group in partnership withUAV firm, Unmanned AerialTechnology has used a UAV tosurvey the roof of AmershamLondon Underground station. RailDivision planned maintenancemanager Mark O’Leary said: “Webelieve we have shown thatdrone roof surveys represent aviable and cost-effectivealternative to conventional roofsurvey methods.” Surveying the4,500 sq ft roof conventionallywould have taken a team of fouroperatives up to five nights, usinga range of access and safetyequipment, including scaffoldingtowers.

Hexagon Wichmann winnerLeica Geosystems parentcompany Hexagon, was awardedthe first- and second-place prizesin the Wichmann InnovationsAward programme held duringthe InterGEO conference andtrade fair in Stuttgart, Germany.The main criteria for the awardwere innovation, user-friendlinessand practicality. The first prizewent to Leica for thePegasus:Backpack. Second placewas awarded to IntergraphSecurity, Government &Infrastructure’s Green GIS,

NEWS


EEVVEENNTTSS CCAALLEENNDDAARR 22001155• SEMINARS • CONFERENCES • EXHIBITIONS • COURSES • WORKSHOPS

For details of the current RICSlecture programme turn to page 06.

The Capturing Reality Forum23-25 November 2015 Salzburg,Austria.www.CapturingRealityForum.com

AGI GeoCom: Resilient Futures23-25 November Chesford Grange,Warwickshire. www.agi.org.u

Geo BIM10-11 December 2015 NovatelAmsterdam Citywww.geo-bim.org/Europe

Maps, Charts, and Intelligence16 January 2016, the GeospatialBuilding at the University ofNottingham.

SkyTech 201627-28 January, Building Design CentreLondon http://www.skytechevent.com

GEO Business24-25 May 2016 Business DesignCentre, Islington, London.www.geobusinessshow.com

[email protected] World Forum23-26 May 2016 Rotterdam, [email protected]

12d International Conference24-26 July 2016 Brisbane, Australiahttp://www.12d.com

InterGEO 201611-13 October Hamburghttp://www.intergeo.de

GW welcomes advance details of events of interest to the Geomatics community.Details to: [email protected]

Under 20kg focus for UAVs in the UK but sense-and-avoidsystems may herald larger craft

The second Commercial UAV Show took place over two days inOctober at Excel in East London. It did not take over the whole hallbut, with eighty-five exhibitors, it covered most aspects of the UAVmarket. The system manufacturers, software suppliers and serviceproviders were there as well as training companies and insurers. Aconference ran over both days as well as a programme of freeseminars on the exhibition floor. With everything under one roof,this was clearly the place to be for any aspiring UA owners.

In Britain the focus is inevitably on small UAs (under 20kg) becausethe aviation rules for operation are less burdensome than for largerdrones. But there were several companies presenting larger UAs.They are using them in less-crowded places such as Australia, the USand Antarctica. One of those on display had a range of over 1000km. In crowded airspace the key factor holding up use of the largerUAs is the need for ‘sense and avoid’ systems, although one suppliersuggested that we are only a couple of years away from maturity ofthe technology for use in Europe. If and when this happens, morenotice will surely be taken of the larger aircraft thanks to the heavierpayload, and therefore more sophisticated sensors, that theseaircraft can carry.

The insurance companies did not seem too stressed about the risksposed by UAs. One insurer said that the only third-party claim theyhad handled was a dent in a car. This makes one wonder if the fearsof drones falling out of the sky and on to the heads of innocentpassers-by is exaggerated. They do fall out of the sky, but theinsurers are currently more concerned about damage to the drone.

featuring the patented ECW(Enhanced Compression Wavelet)data compression format andERDAS APOLLO software.

Autonomous VehiclesJaguar Land Rover and EPSRChave announced a jointly funded£11 million autonomous vehicleresearch programme. Theresearch will take place at ten UKuniversities and the TransportResearch Laboratory.

OS Grad SchemeOrdnance Survey’s graduaterecruitment scheme for 2016 haslaunched, offering graduates theopportunity to lead the way ondeveloping innovative andinspirational solutions for digitaldata. Working at Southampton,the recruits will join a structuredtwo-year programme where theywill get experience working withdifferent teams across thebusiness, delivering projects, andmeeting our customers. Thestarting salary for each role is£27,000.

UKMap maps St HelenaThe UKMap team within TheGeoInformation Group has beencommissioned by the St HelenaGovernment to create acartographic database for theisland’s new 1:25,000 and1:10,000 scale mapping. TheSouth Atlantic island currentlyrelies on Ordnance Survey mapsdating back to 1990. Thedevelopment of an internationalairport, a major road and awharf have rendered the existingmaps out of date. The aim is toprint the maps in time for thefirst flights in late February2016.

UAV freezerCalled the Anti-UAV DefenceSystem (AUDS), Liteye Systems’anti-drone laser is certainly notwhat you would considerportable, though it certainly lookslike a weapon, with desertcamouflage, a targeting systemand what looks like a rifle barrel.The AUDS uses the radar andoptical trackers connected toproprietary software to detect,track, and identify drones atdistances of up to 8 km.

BRIEFS

The Open GeospatialConsortium (OGC) is calling forpublic participation in its newly-established Point Cloud DomainWorking Group (Point CloudDWG). The purpose of the PointCloud DWG is to assess thecurrent state of standards andbest practices in themanagement of point clouddata and to guide OGC activitiesin working with or developingstandards for point cloud datainteroperability, discovery, anddissemination.

Details on the Point CloudDomain Working Group can befound at:http://www.opengeospatial.org/projects/groups/pointclouddwg. Interested parties can join thee-mail list at:lists.opengeospatial.org/mailman/listinfo/pointcloud.dwg.

Mark Hudson has set up a newcompany focused exclusively onproviding high-end landsurveying and geospatialengineering consultancy.Geoterra has been launched toenable Hudson to pursue a newdirection in advising consultingengineers, building and civilengineering contractors,architects and the legalprofession on all aspects aboveground and below surfacesurveying.

Ogilvie Geomatics has teamed upwith Cyberhawk, a leader inremote aerial survey andinspection. ComplementingOgilvie’s existing range of surveyservices, the firm can now offerUAV surveys utilising state-of-the-art fixed-wing and multi-rotorUAV platforms.

Intergraph’s Security,Government & Infrastructure(SG&I) division has re-brandedglobally as Hexagon Safety &Infrastructure. The new namemore closely aligns the businessand its solutions with parentcompany, Hexagon. The newcompany will continue to usethe Intergraph name in productbranding.

UAVShowtakes offat Excel


Geomatics PGB Chair

How to ensure that you always get your copy of Geomatics WorldIf you receive GW as part of your RICS membership, you must inform the Institution of any change of address. Aspublishers of GW we cannot change the RICS membership database for you. Call +44 (0)870 333 1600 or log onto the RICS website or write to: RICS Contact Centre, Surveyor Court, Westwood Way, Coventry, CV4 8JE, UK oremail [email protected] Subscribers to GW can call +44 (0)1438 352617 or email: [email protected]

As I write this I am conscious that it willbe my last column for your delectation!My time as Chair of the RICS Geomatics

Professional Group comes to an end in earlyDecember as I hand over to the capable handsof Gordon Johnston.

It is usual at such times to reflect on whathas been achieved during my tenure but Iprefer to look forward rather than back as weseek to build on what has been achieved.

It is clear that if nothing else has comefrom my time at the helm, the most importantthing is that “collaboration” has beenengendered between our kindred professionalbodies and industry colleagues. I consider thatthis is now starting to be achieved without thefinger of suspicion being pointed.

2016 GEO Business loomsGeoBusiness has been a fantastic successthanks to the hard work of many and has nowbeen established as a fitting showcase for theindustry in the UK. However, there is still workto do on this, the easy part is starting out butas the concept matures where do we go next?By the time you read this a meeting will havebeen held to pilot the way forward for the2016 conference and exhibition and thingswill be up and running again.

Important showcaseThe work of Survey4BIM is ongoing and reallyneeds your support to make the impact that itdeserves. The group is now working on theBig5 Geospatial challenges. The digital plan ofwork has now been published and thisaugments the work done on the RICSMeasured surveys of land buildings andutilities specification 3rd Edition and thatrelated to the International PropertyMeasurement Standard for buildings. Thissuite of documents is now beginning to buildup to being a very useful showcase of theimportance of geospatial surveying in manyareas of business.

As Chris Preston,chair of RICSGeomaticsProfessional Groupsteps down, hereflects on the lastthree years whichhave seenunprecedentedcollaborationbetweenprofessional bodies.

Think differently: collaborate!

Chris Preston welcomes your comments andthoughts so please email to the followingaddress [email protected]

Most are aware but will BIMdeadlines be met?Where are you or your organisation on theroad to BIM 2016 Level 2? A recent surveycompleted by Pinsent Mason’s in Spring of2015 of over 100 so called “industry experts”showed that 19/20 were aware of UKGovernment’s target to use Level 2 BIM by2016 on all centrally procured projects and7/10 actively investing in BIM.” However, lessthan 30% think the industry will achieve itand the Civil Engineering contractorsassociation’s recent survey found that 74%believed that deadline would not be met. Theearlier survey identified a lack ofunderstanding of BIM (33%, especially in thesupply chain) and collaboration (24%) to bekey issues (it is that word again!). Existingforms of construction and engineeringcontract are still being used that are notappropriate to the BIM-enabled world,especially when it comes to how collaborativecontracting can be achieved. Changes areobviously needed especially as the industrylooks to Level 3 BIM. What is your view onthis?

An honour to serveIt has been a great honour to chair theprofessional group; I have met and beenintroduced to so many interesting people anddifferent projects in the many different facetsof geomatics. It has simply reinforced my viewthat this is a fascinating industry that withyour help, can go from strength to strength tobuild a digitally enabled world.

As a final thought I quote Ben Davis inGW May/June: “the dynamics needed to solvetoday’s problems: think differently, lose self-interest and collaborate.”

UNDERCURRENTS


and Lady Birdwood. The former having risento the rank of Field Marshal was responsiblefor evacuating the Anzac forces after thedisastrous Gallipoli campaign (not Churchill’sfinest hour) and getting them to France. Hedied in 1951 and was buried at Twickenhamwith full military honours and a 19-gun salute.The Australian Government still pays for theupkeep of his grave, presumably in memory ofthe lives he saved at Gallipoli.

School daysGoing back to my old school after too manyyears I was amazed to learn several things thatI either never knew, forgot or more like didn’tpay attention to. The school was set up in1594 by Lady Anne Dacre (Maid of Honour toElizabeth I) to educate 20 poor children. Ithink I might have been the last of those astoday it’s quite a posh fee-paying school.

In the school’s grounds there is a poignantmemorial to the Clapham train crash of 1988when boys and several teachers from theschool climbed boundary fences to be the firstresponders.

Old boys include Sir Tim Berners-Lee, theinventor of the world wide weband the Sultan of Brunei’s nephew,Prince Hakkim who was alwayskeen for the school to excel atsports. The problem was he oftenrecruited obscure people to the oldboys cricket team who later turnedout to be Ian Botham or VivRichards. For golf, Nick Faldo joinedthe team.

Orifice helped dogfightsWe’ve also been marking the 75thanniversary of the Battle of Britainwhen Hitler’s Luftwaffe took on theRAF’s Hurricanes and Spitfires.Beginning to lose the battle, theFuhrer is reported to have askedGöring, the Luftwaffe commander,what he needed to beat the RAF. ‘Asquadron of Spitfires’ was the reply.

Now there are many unsungheroes of the second world warwhose work made not just adifference but a real battle-winning difference. One such wasBeatrice (‘Tilly’) Shilling, a youngfemale engineer working at Royal

Life has been hectic since my last column.Late August found me in Sorrento in theBay of Naples for my son’s wedding. I

couldn’t resist taking a trip to Herculaneum, thesea port near Pompeii engulfed by a gigantictsunami of hot ash from the volcano Vesuvius inAD 79. Horrible as it was for the inhabitants, itsealed for two millennia exactly what life hadbeen like for this sophisticated Roman town andits inhabitants.

Open houseOpen House London weekend is a fantasticopportunity to look around many importantbuildings, which are not normally accessible tothe public, including No 10 Downing Street butalas I was not successful in the ballot. Instead Ivisited the private apartments at Hampton CourtPalace and my old school, Emanuel.

The apartment was not as grand as I hadexpected, indeed it was rather ordinarydespite being built during what was describedas “Henry VIII’s building phase”. For manyyears occupied by housekeepers. Today it isoccupied by the chief executive of HistoricRoyal Palaces. Before that it had been Lord

Our columnistheads south to theBay of Naples, goesback to school,celebrates anorifice (steady!)and finds plenty tokeep readerschuckling.

Open house and going backto school via Sorrentoby Malcolm Draper, Rentalength

Right: the fine Roman town ofHerculaneum looking much as

it did on 24 August 79 ADbefore volcanic ash engulfedand preserved it. The town’s

Nemesis looms in thebackground, Mt. Vesuvius.

