GIS News

Top Stories

PCI Geomatics and Definiens Imaging Demonstrate Partnership at InterGEO 2001

PCI Geomatics and Definiens Imaging GmbH have announced their joint presentation effort at InterGEO 2001. PCI Geomatics and Definiens will be collaborating to produce a wide range of presentations at this year's InterGEO event and at various locations around the world over the upcoming months to introduce their latest technologies. Beginning in September 2001, Definiens Imaging GmbH will be introducing eCognition Version 2.0, distributed by PCI Geomatics on a global basis. Only one short year after the release of eCognition 1.0, their new object oriented image analysis system, Definiens has responded to the emerging demands of their customers by adding new functionality, ease of use improvements, and greater performance.

Visit:- www.definiens.com & www.pcigeomatics.com

LOCUS Corporation in Japan announces an effective solution for location positioning

LOCUS Corporation, leading developer of location positioning technology in Osaka, Japan, has announced that LOCUS's "AME" technology would tremendously contribute to improvement of positioning accuracy for legacy mobile handsets in TDMA cellular phone networks, to comply with E-911 regulation. "The AME technology, LOCUS's core competence, which was originally developed for IS-136/54, will make legacy handsets usable for E-911 service. It is especially efficacious for Mobile-Assisted Network Location System ("MNLS") proposed by AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless," said Hiroaki Koshima, president and founder of the LOCUS Corporation. Problems of signal fluctuation caused by terrain variations, vehicles, human bodies, and clutter, are solved by an elegant application of advanced probability theory. The AME patents have been filed with the Japanese Government, and will be filed in the U.S. and other major countries shortly.

Visit:- http://www.locus.ne.jp/

Kataweb chooses Maporama's geocentric solution

Kataweb.it, one of the biggest Italian Web portals, and Maporama, the European leader in online cartography and geocentric information, announce today their partnership for providing Kataweb's users with complete cartographic and routing service. Kataweb.it now includes a new section "Mappe" which provides Internet users with detailed mapping services for the entire world, including road maps and 635.000 cities in all countries in the world as well as detailed street maps on four continent. With the extensive geographical database Maporama provides, Kataweb now offers its visitors the best geographical coverage available on the Internet. The whole interface has been integrated to fit perfectly the traditional Kataweb.it look and feel. To obtain a detailed street map or an itinerary at Kataweb, the users benefit from a choice between visual one-click selection of any major Italian city. Maporama then displays the detailed street map of the chosen city. Detailed street maps of cities in any other country covered by Maporama can be accessed manually by selecting the country's name in a list and by typing the name of the city.

Visit:- www.maporama.com

Tailor-made seminar series from Laser-Scan

Geospatial solutions expert Laser-Scan is hosting a series of free seminars for customers and interested parties to learn about the applications of GIS technology within industry. More and more organisations are realising that the benefits of spatial solutions can be applied to a vast range of environments, from location-based services to government. This set of seminars is designed to give experienced GIS users a feel for Laser-Scan products and also to help new users to understand the wealth of possibilities that GIS has to offer. Laser-Scan's seminar on "Java within GIS" will examine the role of Java in creating specific applications, and the integration of technology, systems and data from different sources.

Visit:- www.laser-scan.com

Asia News

Taiwan Aims For Satellite Self-Sufficiency

Taiwan hopes to become fully independent in the design and manufacture of satellites under a new space programme approved by a government panel, a science official said Tuesday. The draft outline of the next 15-year satellite development programme starting in 2004 was approved by the National Science Council late Monday, said the panel's vice chairman, Ching J. Shieh.

The programme, which is certain to raise Chinese suspicions about possible military applications, is expected to cost around 30 billion Taiwan dollars (867 million US).

Taiwan relies heavily on satellite technology provided by countries such as Japan, the United States and France, despite having its first home-grown research satellite called ROCSAT-1 in orbit since January 1999.

Taiwan is planning to send the ROCSAT-2 into orbit at the end of 2003 and the ROCSAT-3 in 2006 as part of its first 15-year space programme, launched in 1991 at an estimated cost of 19.6 billion Taiwan dollars.

Visit: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/taiwan-01d.html

Science lends a helping hand

REMOTE sensing and its applications, particularly with regard to space platforms or satellites, has played a crucial role in the area of renewable resources and stabilising agriculture. While remote sensing per se cannot solve any specific problem related to agriculture, its role as a powerful tool in monitoring and identifying areas which need attention is increasing rapidly. This is mainly because of the rapid improvement in spatial resolution of data. Moreover much progress has been made in overcoming cloud penetration as well as three-dimensional mapping.

Remote sensing data from satellite altitude can be got directly in digital form and this is used with other information also in digital form. This has led to unlimited scope to support near real time decisions using the technology tool of Geographical Information System (G.I.S.). The additional use of the Global Positioning System has made it possible to relate this data to its location. These technological developments help improve location specific agricultural practices. Such precision farming improves productivity as minimum inputs are required. Thus production cost comes down.

Toward this end, the Government has in the last 20 years initiated land reforms and systematic land use. Unfortunately, these plans have not been very successful. Our land records and cadastral maps are only reasonably acceptable. Most land records are either defective or inaccurate, or do not exist. There could be several reasons for this. This situation cannot be set right by digitising all cadastral maps, but only those which are reasonably accurate or within an acceptable tolerance limit. This situation prevails only in some regions. So a resurvey has to be done in those areas where records are inaccurate. This is a gigantic task as our land holdings are, in general, small. Such farmers have to be convinced that they will not lose as a result of this enmasse digitisation. Farmers who hold large areas form only about 30 per cent of their population.

Therefore, to segregate small farmers from well-to-do farmers, satellite data can be of immense use. These statistics can be complemented with collateral information, provided the cadastral maps are reasonably accurate.

Excerpt from an Article By L.R.A. NARAYAN
Read complete Article: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2001/09/16/stories/08160001.htm