200 likes | 364 Views
Future trends in imagery. Stuart Nixon, Founder. SSI ASIBA WALIS Imagery Workshop 28 th November 2005. Scope. Please refer to my SSC 2005 keynote for a discussion on imagery value This talk looks at requirements that are driving future trends. Working back from needs.
E N D
Future trends in imagery Stuart Nixon, Founder SSI ASIBA WALIS Imagery Workshop 28th November 2005
Scope • Please refer to my SSC 2005 keynote for a discussion on imagery value • This talk looks at requirements that are driving future trends
Working back from needs • Most people don’t know what imagery can do for them because they can’t get access to imagery in the first place • This makes it difficult to look at future trends and their impact • So instead, look at future needs • Working back from these needs will show us what future trends and changes are required
Needs – public use of imagery • Public use and need is often overlooked • Examples: • Classified gravity maps of little use to unless you are planning to launch ICBM nuclear weapons • Classified high resolution imagery are of little use to disaster victims • Imagery locked up in government departments is of little public use • Public use and availability is the key!
What we need for Public Use • 5cm resolution over cities • 25cm resolution everywhere else • Repeated at least once per month • Free use • Easy distribution • Easy online access • These are minimum requirements
What will meet Public Use? • Most demand will be met by airphotos • First address the 80% need (high resolution and high repeat imagery)
Imagery public use requires a value chain of many stages… • Acquisition • Processing • Storage • Use enablement • Web delivery • Web serving • Integration Thanks to AEROmetrex for this 3.5cm resolution imagery
Future trends on each stage • Where are we today? • What is missing? • What future trends will help us?
Acquisition • This is what we have today • Solutions exist today for 5cm imagery that can be flown monthly • Digital acquisition solves many problems Thanks to AEROmetrex for use of this 3.5cm resolution imagery
12,000 airphotos (1TB): - Geocode - Reproject - Colourbalance - Mosaic - Compress Processing • A big challenge • Today: 1TB/week • We need: 1TB/hour • Future trend will be towards grid computing solutions for geolocation, mosaicking, colour balancing and compression • An area that deserves active R&D
Processing trends • We are choking on data volumes • Grid computing the way to go (and a nice technical fit, too) • Multi-core CPUs will help a lot • A lot of software development needed • A Government+Private “imagery grid computing” initiative would be interesting and very valuable
Storage • 3TB per year is required to image an entire city 12 times a year at 5cm using 10:1 compression • This is not a lot of storage • This year a press release proudly announced Telstra’s NAS storage costs dropped to $100,000/TB from $1million/TB • This is a joke
Storage trends • 500GB drives today; 2TB drives soon • Government agencies need to take a hard look at their IT storage approach • Today $10K buys a 5TB RAID NAS capable box with grid computing ability • Future approach to backup imagery is: • Cheap delivery solutions (multi-location) • Off-site hard disk replication
Use enablement • Can I use my imageryin common applications? • Use enablement prettymuch solved (Google Earth, ECW, etc)
Use trends • Mainstream (Google, Microsoft et al) going to drive new imagery use – a nasty shock to GIS vendors used to holding the whip • GIS vendors will have to start paying more than lip service to open standards • Would be nice if companies stopped inventing new image formats for each new satellite or imagery solution • We must encourage initiatives like GDAL
Web delivery • Peer to peer delivery proven to share TB’s of imagery to lots of users • 35% of all Internet traffic today is peer to peer • GeoTorrent.org demonstrates value • Keep it simple!
Web serving • Pretty much solved today • Big challenges: • Increasing integration • Adding value (location based ads, etc) • Availability of imagery
Integration trends • Going to be driven by main stream • Advertising revenue probably the main lead requirement • New uses will open up we never thought of • Our industry’s internal politics and squabbles largely irrelevant
Speculative musings • Negative refractive optics – if possible – will allow sub-centimeter imagery • Holographic storage in 2006 will offer 300GB DVD-style disks. Petabyte storage a real long term possibility • Commercial cameras from Canon etc will offer 32+Mega pixel multi-visible spectral solutions at < $15,000/camera soon • High resolution micro-satellite imagery in the future once digital airphotos show the way?
Conclusions • Perhaps surprisingly, most of what we need is here today • Other than for processing, few technical hurdles remain • Big challenges are in other areas – licensing of imagery remains a problem • Airphotos are going to be the driver