Below: the Romans were alsorather good at engineering

surveying as this road confirms.

You can tell a lot about a woman’s mood justby her hands. If she is holding a gun, she’sprobably angry.

Last year I joined a support group forprocrastinators. We haven’t met yet. . .

With expanding waistlines, have you noticed thatthe Roman Numerals for forty (40) are “XL”?

Jon Mills saw the safety poster opposite andcouldn’t resist snapping it. That’s the sort ofsafety advice I like.

IgNobel AwardsThe annual IgNobel awards have beenpublished. These awards, you may recall, go toacademics (usually but not always) whoseresearch and papers seem particularlypointless. Here are a few by category:

Chemistry: Callum Ormonde (University ofWestern Australia) and colleagues, forinventing a chemical recipe to partially un-boilan egg.

Physics - Patricia Yang (Georgia Institute ofTechnology, US) and colleagues, for testing thebiological principle that nearly all mammalsempty their bladders in about 21 seconds(plus or minus 13 seconds).

Economics: The Bangkok Metropolitan Police(Thailand) for offering to pay policemen extracash if the policemen refuse to take bribes.

Mathematics: Elisabeth Oberzaucher and KarlGrammer (University of Vienna, Austria) fortrying to use mathematical techniques todetermine whether and how Moulay Ismaelthe Bloodthirsty, the Sharifian Emperor ofMorocco, managed, during the years from1697 through 1727, to father 888 children.

Biology: Bruno Grossi (University of Chile) andcolleagues, for observing that when you attach aweighted stick to the rear end of a chicken, thechicken then walks in a manner similar to that inwhich dinosaurs are thought to have walked.

• More of these intriguing awards next timepossibly.

UNDERCURRENTS


Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough. Itseems that early Spitfires couldn’t do anoutside loop (amongst other manoeuvres) astheir Merlin engines suffered fuel starvation innegative G.

Miss Tilly came up with a simple solution. Aflow restrictor: a small metal disc much like aplain metal washer. The restrictor orifice wasmade to accommodate just the fuel neededfor maximum engine power, the power settingusually used during dogfights. While notcompletely solving the problem, the restrictor,along with modifications to the needle valve,permitted pilots to perform quick negative Gmanoeuvres without loss of engine power.

Once the modification was approved MissShilling travelled with a small team around thecountryside to RAF bases fitting the restrictors,giving priority to front-line units. By March1941 the device had been installedthroughout RAF Fighter Command. Officiallynamed the ‘R.A.E. restrictor’, the device wasimmensely popular with pilots, whoaffectionately named it ‘Miss Shilling’s orifice’or simply the ‘Tilly orifice’. Perhaps theunmodified ones could have been given to theLuftwaffe. . . Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Shilling%27s_orifice

Things you didn’t knowFollowing a question from one of our Scottishparliamentarians we learn that the coastline ofScotland is estimated to be about 10,250miles long. Ordnance Survey has said that thecoastline of Britain—Great Britain, notincluding Northern Ireland—is approximately19,491 miles. Scotland has disproportionateimportance, given that it has more than halfthe coastline of Britain. Hmm, would be ashame to lose half our coastline even beforeglobal warming takes its toll.

MiscellanyThe last two months have seen quite a floodof amusing material. I do rather like this oneas a response to unwanted phone calls:

I do like the Canadians. Very practical andcommon sense people. Printed on the side ofa paper coffee cup from Canada are thewords “If this were another country, we’dhave to tell you that this coffee may be hot.Good thing this is Canada!”

Got a tale to tell?Please send letters forpublication by e-mailto the Editor: [email protected] contactUndercurrents, instrictest confidence ifyou wish (we promiseto change names,places, etc toprotect the guilty!),via e-mail:[email protected]

1999, when this pic of HerMajesty the Queen wassnapped, was rather agood year for her itseems, even if the LeicaGeosystems’ name hadstill to become betterknown. Acknowledge -ments to the BBC’swebsite.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34150885

Laser Scanning


a desire for increased speed of data•capture, breaking the million points persecond barrier. a scanning capability beyond the 100m•mark AND a consistent level of accuracyacross the entire dataset, no degradation ofaccuracy with range.usability, key to maximizing take-up of•scanner use.

Consequently we have seen several newproducts on the market that meet these newtrends, Trimble’s TX8 being an example withits incredibly high scan rate and very lowscan times. Its usability is key to itsperformance and the J Breheny Contractingcase study reproduced below illustrates thisperfectly.

However, the question is always “Wherenext?” and one of the stronger opinions toemerge at this year’s Intergeo is that we aresuffering from a data overload and creatingmore data than we can efficiently handle. Forthis reason we can expect to see huge growthin anything that helps us to better processand model what we’ve generated fromautomatic edge detection, breaklinedetection, asset extraction and simplyprocessing huge datasets, all of which willenable us to extract even greater value fromour surveys.

Case Study - An educated decisionCambridge University’s 63 hectare WestCambridge campus is undergoing a 15-yeardevelopment programme to provide newfaculty and research & development buildingsfor the engineering and science disciplinesand related commercial research anddevelopment organizations. Phase 3 workswere completed in 2012 and Phase 4 inAugust 2014.

Post-completion of the works, it wasnoted that sections of a paved area(5,340m²) needed the levels re-affirming tothe designed/as-built levels. J BrehenyContractors Ltd were therefore contacted toundertake a survey of the terrain on a rigid0.5m grid interval to allow a digitalrepresentation of the area in question to bereviewed.

As the work needed to be carried out andthe deliverables sent within a fortnight, aBreheny engineering surveyor was sent to

The rate at which geospatial technology ischanging is increasing, and with it, ourability to collect more data more rapidly. 20

years ago it would have taken several secondsand possibly minutes to get a single point usingGPS; today we can collect one million points persecond using a 3D laser scanner.

The methodologies and workflows of datacollection by total station, GNSS, video,images, laser scanning, terrestrial and mobileare now becoming simpler, faster and morecost effective. This evolution in data capturemethods, data storage and handling meanthat we are moving beyond a digital worldthat is composed of map and CAD layers to aworld full of 3D and 4D models.

According to the “Future trends ingeospatial information management: the fiveto ten-year vision – United Nations Initiativeon Global Geospatial InformationManagement” report, this trend of movingfrom 2D to 3D and on to 4D visualisations isboth user and technology driven and willaccelerate in the next five years. Users arelikely to expect more complex and realistic 3Dmodels to enable better planning and decisionmaking. In short the report states that 3D willincreasingly be an intrinsic part of coregeospatial data, rather than a distinctive addon as it is now.

It is these expectations that have driven thedemand for 3D laser scanning, which in turnhave pushed manufacturers to developscanners with higher specifications to meetthese demands, typically:

A recent projectcarried out by JBrehenyContractors onbehalf ofCambridgeUniversityshowcases theeconomics of usinga high definition3D laser scannerfor topo surveying.

3D laser scanning fortopo survey

Right: Scanarea for the

project.

Trimble’s TX8 withcheckerboard target visible.

Laser Scanning


such as weeds, street furniture, bollards etcremoved.

Andrew Dobrucki, senior land surveyor atBreheny concludes, “The survey took just 2.5hours to complete compared to the twoweeks of a total-station survey, which is a vastsaving of field time. With data collected at100mm intervals, the TX8 provided far moredata than a traditional survey would havedone, which is particularly useful for ourclient. Additionally, we were able to view onsite the data that was scanned, which is agreat way to quickly verify that the correctarea and data is collected as intended beforemoving on to the next set-up location. TheTX8 performed perfectly and we were able toprovide our client with their requesteddeliverables on time.”

All information and images kindly suppliedby Andrew Dobrucki, senior land surveyor,Breheny.

About BrehenyFormed in 1963, J Breheny Contractors Ltdhave grown to provide civil engineeringservices to almost two thirds of the countryfrom offices in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire,Kent, Lincolnshire, Buckinghamshire andYorkshire. Web: www.breheny.co.ukTwitter: @BrehenyCivils

Breheny’s diverse expertise has beenundertaken predominantly as main contractorbut also as subcontractor and includes:

Highways & Bridges•Rail•River & Marine•Environmental•Utilities & Energy•

the site with a Trimble S6 robotic totalstation to complete a traditional opticalsurvey. However, after establishing a set-up,the first row took an hour to survey andwith over 90 rows to survey in total, thecompany felt that this was not a great use ofresource and began a discussion on othermethods of data capture.

Minimal site time requiredFamiliar with Trimble’s TX8 time-of-flight laserscanner and its reputation for the fast captureof high resolution, noise free, data even overits full range of 340m, Breheny contactedKOREC to assist with the survey and post-processing and registering of the data.

With control already established on site,checkerboard targets were positionedaround the area and the TX8 set up for aninitial scan. The location is open to thepublic and home to much street furnitureincluding cycle racks and ornate flowerfilled planters which resulted in more set-ups than would normally be required.Despite this, the site work was completedin just 2.5 hours compared to up to twoweeks if the work had been completed witha total station.

Breheny’s client required a digital terrainmodel for interrogation and a CAD drawingshowing the levels of paving. The scan datawas registered and post-processed usingTrimble RealWorks, software specificallydesigned for point-cloud processing andanalysis. The software automatically registersthe scan and office work was further speededup by the RealWorks sampling tool whichsemi-automatically removes points in the cloudabove ground level. The end result was a cleanscan of just the paving stones with all noise

The survey tookjust 2.5 hours tocompletecompared to thetwo weeks of atotal-stationsurvey. . .

‘‘

’’

Right: Screen grab after data has beencleaned in Trimble RealWorks.

Left: Screen grab before data has beencleaned in Trimble RealWorks.

Scan to HBIM


Geometric Description Language (GDL), anembedded programming language within theArchiCAD BIM software. Dynamic geometricobjects created with GDL are classified as anelement type using the Industry FoundationClass (IFC), which assigns semantics, additionalattributes and relationship information to acreated object. A sample of the HBIM libraryobjects can be seen in Figure 1.

AutomationAlthough the use of parametric library objectsspeeds up the modelling process it still requiresmanual combination and mapping of individualcomponents to survey data to create a completeHBIM. Steps towards automating this final partof the HBIM process are also being researched atDIT. An automated approach to 3D modellingwhich has previously not been adopted orimplemented for Scan to BIM is proceduralmodelling. Procedural modelling uses a sequenceof generation instructions, rules or algorithmsthat can be repeated with varying characteristicsto automatically generate 3D geometries.Procedural modelling has traditionally been usedin applications such as film and gaming wherecontent can be randomly generated based onrules and algorithms.

As part of this research, concepts fromprocedural modelling have been adapted andapplied to HBIM to speed up the HBIMworkflow. Using procedural modellingtechniques, a new set of rules and algorithmshave been developed to automatically combineHBIM library objects and generate differentbuilding arrangements by altering parameters.This results in a semi-automatic process wherethe required building structure and objects arefirst automatically generated and then refined toprecisely match survey data. The use ofprocedural modelling techniques with HBIMlibrary objects introduces automation andspeeds up the slow process of combining andplotting individual library objects to survey data.

In order to generate the initial buildingstructure, inputs from survey data are used. Asingle polygon defining a building footprintcan be used to create vertical walls or a seriesof cross sections at different heights can beused if walls are not perfectly vertical. Theprocedural rules will then automaticallyconvert this data into BIM wall objects whichcan include both straight and curved wallgeometry both of which can also be non-vertical when created from a series of cut-sections. User-defined parameters are thenaltered to automatically generate the desiredbuilding arrangement. This includesparameters to automatically set the number of

Historic Building Information Modelling(HBIM) is a new approach for modellinghistoric buildings which develops full

Building Information Models (BIMs) fromremotely-sensed data. This article describescurrent research being carried out in theDublin Institute of Technology (DIT) whichattempts to increase the level of automationfor scan-to-BIM projects involving existing andhistoric buildings. HBIM, originally developedat DIT (Murphy, M. et al, 2013), is a plug-in toexisting BIM software that contains a newlibrary of parametric objects specifically forhistoric structures and a system for mappingthese objects to remotely-sensed survey data.

Library of objectsOne of the most time-consuming parts of ascan-to-BIM project is manually creatingbespoke components for each project. This isnecessary as most BIM software is focused onmodern buildings and has limited library objectssuitable for existing and historic buildings. Inorder to speed up the modelling of historicbuildings, HBIM provides a new library ofclassical architectural elements which can beeasily edited and fitted to survey data. Theselibrary objects represent architectural elementsthat are repeated throughout classical Europeanarchitecture and are therefore very well suitedto parametric modelling. The design and detailfor the parametric objects are based on

architecturalmanuscriptsranging fromVitruvius toPalladio, to thearchitecturalpattern booksof theeighteenthcentury. The useof historic dataintroduces theopportunity todevelop detailbehind theobject’s surfaceconcerning itsmethods ofconstructionand materialmake-up.

These objectswereimplemented asparametric BIMcomponentsusing the

A project to create alibrary of classicalbuilding elements toease the creation ofhigh-resolutionarchitectural 3Dmodels is describedwith practical casestudies from Dublin’sfine Georgianarchitecture. PhDcandidate ConorDore explains.

Scan to HBIM:parametric objects and procedural modelling

Figure 1 below: Sample ofHBIM parametric libraryobjects]

Scan to HBIM


Manual modelling of each individual façade onthis street would be a very time-consuming taskand would involve measuring, positioning andadjusting hundreds of objects to reconstruct thestreet. Instead, each façade structure wasautomatically generated with the newprocedural rules for generating façadegeometry. Parameters were adjusted for eachfaçade to automatically generate the correctbuilding arrangement with the correct numberof storeys, number of openings, door positionand types of objects. Once each façade wasautomatically generated the position of façadeelements were quickly refined using efficientgroup or individual editing as required. Pointclouds and orthographic imagery acquired fromthe scan data were used for refining thegenerated geometry of each façade. Figure 2shows the point cloud and generated HBIM forthis case study of Henrietta Street.

Many of the door cases found on this streetsuch as the Doric door cases contain similarand repetitive elements that were quickly andeasily modelled with the HBIM library objects.Once the HBIM was generated it could thenbe used to automatically generate 2D and 3Ddocumentation for conservation analysis. Thisincluded plans, elevations, sections and 3Dviews, schedules and lists of objects for eachbuilding.

A restoration project of Ireland’s maincourts buildingThe Four Courts was used as a second casestudy to test the new HBIM developments. TheFour Courts is a late 18th century classicalbuilding in Dublin, Ireland. The building waspartially destroyed in 1922 during the civil war,which took place during the early establishmentof the Republic. The effects of the civil wardamage to the building are once again a threatto the structural stability of parts of the

storeys and the type and number of objects oneach floor and building side.

The HBIM library of objects described in theprevious section is used in conjunction withexisting BIM objects to automatically generatethe required building details. Once parametersare altered, all objects on the building will beautomatically generated. When generatingobjects their initial position and size are firstestimated with classical proportions andarchitectural rules. After this, users cangraphically refine parameters to more preciselymatch the generated geometry to survey data.The use of architectural rules to position andsize objects relating to a particular buildingstyle can greatly reduce the amount of furtherediting required. Efficient methods forgraphical editing of objects are provided toedit objects in groups or individually. Thiscould include editing the width of all windowson a particular floor or editing a particularwindow width. These edits can be madegraphically by selecting and dragging hotspotson objects while overlaid with original surveydata such as a point cloud, cut-sections ororthographic images.

These new procedural rules for automaticallygenerating building arrangements with HBIMlibrary objects have also been developed as aplug-in to existing BIM software. As part of thisplug-in, tools are available for generating bothbuilding façades and complete building models.An initial prototype has been developed for theArchiCAD BIM software which wasimplemented using the Geometric DescriptionLanguage and the C++ programming languagein conjunction with an Application ProgrammingInterface (API) from Graphisoft. A number ofcase studies have been undertaken to test thenewly developed HBIM libraries and proceduralmodelling rules with real conservation anddocumentation projects.

Henrietta StreetThe first case study chosen was HenriettaStreet, an 18th century Georgian Street,located in Dublin, Ireland. In order to showthe efficiency of modelling with HBIM theentire street was recorded using laser-scanningand image-acquisition methods. Eight scanswere carried out with 10mm resolution usinga Trimble GS200 terrestrial laser scanner. Anumber of pre-processing steps were carriedout on the scan data before modelling withBIM software. These pre-processing stepsincluded registration, segmentation/filtering,triangulation, texturing, orthographic imagecreation and the generation of cut-sections.All processing of scan data was carried outusing Trimble Realworks software. Next, datafrom the survey including segmented pointclouds, orthographic images and cut-sectionswere imported into the ArchiCAD BIMsoftware for modelling.

The new HBIM plug-in was then used togenerate as-built BIMs from the survey data.

Figure 2right: Point

cloud & HBIMof Henrietta

Street Dublin.

. . . each façadestructure wasautomaticallygenerated withthe newprocedural rulesfor generatingfaçade geometry.

‘‘

’’

Scan to HBIM


and elevations (Figure 3). It was also possible toidentify from the model the extent of thedeformation and the areas most affected bydeformation. The HBIM could also be used forfurther structural analysis with Finite ElementModelling (FEM) software.

Validation & TestingEnd-user scenario testing was carried out toevaluate the current HBIM prototype. The aim ofthis scenario testing was to assess and validatethe prototype under the following headings:usefulness, efficiency, usability and accuracy. Thetest was carried out with participants fromindustry and academia and included surveyors,conservation architects, construction managers,researchers and students. Participants wereexperienced in BIM, 3D modelling andarchitectural conservation and the completegroup was representative of the end-user profilefor the HBIM plug-in. As part of the test, theycompleted a typical end-user scenario for theplug-in that involved generating building modelsand refining the models to survey data.Participants then completed an onlinequestionnaire to provide feedback on the HBIMprototype. The results from this testing indicatedthat users found the workflow with the HBIMprototype to be much more efficient thanexisting scan-to-BIM workflows. Participants alsofound it easier to generate models with theHBIM prototype when compared to existingmanual workflows. The testing also indicatedthat users were satisfied with the accuracy of theresults and also found the results to be suitablefor conservation and documentation projects.

ConclusionThe HBIM plug-in provides two newdevelopments to improve current workflows forscan-to-BIM projects. The first is a new library ofparametric objects specifically for existing andhistoric buildings. The second development is aset of tools to automatically generate completebuilding models with procedural modellingtechniques. This results in a semi-automaticprocess, where the required building geometryis firstly automatically generated and thenmanually refined to precisely match survey data.Initial tests show that the HBIM approach ismore efficient than existing workflows forcreating BIMs from survey data. The HBIMprototype also provides an easier solution forgenerating BIMs when compared to existingmanual methods. Non-specialist users who maynot have a lot of experience in 3D modellingcan easily generate and modify a façade orbuilding model by altering parametersgraphically or from a dialogue box.

ReferenceMurphy, M., McGovern, E., Pavia, S., (2013),Historic Building Information Modelling – Addingintelligence to laser and image based surveysElsevier, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry andRemote Sensing.https://www.academia.edu/5932333/HBIM

building. The intention is to use HBIM toillustrate, virtually, the current extent of thedamage/decay and as a basis for the proposedconservation interventions. A complete laserscan was carried out of the internal and externalstructure using a Leica HDS C10.

For this case study the accuracy of theresulting HBIM was crucial in order to performstructural analysis on the damaged dome anddrum. For this reason the irregular circular wallsof the drum which support the dome needed tobe modelled, representing its true condition, inorder to show up any areas of deformation orbulging. This was possible with the new HBIMprototype plug-in. A series of horizontal cut-sections at different heights were taken fromthe point cloud of the drum and used as inputdata for the HBIM procedural rules. The HBIMprocedural rules were then able to automaticallygenerate the BIM wall objects, which connecteach horizontal cut-section. This allowed thenon-vertical circular walls to be accurately andautomatically modelled representing the drum’strue condition.

It would not be possible to model this wallas accurately with existing ArchiCAD BIM toolsas it is not possible to model non-verticalcircular walls within this software. Once thewalls were generated further parameters werethen adjusted to automatically generate therequired arrangement of objects. Parameterswere set to create one floor with alternatingarch-top niches and sash windows. Thepositions and sizes of these objects were thengraphically refined in a group and alsoindividually as required. Additional objects, suchas columns, were also automatically generatedfrom cut-sections with HBIM objects added tocomplete the detail. Once this HBIM wascreated, accuracy tests were carried out usingCloud Compare software. When comparing theoriginal point cloud with the final HBIM, theresulting mean error for the complete modelwas 7mm with a standard deviation of 12mm.The final HBIM was used to produce various 2Dand 3D documentation such as plans, section

About the authorConor Dore is a PhD candidatein the School of Surveying andConstruction Management atthe Dublin Institute ofTechnology. His currentresearch focuses on developingmethods for digital recordingand 3D modelling of historicalbuilding. Conor previouslycompleted a BSc degree inGeomatics at DIT along withworking for a surveying and aGIS software developmentcompany. Email:[email protected]:http://www.conordore.com

Figure 3 above: Point cloud,HBIM and automatically

generated 2Ddocumentation of the Four

Courts dome and drum,Dublin.

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Heritage and 3D Modelling


education, tourism and conservation.

Diverse sitesThe Discovery Programme, an archaeologicaland innovation research centre, was thepartner assigned the task of generating thecontent for Ireland. Working from theUNESCO world heritage sites list and thoseproposed on the tentative list for Ireland,twenty-one cultural heritage sites wereselected for documentation, ranging fromcomplete ancient landscapes such as Brú naBóinne, the location of spectacular megalithictombs, to detailed carved high crosses such asthose preserved at the medieval monastery ofClonmacnoise.

The survey methodology depended on thescale of the site. The production of 3Dlandscape models was achieved through theuse of existing airborne laser scanning data(ALS) both from fixed-wing and helicopter-based systems (FLI-MAP 400). Upstandingmonuments and architectural buildings weresurveyed using a Faro Focus 120 terrestriallaser scanner with georeferencing provided viaa Trimble 5800 GPS using VRSnow NRTKcorrections. Detailed objects such as carvedstones and architectural details were recordedusing an Artec EVA handheld optical scanner.

Although these are three very diversetechniques, they all result in high volume, highresolution 3D point cloud data. These arescientific datasets of exceptional value toengineers and architects and they can play amajor role in monitoring and conservation ofcultural heritage sites.

The data volume problemPoint clouds are an increasingly commonsurvey output and most geomaticsprofessionals are now comfortable viewingand manipulating such data in specialistsoftware. However, to the general public suchdata can be very difficult to access andunderstand. Interaction normally requiresinstalling third-party viewers, and thennavigating through the point cloud; anunusual environment for the inexperienced,where solid walls can appear transparent. Inaddition, 3D models have relatively large filesizes, commonly 10-20 Gb, which can bedifficult to distribute via the web and achallenge to display on a standard PC.

Rather than viewing point clouds,inexperienced users generally find it easier tointerpret and interact with surface mesh

Throughout the world many importantheritage and archaeological sites arevulnerable and exposed to threats.

Natural disasters, such as earthquakes andviolent storms, have led to the destruction ofcountless important sites, and this has beenexacerbated in recent times by deliberate actsof aggression - ideologically driven or mindlessacts of vandalism. Once destroyed theseimportant parts of our past are lost forever.

Over the past decade, there has been agrowing recognition that 3D surveyingmethods can play an important role inrecording cultural heritage structures andobjects through a process of 3D digitaldocumentation. High resolution 3D surveyingtechniques – such as terrestrial laser scanning– are ideal for recording heritage sites wherestraight lines and regular geometries are oftena rarity. Projects such as Cyark (cyark.org) andthe ScottishTen (scottishten.org) havechampioned this approach and have played amajor role in raising the profile of 3D digitaldocumentation.

In light of such projects a three-yearcollaborative EU co-funded pilot project called3D-ICONS began in February 2012 with theobjective of creating a range of 3D models ofthe iconic archaeological monuments andarchitectural buildings of Europe, which wouldbe made available online to the generalpublic. Core to the project was thedevelopment of a pipeline for the productionof such models including: capturemethodologies, 3D modelling andpresentation processes, metadata, licensingand 3D data IPR; and finally the potentialapplication of the data in sectors such as

Robert Shawdescribes thetechniques used byThe DiscoveryProgramme tosimplify densepoint-cloud datafor web viewing.

BBrriinnggiinngg hheerriittaaggee ttoo tthhee ppuubblliicc::IIrreellaanndd’’ss 33DD--IICCOONNSS pprroojjeecctt

Figure 1 - Fieldsurvey -

capturing datausing a Faro

Focus 120terrestrial laserscanner at the

monastery,Skellig Michael,

Co Kerry.

Intensity shaded pointcloud data of Staigue fort, Co Kerry

I



uniform low-resolution TIN model.3. The high- and low-resolution models were

then imported into Autodesk Mudboxwhere they appeared in the same modelcoordinate space. The low-resolution meshwas then retopologised in order to create amesh suitable for texturing. The result ofthis process was a low-resolution meshcontaining only 200,000 polygons, with afile size of 10.4Mb.

4. The next step was to generate a series of UVmaps of the low-resolution mesh. UVmapping is the process of projecting 2Dtextures onto a 3D model, with U and Vdenoting the coordinate axes of the 2Dtexture. Unwrella is a plug-in for Autodesk3DS max that automatically unwraps a mesh.This UV map was the key component as willbecome clear as the process continues.

5. A UV normal map was then extracted fromthe high-resolution mesh model in AutodeskMudbox. Normal maps store the direction ofthe normal of the high-resolution 3D model,and when applied back onto a low-resolution model the texture pixelsdynamically control how the light interactswith the model surface, creating the illusionof a detailed 3D surface.

6. The second map applied to the low-polygon model was an ambient occlusionmap, generated from a programme calledxNormal. This process produced a globalambient shading map which enhanced the3D geometry of the object, such as shading

models, particularly when photo textures orenhanced visualisations are added. However,web access of such mesh models is again notpractical. If the model retains an appropriateresolution then the file size is likely to beexcessive and not appropriate for accessing viathe web.

The researchers at the DiscoveryProgramme – working within the 3D-ICONSproject – set about finding a solution to thisproblem, i.e. to generate 3D models whichretain a high level of detail in their appearancewhilst also having a suitably small file size toenable online access through the averageinternet connection.

Retopologise!The solution came from looking at techniquesand software more commonly associated withthe gaming industry. In brief, the processenabled us to extract the high-resolution surfacemodel of an object and store this as a normalmap which would be subsequently applied to aretopologised low-resolution polygon modelrecreating the appearance of the higherresolution 3D model. A relatively simple conceptbut one requiring access to and experience witha diverse range of software.

It is easiest to explain the solution using acase study, St Kevin’s Church, a small structurein the monastic settlement at Glendalough,Co. Wicklow. This small eleventh or twelfthcentury church with a stone roof presentedthe typical challenge encountered in theproject in terms of modelling.

St Kevin’s was surveyed using a Faro Focus120 with the final segmented and geo-referenced point cloud containing 212 millionpoints. The data file in Faro format was1.48Gb, and when exported as an ASCII xyzfile was 7.5Gb.

The following steps, summarized in Figure 3,were developed to generate the requiredmodel output:-1. The first processing step was to sample the

point data to a uniform spacing of 1cm.This removed unnecessary points whereoverlap was excessive but retained all therelevant detail. This process also removednoise from the data and created a uniformcloud which would be beneficial to thecreation of mesh surfaces. The xyz ASCIIfile was now 330Mb, down from 7.5Gband less than 5% of the original.

2. This ASCII file was imported into GeomagicWrap, a powerful point to mesh modellingsoftware. Here, a high-resolution mesh wasgenerated and a number of functionsapplied to the mesh model including spikesand outliers removal, and the filling ofholes within the data. This cleaned, high-resolution mesh model (17.6 millionpolygons, file size 1.34Gb) was exported asa .obj file, the industry standard for a mesh.The resulting high-resolution polygon meshwas simplified and re-sampled to form a

Figure 3. – Illustrationof the steps in themodelling solution

. . . to the generalpublic such datacan be verydifficult to accessand understand.

‘‘

’’



site descriptions, map and videos.The EU funding of the 3D-ICONS project

ended in January, and as such the project wascomplete. However, the response in Ireland tothe project has been overwhelmingly positiveand it is intended to continue adding 3Dmodels of new monuments to the website.For the 3D assets already available it is hopedthat these will be utilised by a wide range ofsectors including: conservation, education andtourism. Over the next year, the DiscoveryProgramme will be working in conjunctionwith the Irish Office of Public Works (OPW) togenerate interactive and immersive visitorexperiences for several archaeologicalmonuments using the 3D models.

The 3D-ICONS project has been very mucha collaborative team effort. Developing theprocessing pipeline drew heavily on theexperiences of the European partners but itwas the team at The Discovery Programme;Anthony Corns, Gary Devlin, Aaron Deevy,Patrick Griffin, Ian McCarthy and LouiseKennedy who developed this solution.

3D ICONS was co-funded by the EuropeanCommission’s ICT Policy Support Programme.For more information, visit: http://3dicons-project.eu/ , http://3dicons.ie/ andhttps://sketchfab.com/discoveryprogramme.ie

• This article is based upon a presentation givenby Robert Shaw at Survey Ireland 2015.

recessed areas on carved stones or the areabetween stone blocks in built structures.

7. The Faro Focus scanner does not capturesuitably high-resolution data for a finalmodel so spherical HDR images werecaptured using a Canon EOS 5D mkII and aGigapan Epic Pro camera. Utilising MARI 3Dtexture painting software, these sphericalimages were projected onto the model andthe photo texture extracted without theevidence of parallax errors.

The results – textured or enhanced shadedmodels – achieved the objective of the projectand could be repeated for models at the otherscales, landscapes and detailed stones, usingthe same processing principles.

Web platformThe final phase of the project was to find asuitable web platform, which provided onlineaccess to the models. Sketchfab was chosen, awebsite that enables users to display and share3D content online. It provides a 3D modelviewer based on WebGL technology that canbe embedded on any mobile or desktopwebpage. A Discovery Programme sketchfabpage was established to host the wider rangeof 3D content being created, with the resultingmodels being embedded in a project website(www.3dicons.ie) together with a full range ofadditional content and media including images,

About the authorRobert Shaw graduated fromthe University of Glasgow in1988 with a BSc (hons) inTopographic Science. Afterworking in geodetic surveyingand digital cartography hesettled into a career as anarchaeological surveyor. Heworked for ten years at theRoyal Commission on theAncient and HistoricalMonuments of Scotland beforemoving to The DiscoveryProgramme in Ireland, where heis now the Senior Geo-surveyorin the Technology Section.Robert is a member of theInstitution of Irish Surveyors.

Legal Notes


• Carl Calvert MA MScPgDLaw FRICS CITP MBCS,is the sole principal ofCalvert Consulting,specialis ing in Boundarylitigation. He also lecturespart-time in GIS law.www.calvertconsulting.co.ukEmail: [email protected] 023 8086 4643.

There is noobligation to ‘optin’ to this ShorterTrial and onceopted in there isprovision to ‘optout’ but promptly.

‘‘

’’

The procedures are time constrained and theStatement of Case must be less than 20 pagesand should attach core documents. This in itself islaudable as some Statements of Case are notexemplars of cogent thought and clarity and oftencore documents arrive in court in dribs and drabs.The Defence must be served within 28 days.

There is no obligation to ‘opt in’ to thisShorter Trial and once opted in there is provisionto ‘opt out’ but promptly.

The Case Management Conference (CMC)should be within 12 weeks of the issue of theClaim Form and at the CMC the court willconsider the issues including the use of ADR witha trial date not more than 8 months from thedate of the CMC. Clearly this is itself a mostuseful change for any business involved inlitigation, as often the uncertainty or delay ingoing to trial can disrupt a business to such anextent that it may cease trading during theperiod. Any extension of time is limited to asingle 14-day period for the defence and a single7-day extension set by the rules or directions.

The trial will be before the same judge as conductedthe CMC (unless this is impractica) who will endeavourto hand down judgement within six weeks.

As with any litigation, costs are of greatimportance to business and costs will besummarily assessed by the trial judge. This is amajor change as often the trial for costs can bealmost as lengthy as the trial itself.

The Flexible Trial procedure encompasses pre-trial disclosure, witness evidence, including thatof experts, and submissions at trial. The objectiveis to reduce costs, time for the trial and enablean earlier trial date. Below is from CPR Part 51N

3.1 The Flexible Trials Scheme applies to aclaim started in any of the Rolls Building Courts2.

It is expected, according to the Chancery BarAssociation, that aspect of the scheme mayrequire refinement over time and, consistent withthe overriding objective, parties using thescheme will be expected to cooperate andcommunicate with each other to a high degree.

This high degree of cooperation andcommunication may prove difficult for if it waseasy then the litigation, or threat of litigation,may never have been necessary.

I will finish with the quote from Lord Thomas ofCwmgiedd, the Lord Chief Justice who said that:

“Small and medium sized businesses are thelifeblood of the economy. To prosper, they needdisputes to be resolved in a speedy, fair andeconomic way. The introduction of this judge-ledreform will help to ensure that court users canhave their disputes resolved quickly, improvingaccess to justice for businesses.”

There are two new pilot schemes introducedafter a judge-led initiative by the judges inCharge of the Commercial Court and

Construction and Technology Courts with theChancery Division and Mercantile Court. Thisinitiative should prove Dickens (above) wrong.

First is an opportunity to make the trial periodshorter, and second there is a flexible trial procedure,both of which aim to make justice cheaper andswifter than previously. In a briefing statement issuedby the Chancellor, Sir Terence Etherton, and thejudges Mr Justice Flaux (Commercial Court) and MrJustice Edwards-Stuart (Construction and TechnologyCourt), the pilot schemes are set out.

Eversheds LLP have headlined it ‘LitigationLite’ in a press release and the Chancery BarAssociation has produced an outline of thescheme at http://www.chba.org.uk/for-members/library/consultations/shorter-and-earlier-trial-procedures-initiative-consultation-document.The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) Part 51 allow forpilot schemes of which this is one and is at Part51N. So, to the meat of it.

The scheme came into operation on 1 October2015 and will run for two years. In essence it is acontinuation of Lord Woolf’s reforms of 1999 inmaking Justice swifter, reasonable and proportionalin cost. This pilot is for business related litigation.Businesses often depend on swift resolution fortheir business to survive and often those of theirsub-contractors. The pilot should not be seen asreplacing Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) butas encouraging a change in culture in which a full,oral trial is often unnecessary to achieve justice.The Shorter Trail would provide for a maximum offour days total of any trial whilst the Flexible Trialprocedure would involve more flexible casemanagement, where the parties agree to it,producing a more simplified and swifter procedurethan currently provided under CPR.

The Shorter Trial scheme will not be suitable for:(a) cases including an allegation of fraud or

dishonesty;(b) cases which are likely to require extensive

disclosure and/or reliance upon extensivewitness or expert evidence;

(c) cases involving multiple issues and multipleparties, save for Part 20 counterclaims forrevocation of an intellectual property right (IPR);

(d) cases in the Intellectual Property Enterprise(e) public procurement cases.

Many mapping or GIS cases are IPR related and oftencarry with them the need for extensive disclosureand may include elements of fraud or dishonesty. Sothe Shorter Trial pilot is unlikely to be used for suchmatters because of a number of reasons.

A Pilot system ofShorter andFlexible Trials is acontinuation ofLord Woolf’sreforms whichstarted in 1994,explains CarlCalvert.

Shorter and flexible trials available“The one great principle of the English law is, to make business for itself. There is no otherprinciple distinctly, certainly, and consistently maintained through all its narrow turnings. Viewedby this light it becomes a coherent scheme, and not the monstrous make the laity are apt tothink it. Let them but once clearly perceive that its grand principle is to make business for itself attheir expense, and surely they will cease to grumble.” Bleak House by Charles Dickens, Ch XXXIX

Footnote2 This is the court building inFetter Lane, EC4A 1NL.

Photogrammetry


. . . and laser scannersPfeifer at PhoWo showed the versatility oflaser scanning and how it can be used todetermine land cover, topography and objectdetection. At GW2015 Tarolli showed howhigh-resolution laser scanning could givesufficient information of the topography topredict landslides, which could be particularlyuseful in planning to mitigate theconsequences of anthropogenic changes. Thecreation of urban models was taken up byHaala who showed the power of densematching techniques such as semi-globalmatching from images which gives comparableresults to laser scanning, and by Schindler wholooked at large-scale tie-point search in crowdsourced images. The extraction of featuresfrom point clouds is another topical researchtopic. At GW2015 Schindler described amethod for generating 3D models which isbeing developed using voxels (a cubic elementin a 3D grid) and through combininggeometric data and semantic interpretation;Schindler claims better 3D geometry and bettersegmentation into semantic object classes.

Data integrationModelling, based on probabilistic models wasfurther discussed by Heipke. Vosselman,showed how a 3D landscape model has beencreated in The Netherlands by fusing the Dutchelevation database with the topographicdatabase, data integration being anotherimportant topic. A full programme on laserscanning at GW2015 covered topics such asregistration of lidar datasets, calibration,modelling and classification. A major interest atGW2015 was the Silvilaser conference dealingwith the application of laser scanning toforestry. A keynote paper by Wulder stated thatlaser scanning was of real practical value toforestry, and particularly as a management tool,and that lidar was complementary to otherdata, especially long-term image data such asLandsat. However, a key issue running throughdiscussion on use of data was the necessity forstandard products produced with internationallyagreed standards, and the ability of users tohave easy access to the data and products.Other papers at Silvilaser concentrated onforest structure and on forest inventory.

Big DataBig Data was the topic of one event at GW2015and was also discussed by Wagner at PhoWowith the topic of big data infrastructures in thecontext of processing SAR data from Sentinel 1.The step change in data managementintroduced by sensors like Sentinel is illustrated

In September there were two importantmeetings concentrating on photogrammetry: thePhotogrammetric Week (PhoWo), which is held

every two years at the University of Stuttgart, andthe ISPRS Geospatial Week (GW2015), which washeld for only the second time.

These meetings gave a nice snapshot of the keyissues in photogrammetry at the present and apreview of what will be covered in more detail atthe ISPRS Congress in Prague from 12th to 19thJuly next year. This article is not a comprehensivereport on these two meeting but aims to bring outthe main trends in photogrammetry and remotesensing and the research which is pointing to newdevelopments in the future.

Research and applicationsThe three themes of PhoWo were data acquisition,modelling and ‘excellence in geoinformatics’, whilstGW2015 had 11 ‘events’ covering data acquisitionfrom laserscanning and UAVs, applications to citymodels, roads and traffic, image sequence analysisand disaster management, spatial data quality,image spectroscopy, big data, visualisation andremote sensing data infrastructure. PhoWo tends toconcentrate on new research, new technology anddevelopments which involve new applications,whereas GW2015 concentrated more onapplications and in particular allied disciplines suchas forestry.

Applications for UAVs. . .UAVs are of course of significant interest but stillface operational challenges, and in the academiccommunity the emphasis is on processing data toderive useful products, this includes cameracalibration, bundle adjustment, image matchingand feature extraction. The session on dataacquisition at PhoWo looked at new advances inseveral areas. Bareth gave a very interesting talkon the use of UAVs for 3D data acquisition forcrop monitoring and showed the power of

consumer standard platforms andcameras for this. Mayer focusedon automatic processing of UAVimages, which can be combinedwith terrestrial images forbuilding modelling.Hirschmueller, showed videos ofUAVs flying indoors and mappingthe interior of buildings as theywent; this technique isparticularly important for searchand rescue applications and isalso used over opencast mines.These same themes were coveredat GW2015 and data integrationand navigation were alsoimportant topics.

Are we on thethreshold of the‘uberisation’ ofgeospatial servicesand will thesurveyor’s trustytripod be replacedby the UAV?Professor IanDowman reportsfrom twofascinatingconferences thattook place recentlyin Stuttgart, inaddition toInterGEO.

Developments in Photogrammetry: impressions from two international meetings

Below: Prof Ian Dowmanchatting to Dieter Fritsch,the organiser of thePhotogrammetric Week andwho retires this year asDirector of the Institute forPhotogrammetry atStuttgart.

Photogrammetry


of the cloud and processing big data areessential to this application.

Hyperspectral imagingThe GepHyper event at GW2015 dealt withhyperspectral imagery. This demonstrated theincreasing importance of this technology asnew sensors become available. The mainapplications are agriculture and land cover;papers discussed data fusion and processing.

Other topics covered at PhoWo and GW2015were, CityGML, visualisation, advances in close-range photogrammetry and the acquisition anduse of oblique aerial imagery.

Photogrammetric futureThe presentations at PhoWo and GW2015indicate that photogrammetry has a dominantposition within the geoinformation productionchain, particularly in data acquisition with aerialimagery, images from UAVs, laser scanning,crowd sourcing and close-range data collection.Techniques for automatic feature extraction aregetting better and photogrammetric experts areworking with computer scientists to contributeto computer vision.

There is major interest in data quality arisingfrom ubiquitous techniques such as crowd sourcingand UAVs. More data, more applications andreduced cost of acquiring data make theintegration of data from different sources andknowing the quality, essential. One of the strikingfeatures of these two meetings, particularlyGW2015, was the interest from a wide range ofdisciplines which are not usually stronglyrepresented at ISPRS meetings; Silvilaser, looking atthe use of laser scanning in forestry was a majortopic but cartographers looking at visualisation,land cover experts looking at hyperspectral dataand date quality, computer vision scientists involvedin robotics for a range of applications, includingdisaster response, were all well represented. Wecan conclude that photogrammetry is in a healthystate and is working with other disciplines toacquire and process image data which is beingused in many different applications.

In conclusion we can note two sound bitesin a talk by Jürgen Dold from HexagonGeosystems to mark the retirement of DieterFritsch from Stuttgart: ‘uberization’ as a termto show how we are becoming dependent onservices rather than independent activities,and 'the surveyors tripod in the future will bea UAV’. Plus ça change?

The proceedings of PhoWo are available atwww.ifp.unistuttgart.de/publications/phowo15/index.en.html and the proceedings of GW2015are available in the ISPRS Annals (peer reviewedpapers): www.isprs-ann-photogramm-remote-sens-spatial-inf-sci.net/II-3-W5/index.html andArchives www.int-arch-photogramm-remote-sens-spatial-inf-sci.net/XL-3-W3/index.html

About the authorIan Dowman is Emeritus Professor, UniversityCollege London.

in figure 1. Wagner emphasised the need forcooperation and networking betweenorganisations to maximise the benefits frommassive data sources such as Sentinel.

Wagner talked about the Austrian EarthObservation Data Centre which was set up toprocess big data and this too was presented atGW2015. Big data was a well supported topic atGW2015 which covered many of the areas ofapplication from other events such as processinglidar data, 3D building reconstruction, forestry aswell as the hardware and infrastructure required.

Improved trajectoriesColomina noted the importance of trajectorydetermination in modern photogrammetricdata acquisition and showed how newsystems, such as Galileo, and new inexpensivecomponents, can reduce the cost and increasethe accuracy of sensor orientation and hencethe end products. Sester also discussedtrajectories in the context of the interpretationof moving points. Image sequence analysiswas an event at GW2015 with papers onrobotics, traffic flow and in-car navigation.

Data qualityOne of the events at GW2015 was theInternational Symposium on Spatial Data Quality(ISSDQ) which covered data quality across theboard of spatial data with an emphasis on landcover. Foody showed how statistics on theassessment of land cover could be verymisleading unless fully understood and thatuncertainty is a major issue. Another significanttopic in ISSDQ was the quality of data fromcrowd sourcing and issues such as the reliabilityof classification and integration of crowd-sourceddata were discussed in a number of papers.

Crisis response from GoogleParsons from Google showed how Google'sacquisition of Skybox, a company operating aconstellation of small satellites which obtainsfull frame video, and the use of Google EarthEngine, would be able to support crisisresponse with short revisit times and throughmachine learning. He also emphasised the use

One of thestriking features. . . was theinterest from awide range ofdisciplines. . .

‘‘

’’

Figure 1: Growth of data volume from ENVISATASAR to Sentinel-1 [from Wagner, Procedings ofPhotogrammetric Week '15]

Open Geospatial Consortium


voting rights within those groups. Technicalmembers have a vote on the technicalcommittee, which approves all standards, andtechnology providers who are Technicalmembers benefit from discounts against thecosts of OGC compliance testing. In addition,Principal members have a greater say in therunning of OGC, have final authority overapproval of standards and a number of otherbenefits including support from OGC staff indeveloping standards. Strategic membersenjoy the same, but enhanced benefits asprincipal members whilst also maintaining andapproving policies and procedures for OGC’sInteroperability Program

Developing StandardsOGC exists to encourage its members todefine, document and implement openstandards that solve geospatial interoperabilityproblems. The organisation’s staff arefacilitators and the work programme is drivenby the members.

Face to face meetings are held every threemonths in different parts of the world, so theopportunity afforded by a meeting inNottingham was not to be passed up.Participants from afar or otherwise engagedwere able to join the meeting via Webex.

During the day I was able to experiencemeetings of the Europe Forum, a Domainworking group and a Standards WorkingGroup. The Europe Forum is an umbrellagroup for forums covering the UK and Ireland,Iberia and Latin America and the Nordiccountries. The meeting included an update onINSPIRE along with an explanation of OGC’sinteroperability programme and including adiscussion about the possibilities of gainingEuropean funding for standards work. Thepoint was made that by involving OGC,standards work will be retained after theresearch project has completed, whereasotherwise it may get lost.

DWGs and SWGsDomain Working Groups (DWG) develop ideasand decide on the scope of the work. Theyare essentially high level and consider, forexample, whether there are already standardsthat can be adopted or adapted. The DWGthen sets up Standards Working Groups(SWG) to go into the detail of standards.

I joined the DWG and SWG for theLandinfra conceptual model. Landinfra was setup to respond to a lack of support, forLandXML, even though it continues to beused – particularly for machine control, where

The past few years have witnessedincreasing influence of the OGC over thegeospatial industry. Rarely does a week

pass without a press release from theorganisation. In September, the TechnicalCommittee met for a week at the BritishGeological Survey’s offices, near Nottingham.The RICS recently became a member andRichard Groom spent a day finding out moreon behalf of the institution.

The OGC is a not-for-profit internationalorganisation which was founded in 1994 withthe objective of advancing the developmentand use of geospatial standards to promoteinteroperability. It currently has over 500member organisations from the commercialand government worlds, academia and NGOs.This number is growing, particularly with newmembers from the Far East.

Levels of membershipBritain’s Ordnance Survey has recently elevatedits membership to the highest level –Strategic, joining a select group of five.

The next layer down is principalmembership. There are eighteen organisationsat this level, roughly half software companiesand the rest government bodies. All are NorthAmerican apart from two universities in theAsia-Pacific region and Airbus Defence andSpace, in Europe. The price for joining thePrincipal club is an annual fee of £35,000.

Then come the Technical members. Thereare 73 of them, with a much higherproportion of Europeans and several Britishorganisations. The annual subscription forTechnical members is £7,000.

There are a number of classifications atAssociate grade, which comprises the bulk ofthe OGC membership. This grade has arelatively modest annual subscription of£2,800.

Members at Associate level can getinvolved with working groups and enjoy

The importance ofstandards in thegeospatial field isgrowing as an evergrowing range ofapplications aredeveloped.Richard Groomattended a recentTechnicalCommittee event inNottingham.

Open Geospatial Consortium follows BGS’sGeological Walk

During thelunch breakthere was a

guided tour ofBGS’s

GeologicalWalk]

Open Geospatial Consortium


design process only to be restarted years laterwhen the original design cannot be re-usedbecause it is not interoperable.

The later DWG meeting went into detail onthe definition of land parcels in a cadastralsystem. Here, the conceptual model was beingdevised to cover the minutest detail of acadastral system, including details of thesurvey monuments used to define the parceland each parcel’s history.

Acting for the common goodIt was an interesting day with a friendly group.OGC has its bureaucratic ways, which oneshould expect of an organisation that dealswith standards. Whilst there is clearly a needfor a body to promote interoperability, I doworry that with OGC’s hierarchicalmembership levels there is a possibility thatwith higher membership grade it might bepossible to exert influence to steer OGCactivities in a self-interested way rather thanfor the common-interest.

Pull quote:OGC exists to encourage its members to

define, document and implement openstandards that solve geospatial interoperabilityproblems.

it is being implemented with format variations.The DWG had decided that the Landinfrastandard should start from scratch.

Illogically, in Nottingham the DWG meetingtook place after the SWG meeting, and bothseemed to have a SWG flavour. I attended theSWG for Landinfra as a guest of the chairman,because I had not worked out how to join thegroup. The OGC members’ website takessome getting used to. The conceptual modelsets out in flow-chart form the characteristicsand interrelationships between data objects.The idea is that the conceptual model standson its own and can then be used to developcoding in any language – e g GML.

Much of this session was devoted todiscussion of the conceptual model for roaddesign, so that a particular design could betransferred from one design package toanother. This is extremely complex because theconceptual model has to include all the rulesthat go into a road design package, such ashow the design cross-section interacts withthe existing ground surface under differentcircumstances. Quite why one would want todo this defeated me, and several othermeeting participants, but apparently numerousroad schemes are halted mid-way through the

OGC exists toencourage itsmembers todefine, documentand implementopen standardsthat solvegeospatialinteroperabilityproblems.

‘‘

’’

OS & OGC: a 17-year relationshipOdnance Survey (OS) has a long relationship with OGC sincebecoming a Technical Member in March 1998 through to StrategicMembership which started in May this year.

Today, OS is the only organisation outside of the US to holdStrategic Membership status, joining the US Department ofHomeland Security, US Geological Survey, US National GeospatialIntelligence Agency and NASA.

This latest step from Britain’s map-maker reinforces the organisation’svision to be at the forefront of open standards development. The newmembership level is allowing OS to represent Europe, at a strategiclevel, to improve the quality of standards globally and to enable theindustry to continue to innovate and grow. The membership is alsoallowing OS to play an even greater role in the development andimplementation of OGC standards and in the internationalcoordination of geospatial technology initiatives.

It is vital that OS is involved in these discussions. Open Standards arekey to OS and seen as a critical part of achieving their business goals.OS also understands that they are vital to the industry as a wholeand pivotal to many ongoing projects and future developments whichwill impact on the geospatial sector.

A particular focus for OS is the development of standards in theemerging fields of Smart Cities, BIM (Building Information Modelling)and the Internet of Things. OS recognises that geospatial data has animportant role to play in these developing areas and the need forinteroperability and common standards is critical to their long-termsuccess. Through the OGC membership OS aims to introduce andrecommend new standards, which will ultimately benefit the wholegeospatial industry. OS has recently been awarded a grant toharmonise Smart Cities standards as part of an OGC-led bid for aEuropean Horizon 2020 project. OS aims to play a major role in theproject which is expected to start later this year and will allow OS toget a stronger foothold in Smart Cities standards.

As well as working on new standards OS, through the OGC, will alsocontinue to support development of global standards around themore traditional geospatial themes including web map services and3D mapping, with a specific focus on day-to-day usability.

OGC, and its members, are vital to the geospatial industry and playan essential role in developing and introducing quality openstandards for the world.

TIMELINE:1998 OS becomes a Technical Member

2001 OS MasterMap in OGC’s GML format the largest commercialuse of GML at the time.

2006 OS sponsors OGC web services testbed phase 4

2007 significant OS input into the Digital Rights ManagementReference Model

2008 CityGML Specification Working Group publishes CityGML 1.0

2010 OS implements open standards data management registry /feature catalogue for Geospatial Data Management System

2012 European Spatial Data Research publishes “GI+100: Longterm preservation of digital Geographic Information — 16fundamental principles” led by OS in conjunction with OGC

2012 CityGML Specification Working Group publishes CityGML 2.0

2013 OS International delivers OGC and ISO/TC211-compliant 2Dand 3D data model for Kingdom of Bahrain

2013/14 OS hosts OGC UK Interoperability Assessment Plugfest inSouthampton, to advance the usability of four important OGCstandards/

2014 OS becomes principle OGC member on 1 June 2014

2015 OS accepted as strategic member of OGC, OS sponsor smartcities pilot

O


Around 120 visitorsfrom all over the USand Canada came toBellingham in thenorth-western state ofWashington to join theSurveyors HistoricalSociety (SHS) SR2015hosted at the SilverReef Casino. It wasbrilliant days oflectures and tourswithin a mostsurprising environmentof great weather, ruralsurroundings andspectacular events onthe islands in thewestern waters,reports John Brock.

Left:WashingtonState is reputedto hold moreimages of theeponymous firstpresident thananywhere. Thisstatue is atopthe statelegislature.

En route to the 2015 SurveyorsRendezvous, I stayed in Seattle for threenights at the Hotel Seattle right in the

centre of the CBD near the famous Pike PlaceMarkets and metro station. Sunday saw me onthe Amtrack riding the rails around the edgeof the spectacular seas adjacent to thewestern coast to get to the state capitalOlympia, where I paid visits to Bigelow Housebeing the oldest in town (1860) and had afantastic free tour of the Legislative buildingwithin which there are purported to be moreimages of the great first president surveyorGeorge Washington than anywhere. His imagenot only emblazons the Washington State flagbut hundreds of likenesses in murals,paintings, busts, mosaics and even amysterious image appearing in the contrastsof one of the marble columns.

With a self-imposed busy itinerary Iembarked the Victoria Clipper on Mondaymorning for an enjoyable trip to Victoria atthe southern tip of Vancouver Island inCanada for a full day of activities in the capitalof British Columbia (BC). Upon arrival it was abrisk walk to Fishermen’s Wharf where Ienjoyed fish and chips while watching thechildren hand-feed the wild seals, which arewhite with black spots. Sea otters dartedaround the dock trying to snatch the fresh fishon offer.

Famous surveyors on showAt the next stop I was thrilled to view historicsurveying exhibits and tributes to my favourite

surveyor/explorers James Cook, GeorgeVancouver, Lewis & Clark at the Royal BCMuseum. Joining a bus tour, I saw the earliestbuildings of the old town plus a self-guidedtour of the five storey Craigdarroch Castlebuilt by coal baron Robert Dunsmuir in the1890s during the reign of Queen Victoria.Back at the waterfront I paid a visit toMiniature World where I pushed every buttonto mobilise the small-scale models of manyplaces, as I am really still just a big kid.

After enjoying an amazing high tea at theheritage Empress Hotel with a view ofCaptain Cook’s statue through the stylishwindows I was back on the large cat for thereturn cruise back to Seattle.

Following the short flight northward andtransfer from Bellingham airport to my hotel, Imet up with old friends Denny and DeloresDemeyer and Jim Schomper from Philadelphia,one of the team responsible for the fantasticSR2013 in his own city back east inPennsylvania and which featured theMason/Dixon Line survey that began 250 yearsago. A “Sin and Gin” tour of Bellingham’s oldtown area and its many houses of colourfulpleasure got me wound up to join the“Welcome Weary Travellers” introduction tothe area with more refreshments.

Cook’s early survey skills awakenedMy first invited talk was the history of epicexplorer James Cook who first trained in landsurveying in North America with SamuelHolland, John Simcoe and J.F.W. Des Barres.Cook’s curiosity in the profession was sparkedin about 1758 when he witnessed ‘Sammy’employing his plane table to measure up theterrain. With great natural ability and superbmentorship Newfoundland Governor SirThomas Graves encouraged the young Cook’sdevelopment by giving him his first theodolitein 1762 for his charting work, which providedthe English with the intelligence to thwart theFrench aggression in the area.

Other presentations were on the earlymapping of the NW as well as theinternational border line between the twoNorth American countries being over 5,000miles long when the Alaska/Canada interfacewas included. With the “Pig War” invitedspeaker a no-show, I was happy to fill in atthe evening dinner with my “Silent ScreenSuperstar Surveyors: 1908 to 1930” with acouple of introductory clips of The Smurfs, ACountry Practice, The Color Purple and GetSmart to entertain the crowd.

Friday took us on a breathtaking cruise to

Surveyors Rendezvous 2015– it was the place to be

S

Downunder currents


Later in the afternoon on Monday saw medepart this very relaxing part of the USA andCanada with my passing over the InternationalDate Line I did not get home until earlymorning on the Wednesday.

Based upon the two Surveyors Rendezvousthat I have been lucky to attend I can onlyhighly recommend that you all considercoming to upstate New York next year whereSR2016 is to be held in the awesomeAdirondacks. There is even strong talk aboutthe SR2018 going to England which will bethe first time it will have been held outside theUSA. James Kavanagh’s name was mentionedmost favourably by those who went with thesmall excursion party in 2013 to visit theancestral home of George Washington’s familyamong other sites. Keep your eyes out for thisexciting event.

the San Juan Islands to visit John and VickyThalacker’s waterfront property at FridayHarbor where John let us look at his extensivecollection of antique instruments andparaphernalia, while Tim Kent showed us theprocedure taken to obtain positions using aBurt Solar Compass.

Porcine war divided nationsNext we were bussed to the English andAmerican Camps at which the opposingarmies remained for the duration of The PigWar, which erupted when a US citizen shotdead one of England’s finest porkers. Aftermany years of this Kentucky stand-off bothsides thought it better to “bury the carcass”than to maintain their “pig-headed” attitudesof pork-rib diplomacy!

Dinner that evening of Dungeness crab andbarbequed salmon at the Senior CitizensBuilding was delicious with everyone mostcontented for their return to the hotel.

Saturday started with three early talks onthe International Boundary Survey 1857-62followed by a bus trip to the real borderline atPeace Arch Park in Blaine WA where it ispossible to freely put one foot in both nationsat the same time. Along part of this dividingline the physical barrier is actually a cuttrench, something similar to the one referredto by Homer in one of his works. Denny ledthe dedication ceremony, which included NPLSPresident Jon Warren, Canadian Surveyor-General Peter Sullivan, US BoundaryCommissioner Kyle Hipsley and SHS PresidentRichard Leu for the newly erected signageplaced into a wooden kiosk in the nearby parkwith photos and history explaining thesignificance of the International Border.

Another incredible cooked lunch withdessert was keenly devoured in the nearby hallafter the Canadian S-G had given anillustrated presentation on how Washingtonand British Columbia got their shapes. TheAnnual SHS Banquet and Auction that eveningsaw much needed funds raised for futureprojects with the Aussie items donated by mereceiving plenty of bids along with a widearray of other objects up for purchase.

Sunday took us out on another boatjourney to the wonderful Sucia Island, whichincluded another dedication of kiosk signagegiving a history of the surveying of the islandas well as some restoration actions taken topreserve a few of the local reference marksrelocated by Denny and Delores; some ofwhich were found in precarious predicaments.

With another mouth-watering lunch in theisland pavilion, we were entertained by someaquarobics by two river otters in the smallbay. Ancient fossils can be seen around thearea bearing this name which can be datedback many millions of years. The chickendinner on the return sail was another topeffort of catering.

• John Brock is a Registered Surveyor in Australia and isa stalwart of FIG and its Permanent Institution for theArt and History of Surveying.

Right: theRoyal British

ColumbiaMuseum had

some finesurveyingartifacts,

whichhonouredCook and

Lewis &Clark.

Right: PeaceArch Park inBlaine WAwhere it ispossible tofreely put onefoot in boththe US andCanada at thesame time.

Technology Day


the typewriter cease to exist as a specialist toolfor typists, but the typing pool went too.

In truth of course it is not as simple as this. Sometechnological change is inevitable and predictablelong in advance and some indeed falls by thewayside. The secret of success is to recognise thenew technology that will stick and to make thechange at the right time, when the technology issufficiently mature and prices will make a return oninvestment a likelihood. Braybrooke urged theaudience to move up the value chain and create“actionable data”. Surveying now has to be morethan ‘collecting data’.

He aligned Trimble’s products with the UN-GGIM uture trends report. Trimble’s TX8 laserscanner takes care of data collection andRealworks turns that data into actionabledata, as 3D models. The V10 Imaging Rovertakes care of the trend towards more imageryas a unique product in the market. Anothertrend from the report is towards theubiquitous use of GNSS. Trimble’s R1 receivercan be controlled from a SmartPhone andbrings with it decimetre accuracy. But whatwas most striking was a photo of a GNSSreceiver at a building corner on Trimble’s self-correcting tilted pole: it’s not just an aid forsurveyors who cannot hold the pole vertical!

Mobile mapping is becoming more viable ascosts reduce and data collection speedsincrease. There were several on displayoutside. As an example of new marketsopened up by technology, the MX2 is beingused to survey road corridors to identify placeswhere vegetation needs cutting back to clearlines of sight. UAVs are also becomingcheaper, faster and can support largerpayloads. In addition to the fixed wing TX5,Trimble has brought out a multi-rotor UAV, theZX5, although I have to be admit that it wasrather overshadowed by Sensefly’s eXom.

Trevor Pearson from Historic England gavea potted history of the organisation’s historiclinks with Trimble equipment, including afascinating insight into the painstaking surveyof the earthworks surrounding Stonehenge.

Adding valuePaul Brodin described the work of K-MATIC.This branch of KOREC develops software toextract the added value from spatial data. Hedescribed half a dozen examples ranging fromtracking of badgers in Ireland to gully cleaningin England. KOREC are also involved withvisualisation for televised golf. UAVs are usedto survey the golf course, golf balls arepositioned using a laser ranger finder andthen there is some smart software to visualisewhat actually happened as well how the

September and it was KOREC’s turn to displayits wares, in the first of a series oftechnology days. The venue was the

Honourable Artillery Company, a distinguishedbuilding fronting an immaculate cricket pitch. Anoasis amongst the City of London’s office blocks.

It was not a good day for cricket and theinclement weather put a number of delegatesoff making the journey to London. For thosewho did make it, there was technology for allseasons in a series of talks with case studiesfrom customers.

Be as effective as you can beKOREC CEO Alan Browne set the scene by statingthat it is the company’s aim to “help people,businesses and organisations to be as effective asthey can be”, with a focus on results. OliverBrooks, KOREC’s MD added that the company isTrimble’s largest reseller worldwide and has beenin business for 45 years. But it is also able to sellother products to fill gaps in Trimble’s portfolio.The objective is to use technology to reduce costs,become more productive and to add value.Brooks also said that the company “bridges theskills gap” by streamlining workflows withtechnology that is easy to use. This seemed to bean interesting reflection on the shortage ofqualified surveyors and the coincident rise of thenon-specialist surveyor.

Don’t be a typistLee Braybrooke was one of two Trimblerepresentatives at the technology day. He hasbecome an eloquent speaker. Having justreturned from InterGEO, he reported that therewas “trepidation” in some quarters about theuptake of technology. Are enough peoplebuying the technology on show? He urged theaudience to recognise opportunities and takethem. Technology continues to develop apace.He took as an example the typewriter. Itsdisappearance was rapid, however not only did

UK Trimble dealerKOREC had plentyof shiny newtechnology ondisplay at a poshcity locationsurrounded byancient weaponry.But did all makethe most of thetechnology?Richard Groomreports.

KOREC at the Armoury

“These devicesare a tad more

complicatedthan a cannon.. .” Jack Danielof Surefire and

the senseflyeXom.

Technology Day


bread and butter will come from inspectionsurveys of wind farms and progress surveys of alarge potash mine in Yorkshire. Does his storyreflect the future? Should that future beembraced by surveyors? An interesting statisticfrom the talk was an assertion that the accuracyof a survey using ground control is 5 – 10 cmwhereas by using the eXom’s RTK capability thisis halved to 3 – 5 cm.

eXom wowsOver lunch there was a demonstration of theeXom on the cricket pitch. This really is animpressive UAV. It is rotary, so there is greatlyreduced risk from take-off and landing. It’s verylight and incorporates numerous sensors. Therotors are protected. It can work in high windspeeds. And perhaps most valuable of all, it canbe used in both UA markets: for inspection andmapping. Discussion on UAS revealed awillingness on the part of the CAA to engagewith aerial surveyors who request flight plansoutside the strict limitations of the CAA rules.The CAA’s major concern is with the unlicensedamateur UA operators.

The weather did put off a number ofdelegates and although the eXom received athorough airing, other pieces of equipmentdid not receive the attention that one wouldhave expected of a sales event. If you have awonderful scanner, tell us why it’s wonderful!

golfer could have achieved the perfect shot.In fact KOREC seem to be carrying out

more surveys themselves as if the thought is ‘ifyou surveyors won’t take the risk with newtechnology, we’ll provide the service as well asthe equipment!’. It’s an obvious move withmany benefits for the company, but it couldcause some resentment if KOREC were to endup competing with its customers – a situationwhich no doubt is avoided at all costs.

Point cloud processingKOREC’s Ryan Bowles talked about pointclouds. They are no longer synonymous withlaser scanning as data from scanning andphotogrammetric sources can now becombined in Realworks, which can be used forautomatic classification of points into layers.Data can be published in an offline viewer inwhich measurements can be made and it iseven possible to define windows in the dataand export it in LAS format. Trimble hasrecently forged a partnership with EdgeWisewhich is used for object recognition.

Work for dronesJack Daniel runs a company called Surefire. Hedescribed his transformation from musician tomapping and inspection using drones. Havingstarted by using mass-market UAVs he has nowdecided to buy an eXom aircraft and reckons his

. . . move up thevalue chain andcreate “actionabledata”

‘‘’’

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Downunder currents


A proud grandfathercelebrates mathsbefore finding andheighting a lostmountain and aliterary legend.

• John Brock is a Registered Surveyor in Australia and isa stalwart of FIG and its Permanent Institution for theArt and History of Surveying.

Left: a chancemeeting withBooker-Prizewinning authorThomas Keneally.

Cruising Sydney Harbour in a tall ship anda Topp Tour to the famous recentlyrestored Hydro Majestic Hotel in the

Blue Mountains by steam train took us backinto a glorious vision of older times steepedwith splendour and elegance. Opened in 1904by department store magnate Mark Foy thelunch we savoured was within the historicrooms renewed to their former opulence. Afew weeks later another tour took us to anOld Convent and cemetery housing favouriteson former PM Ben Chifley as well as othercolourful characters of Bathurst’s past inAustralia’s first inland town, celebrating itsbicentenary this year. I was the proudestGranddad in the room when my six-year oldgrandson Dylan won a highly commendedcertificate in the annual Public Speaking finalsof the Oran Park Town Grammar Schoolagainst all years from the primary school.

Maths Day and Egypt ConferenceThe second of three Maths Spectaculars atHomebush Bay Centennial Park showcasedSurveying as a career for Year 10 studentsfrom six schools in Sydney suburbs andbeyond. The usual action packed day isplanned to have the high achiever pupils gaina working experience with different exercisesmeasuring Treillage Towers, gardens, townplanning layouts, UAV’s and historic surveying.All of the volunteers can be congratulated fortaking the time in the campaign to increase

the numbers choosing to pick surveying astheir academic choice with the organisers ledby the creator Ian Iredale to be especiallypraised.

At the annual Centre for Egyptology(Macquarie University) conference legend of theancient civilization research Kent Weeks regaledthe crowd with more fascinating stories fromthe desert land including the most startlingdiscovery of the possible burial chamber ofTutankhamun’s stepmother, Nefertiti actuallyconcealed behind her stepson’s burial place inthe Valley of the Kings.

Finding a Lost MountainBeing given the quest to verify the location ofa long lost mountain (in international termsmore like a hill) by my good friend and fellowUNSW Bachelor of Surveying graduate PaulHarcombe, who is also deputy surveyor-general of NSW, is very humbling and mostexhilarating. The Geographical Names Boarddesires to finally allocate the name of Tench’sProspect Mount to the feature actuallyselected by the exploring party which firstidentified the site in dispute. After discussionswith another surveyor, Vic Jurskis, who madea recent visit to the area, I have been satisfiedwith the correlation of the recent maps andthat of Watkin Tench himself (1792) from hispublication Sydney’s First Four Years.Compelling corroboration over more than 200years of charts hopefully will be accepted asthe final identification of this doubted highpoint in western Sydney’s early coloniallandscape.

Lunch With Literary Legend Before I joined Kerima-Gae for lunch with herfour passengers on a tour of Parramatta shewas totally unaware that her main passengerwas Booker Prize winning author ThomasKeneally with his daughter Meg andgrandchildren Rory and Alexandra. His mostrenowned publication Schindler’s Ark wasmade into Spielberg’s blockbuster Schindler’sList but is only amongst a corpus of worksextending much further back than his recentlyattained 80 years with two more books in thepipeline, one about the neighbour of the LittleEmperor in his last years on St Helena titledNapoleon’s Last Island.

Maths, Egyptology and measuring alost mountain

PRODUCTS & SERVICES


Optech launches new LynxTeledyne Optech has announcedthe addition of the Optech LynxSG-S system to its line of Lynxmobile survey systems. The systemcomprises a lidar sensor withOptech’s LMS Pro software, aninertial navigation system, and adeeply integrated Ladybug 5camera. All the components aremounted on a single light-weightplatform.

Landsat images madeaccessibleData - Eternix Ltd., is now ableprovide access to Landsat datathrough Blaze Terra, allowing usersto instantly review and analyse theentire data directly in a GIS setting.The service gives access to all ofLandsat’s close to two hundredthousand images with real-timeupdates ensuring that the latestimagery is immediately available.Images are represented on a globallayer map, making it easy for usersto work intuitively and spot areasof interest. To open images in theirfull resolution, users can downloadthem through the Blaze Terra userinterface, including all additionalmulti-spectral bands.

Add-ons for NautizHandheld Group has announcednew expansion pack features for itsNAUTIZ X8 rugged PDA. The newfunctionalities will make theNAUTIZ X8 more versatile for fieldworkers in a number of marketsegments, including forestry,surveying, construction, fieldservices, warehouse projects andlogistics. Nautiz X8 Long RangeBluetooth (LRBT) Expansion Packfeatures a LRBT u-blox module,which allows long-rangecommunication up to 300 metres.Nautiz X8 Basic Expansion Pack isan empty add-on cap for anextension of your choice. Itincreases the Nautiz X8’scustomisability and flexibility forspecific customer requirements. Italso allows users to install customaccessories under the cap using theproprietary interface.

I-Site boosts undergroundsurveyUpdated I-Site 8200 laser scannersfeature new tools and compatibilitywith Maptek Sentry surfacetracking and Drive continuous

survey systems. The I-Site 8200SRis a fast and accurate solution forcavity surveys. A carbon fibre boomextends up to 10 metres into atunnel or over a void. The 500-metre range scanner can also beused for surface applications suchas stockpile, shed and siloscanning. 8200ER version has arange at 750 metres. A newbacksight workflow allows surveyresection to find the current realworld position of the scanner.

National groundwater floodmapESI and Ambiental have todayformally announced that they haveincorporated the ESI NationalGroundwater Flood Risk Map intoAmbiental’s UKFloodMap4.Covering 100% of the UK, with afull range of return periods, andintegrating the most up-to-dateriver flow and rainfall data,Ambiental claims thatUKFloodMap4 provides the mostdetailed flood maps currentlyavailable for the UK, greatlyimproving the way insurers assessflood risk at the individualaddress/building level.

Remote sensing suiteTrimble’s remote sensing suitecombines the capabilities of thenew Inpho SATMaster module withits eCognition software to generatehigh quality data, models andanalytics from satellite basedimagery. SATMaster providesstreamlined workflows to generateDTM’s and DSM’s from overlappingsatellite imagery. eCognitionEssentials, included with SATMaster,provides a guided workflow toeasily generate land cover maps forapplications such as environmentalmapping, vegetation monitoringand other landscape changes.

DynaRoad updateTopcon has announced asignificant update to DynaRoadmass haul management software.DynaRoad v5.4.1 is designed toenhance the user experience andstreamline workflows throughadditional features for planning,scheduling and project control. Inaddition to an updated interfaceand new map views, DynaRoadnow offers seamlessinteroperability with the MAGNETOffice software suite.

Global Mapper V17Blue Marble Geographics hasreleased Global Mapper version17. This major release offersnumerous new and improvedgeospatial tools, functionalupgrades, and performanceimprovements throughout all areasof the application. A new multi-view map display allows severaldocked map windows to bedisplayed within the interface.These views, which support bothtop-down 2D rendering as well asoblique 3D viewing, can beindependently zoomed and pannedand can be resized to make themost efficient use of the availablescreen space.

The all-new Map Layout toolsprovide the necessary functionalityfor designing state-of-the-artprinted maps. Cartographicelements such as a scale bar,compass rose, and map legend canbe precisely placed within thelayout frame and supplementarytext and corporate brandinggraphics can be easily added tothe design and saved as atemplate for future use. Version 17sees raster display, redraw, andexport speeds that are up to tentimes faster than previousversions; LiDAR processing is alsosignificantly faster.

Earth-i to deliver TripleSatdataEarth-i expects to begin offeringfull operational imaging and dataservices later this year from theDMC3/TripleSat constellation andwill place specific focus on fast,easy and convenient access fordata users. Three identical <1mresolution optical satellites makeup the DMC3/ TripleSatconstellation. Twenty First CenturyAerospace Technology Co. Ltd(21AT) acquired the total capacityfrom SSTL in 2011 during a signingceremony attended by the Chinesepremier and British prime minister.Subsequently, prior to the 10th July2015 launch on an Indian PSLV-XLrocket, Earth-i signed an agreementwith 21AT to become a strategicpartner and master distributor.

MAGNET Construct app forAppleTopcon has announcedcross–platform support for theMAGNET Construct app. The no-cost app is purpose built to drivethe LN-100 Layout Navigatorsystem and was initially releasedfor the Android market. This “out ofthe box productivity” is nowavailable for Apple devices.

Topcon has also announcedthat their Sitelink3D real-time 3D

Working with resource efficiency company Sustain, Bluesky hasmapped around 100,000 Housing Association properties across theUK, measuring their potential for energy generation from solarpanels. Bluesky can accurately predict the potential for solar energygeneration for individual houses based on a number of factors,including roof size and aspect as well as possible interference fromneighbouring properties or trees. Sustain uses this information toprepare detailed reports for its Housing Association clientscontaining cost benefit analysis and, more recently, highlightingpotential impact on fuel poverty avoidance.

Bluesky maps solar potential

PRODUCTS & SERVICES


management service is now cross-platform compatible for mobiledevices. Regardless of platform,when field operators or managersare away from their desks, the appis designed to provide instantaccess to project data and ongoingactivities for any job site. TheAndroid App is currently availablefrom Google Play.

Spectra Precision wins inMyanmarThe Agricultural Land Managementand Statistic Department (ALMS) inMyanmar recently concludedcomparative field tests of fourleading models of GNSS receivers.The Spectra Precision SP80 sweptto first in all tests. Based on thetest results and bids, ALMS chosethe SP80 and ordered 340 units.The comparative field testsincluded; positioning accuracy,initialisation speed, internal radioperformance, pole drop test, waterimmersion test to one metre, andon-board battery performance.

Spectra PrecisionenhancementsThe FOCUS 35 RX is a new rangeof motorized robotic total stationsproviding high-speed, accuracy andprecision in measurement. It isavailable in 2", 3" or 5"accuracies, features a dual-batterysystem for longer working and iscontrolled externally by Trimble’sRanger, Nomad, or T41 data

collectors running Survey Pro orLayout Pro field software on theRanger or Nomad.

The Nomad 1050 data collectoris an update of the Nomad 900.The base processor is now 1 GHzcompared to 806MHz on Nomad900 and the Nomad 1050 has512Mb RAM and 8Gb flashstorage. The other majorenhancement is a new 3.75G dual-mode GSM and CDMA WWANmodem.

Version 5.7 of the company’sSurvey Pro Field Software has beenintroduced. Included in this updateare new map displays that enableviewing and managing most of themap features on the main mapdisplay. The GNSS and roboticstaking screens can also display amap view to include backgroundmaps along with the standarddynamic guidance control option.For customers who wish to useGNSS and robotic simultaneously,there are now enhanced optionsfor configuration and switchingbetween modes.

Spectra Precision Survey Officev3.60 Software now includesenhanced functionality; support forthe Spectra Precision Focus DL-15digital level and the import oflevelling data from any DiNi level;least squares and 5 and 7parameter Helmert transformationswith reports; Geoid 12B supportand grouping by country in thecoordinate system manager and

Three new scanners from Topcon

Topcon has announced the GLS-2000S, GLS-2000M and the GLS-2000L. The scanners are designed to capture data based on themeasurement range needs of specific applications. Using TopconPrecise Scan Technology II, the GLS-2000 models are designed to emitpulse signals three times faster than earlier GLS systems, whichresults in reduced noise and higher-accuracy data. The scanners havedual 5MPx cameras, one with a 170-degree wide-angle lens for high-speed imaging, and the other a 8.9-degree telephoto camera which iscoaxial with the measuring axis.

point cloud support.A new version of MobileMapper

Field GIS application runs onAndroid devices. The applicationwill be the key component ofSpectra Precision’s Bring Your OwnDevice (BYOD) solution. This makesit possible to pair Android tabletsand/or smart phones with theMobileMapper 300 GNSS receiverto collect GIS data with survey-grade accuracy.

OS revolution continuesSeptember saw the latest phase inOrdnance Survey's rejuvenation ofits paper maps with the release ofits Explorer range, each mapcoming with an exclusive mobiledownload and graced with a coverimage taken by the public. TheExplorers follow the successfullaunch of OS’s 62 Outdoor Leisure(OL) map titles. Landranger mapswill be released in February nextyear.

FARO updates PointSenseand VirtuSurvFARO has introduced the 16.5version of its laser scanningsoftware PointSense and VirtuSurvas well as additional plug-ins forAutoCAD. The programs providenumerous tools for efficientlyprocessing 3D laser-scan data inAutoCAD and Revit.

PointSense Plant, the AutoCADsolution for industrial plantdocumentation, now offers a directexport for detected structuralmembers to Autodesk AdvanceSteel. Results can be easily portedto Revit Structure as well. New“mass extraction” techniques allowfor multiple fit and alignment ofgridded steel sections to the pointcloud with substantially less timeand effort. A fully revised tie-inpoint routine now intuitively guidesusers through precise flangeextraction, avoiding timeconsuming modelling of the pointcloud. Inline-fittings such as valvescan be easily swapped andexchanged within existing piperuns. Pattern recognition speeds forpipe run extraction have improvedfrom previous releases. Newsurface analysis tools allow usersto visualise deformations from anysurface in Revit. The results of thisanalysis can also be used formodelling deformed elements orcomplex terrains. New tools such

as fitting polygons andautomatically finding plane edgesor rims dramatically speed the fastcreation of construction aids for aproject. For the first time theseconstruction aids can be saveddirectly as Revit 2D and 3Dfamilies; a function that helps tofast-track scan-to-BIM workflows.

An enhanced imagemanagement user interface withinPointSense Heritage simplifiesmulti-image evaluation. AgisoftPhotoScan users can now importtheir calibrated photos intoPointSense Heritage and use themas an additional source forprocessing their point cloud data.

All PointSense solutions forAutoCAD 16.5 support the creationof horizontal slices at a definedlevel. PointSense Pro users benefitfrom a new command forsimultaneously fitting multiplepolygons on to point-cloudsections. The creation of crosssections such as tunnels orirregular contours is drasticallyaccelerated. Improved constructionaids plane detection, now possiblewith just a single click. Planesautomatically extend to locate theiredge/rim automatically.

VirtuSurv, the intuitive solutionfor processing point-cloud databased on photo-like scan views,offers a new interface to the timberconstruction application SEMA.

Riegl releases

Riegl has released the VZ-400i 3Dlaser scanner. With its advancedprocessing technology, dataacquisition and simultaneous geo-referencing, filtering and analysisbecome real-time. The scanner hascloud connectivity via Wi-Fi and 4GLTE, MEMS IMU for tilt estimation,as well as a high-end camera optionand advanced flexibility throughsupport for external peripherals. TheVZ-400i offers ultra-high speed data

PRODUCTS & SERVICES


acquisition at up to 1.2 MHz PulseRepetition Rate and survey-gradeaccuracy of 5mm.

The Riegl BathyCopter is theworld’s first small-UAV-basedsurveying system capable ofmeasuring through the watersurface, ideally suited forgenerating profiles of rivers orwater reservoirs. The robust andreliable platform design integratesthe topo-bathymetric green laserdepth-meter, an IMU/GNSS unitwith antenna, a control unit and adigital camera.

The new VQ-880-G Topo-Bathymetric airborne laser scanningsystem is now equipped with anoptional infrared channel tosupplement the data acquired bythe green laser and to furtherincrease data reliability and quality.

The new Riegl Database (RDB)Format 2.0 offers additional pointattributes, metadata information,and an SDK for 3rd party support.Riegl’s software package RiSCANPRO 2.2 already supports the newRDB 2.0 format while RiWORLD5.0 processes files 60% faster and,when combined with the newRiPROCESS, improves performanceby up to 300%.

Trimble Inpho v7.0Enhancements to Inpho suite v7.0and UASMaster v7.0 are intendedto help users improve data qualityand reduce production time. Theseinclude more robust processing ofUAS data generated to cope withchallenging flight conditions,support for highly accurate GNSSdata in UASMaster as well asstreamlined support for the newZX5 rotary UAS platform andperformance improvements throughoptimized default processingparameters (suitable for overnightprocessing). PDF quality reportingis now supported and ortho imagesare generated directly fromcolourised pointclouds withinseconds. UASMaster Lite nowsupports up to 800 images.

StreetMapperIV3D Laser Mapping’sStreetMapperIV mobile mappingsystem was launched at Intergeo.StreetMapperIV is a portable andautomated solution which is easyto use, yet retains survey gradeaccuracy. With only one cableconnection attaching the system to

the vehicle, it is the simplestStreetMapper design yet. Eachsystem comes with a high-accuracylaser scanner and navigationsystem, with optional additions ofpanoramic cameras and navigationupgrades.

Hydro accessory for GNSSroverSatlab Geosolutions AB hasintroduced the SLD-100hydrographic echo sounderaccessory for GNSS rovers, tomeasure water depth with surveygrade accuracy in up to 100m ofwater. It is powered by a ten-hourLithium battery and transmits datavia Bluetooth in standard NMEAformats for compatibility with anyhydrographic surveying softwarepackage. The suggested retail priceis $2995.

BRIEFS

Smart Max Geosystems Co ofHong Kong has released its M8GNSS RTK receiver runningFieldGenius8. The receiver hasUHF/GSM communications andreceives signals from the GPS,GLONASS and Beidouconstellations.

Data services provider emapsitehas launched a geocoded perilsmodel enabling insurers andunderwriters to assess thesubsidence risk for every propertyin the UK. Subsitree, available as adiscrete dataset and through anon-tap location content platform,gives a detailed perspective intothe distribution of risk, based onthe latest soil type and tree data asshown in National Tree Map data.

Topcon has announced that itsDS-200i direct-aiming motorisedimaging station is nowcompatible with the AutodeskBIM 360 Layout app for theApple iPad, offering areflectorless solution along withimaging and greater verticalrange.

Digimap for Schools has added theOS 1 inch Seventh Series to itsportfolio or products. They are nowable to supply data from the1890s, the 1950s-60s and thepresent day. The historic OS maps

have been scanned and geo-referenced by the National Libraryof Scotland (NLS). The annual costis £69 for primary and £144 forsecondary schools.

Collaboration between the R&Ddepartments of HEXAGON ABand its subsidiary, AibotixGmbH, sees Version 2 of theAibotX6 with RTK positioning,which can also be installed inexisting AibotX6 hexacopterstaking corrections from Leica’s

SmartNet service. Post-processing is also possible.

GNSS antenna manufacturer,Tallysman, has released itsVeraPhase 6000 antenna Series.Performance rivals that of choke ringantennas. The antenna family is idealfor use in survey, precision RTK, andreference antenna applications,claim the manufacturers. There arethree members of the family forsurvey, base station and referencestation applications.

In October, Leica Geosystems hosted a group of forty or so customersfor a day of mobile mapping at the firm’s HQ in Milton Keynes.Centrepiece of the day was the Pegasus:Two, Leica’s vehicle-mountedsystem. It is available in four variants. One is fitted with a Z+F profilescanner, the second with a Leica P40, which can be used for staticscanning when not on the vehicle, the third has a Velodyne scannerand the fourth carries only cameras.

So far, not perhaps very remarkable – especially as the systemonly has one scanner, while competing systems have at least two.The reason for this is that the company reckons the road has to bescanned twice in any case, to mitigate for the inevitable lorry in thenext lane, blocking the view from scanner. By measuring the roadtwice under different GNSS conditions, the difference between thetwo scans can be examined and they can be meaned.

But the system is remarkable in that it boasts an accuracy of15mm which, Leica assured the attendees was far better thananything else on offer. The system also carries many cameras and canbe fitted with other sensors and can also tow ground-penetratingradar equipment.

Pegasus:Two’s little brother is Pegasus:Backpack which can becarried into those places that cannot be reached by a vehicle. Thesystem includes a GNSS receiver with IMU, two laser profilers andfive cameras. It can use GNSS, inertial measurements or SLAM(Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping) for positioning, and istherefore self-sufficient indoors or outdoors. Inevitably it will becompared with the ZEB1 handheld scanner. The accuracy is similar ataround 3cm but Pegasus:Backpack has three positioning technologiesinstead of one. Its data can be adjusted to fit control points en route,observed by other means. The Pegasus can take panoramic viewswhich could be useful for identifying features not picked up in thepoint cloud and its scanners also have a longer range, at 50 metres.

The day also included an update on mapping using sistercompany Aibotix’s UAV, the AibotX6. This now supports RTKpositioning using SmartNet, thus (theoretically) removing the needfor ground control. The presentation was given by Julian Deeks, whohinted that Leica has some interesting plans for further developmentof UA technology over the next few years. We wait withanticipation.

Pegasus: a flyingstallion gallops intoview

The latest mobile mappingtechnology was on show at a recentevent hosted by Leica Geosystems.Richard Groom reports.

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About WYGWe are an established international, award-winning consultancy operating inover 40 countries with a strong track record of providing creative solutions tosome of the world’s most challenging projects.

Intelligent consulting means creating strategies for success that are inspired by clientneeds and aspirations. Our creative and insightful consultants work in partnership withclients to identify, define and deliver innovative solutions to complex problems. We offera range of skills across the WYG Group – surveying services & GIS, bridging designengineering, environment, project management, planning and socio economic needs.

We also take a proactive approach to putting people first within the process ofsustainable development. We are committed to providing excellence and inspiringconfidence in everything we do to satisfy the needs of our valued clients.

About the roleThe Geospatial department are looking for a keen, progressive, versatilesurveyor who can adopt a flexible approach to their role to provide support toour teams across the office as workload dictates. The individual will be willing togo the extra mile to ensure the quality data is delivered to meet the needs ofour clients. The role will focus on, but not limited to, the following areas:

Delivery against client specifications•Quality assurance•Project cost control•Project programme•Health & safety•Personal learning & development•Mentoring•

About youA relevant technical degree is desirable, but not essential, together with a•minimum of 12 months full time experience in the industryA good technical knowledge in the use of total stations, GPS & terrestrial•laser scannersExperience in the use of relevant software including AutoCAD, Leica Geo•Office, SCC, LSS, Cyclone, Cloudworx plus Microsoft OfficeThe Applicant shall have a full UK driving license as the role will require•travel around the country as part of their work related duties

RewardsA rewarding future is yours at WYG. We’re committed to supporting your professionalaspirations – and with clear career paths and a wide range of opportunities, yourgoal will always be within reach. Our blended learning experience will help youdevelop all the skills and qualifications you need to succeed. Fantastic flexiblebenefits and personalised rewards make up an excellent package.

To apply visit https://apply.wygcareers.com/vacancies/geospatial-surveyor-222041.html

Geospatial SurveyorLocation: Cumbria, Leeds or SouthamptonRef No: 10314

GEO Business @GEOBusinessShow# geobiz

Organised by:

Call for PapersDEADLINE22 January 2016

Submit abstracts online

BUSINESS 2016LONDON UK 24 – 25 MAY

www.GeoBusinessShow.com

The geospatial event for everyone involved in the gathering, storing, processing and delivering of geospatial information.

Incorporating:

· World class Exhibition

· Cutting edge Conference

· Commercial Workshops

· Networking Opportunities

In collaboration with:

EMPOWERING GEOSPATIAL INDUSTRIES


22 January 2016

DEADLINECall for Papers


22 January 2016

DEADLINECall for Papers SINESUB

.GeoBusinewwwONDONL

02SSINES

sShos.GeoBusine25 MA– 24UKONDON

610

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