Alice Labs is a young company that began last year as a spin-off from university research in The Netherlands at the Technical University of Delft. They are focused on developing a toolset to enable users to get reality into the virtual world in high quality.

Studio Clouds is their product with a streaming engine that is designed to integrate with various software platforms, currently ported into 3DS Max and Maya with plug-ins. The tool allows the import of a wide variety of LIDAR data files. Below is a YouTube video that illustrates the capability.

PhotoStruct is a new product that they’re set to release that incorporates photogrammetry to create high density point clouds from just two images. After the calibration of the camera, the process just requires two images and the push of a button to render a high-definition color point cloud with texture and color in 15 minutes or so. The product will release next week, and will be available from the Alice Labs website.

Another product that will be released next week is Studio Clouds Registration, which allows you to register your clouds together, with cloud to cloud or target registration.

The company is focused on visual effects with the movie industry and gaming. They are also involved with forensics, archeologists with heritage sites, and with architects to render and visualize buildings.

Today Bentley announced the acquisition of Enterprise Informatics, Incorporated (www.enterpriseinformatics.com) and Exor Corporation (www.exorcorp.com), two key providers of infrastructure asset management software. The eB Insight software provides configuration and change management capabilities for mission-critical infrastructure asset operations for the energy, nuclear, rail, and government sectors. Exor information modeling software provides for the management and operations of linear networks for infrastructure, including roads and railways. The combined capabilities are being rolled into a new ‘AssetWise’ offering that is focused on lifecycle management.

eB Insight captures and models the relationships among both structured and unstructured information critical to infrastructure operations. Its information modeling services are able to capture, (beyond “what”), the “why,” “how,” “where,” and “when” about information objects, and can identify what may affect, change, or impact them – or be affected, changed, or impacted. Like ProjectWise, eB Insight fully leverages Microsoft technologies including SharePoint to provide broad user access to asset information.

Exor information modeling software provides for the management and operations of linear networks, including roads, railways, and water networks, as well as all components connected to them. For instance, sixty percent of all roadway miles in the U.K. are managed by Exor. The software enables owner-operators to manage multiple networks while relating structures, safety, pavement conditions, permits, and right-of-way information to the network.

Dr. Paul Debevec, director of the UC Institute for Creative Technologies, provided an inspiring keynote about the collection of data for realistic rendering and simulation. His work is at the forefront of what’s possible for the application of scanning and rendering for film-based animation in the entertainment industry.

Debevec provided a technology progression from his pioneering work that was done for his Ph.D. He developed some of the first software for the stitching of photos together in an automated fashion (think PhotoSynth) that applied photogrammetry techniques to create a realistic model of the Berkeley Campus back in 1997. He showed the use of kite-based aerial images along with other low-cost, low-tech capturing methods to provide a realistic model of the campus. A short movie was made that caught the eye of Hollywood and some of the techniques that were developed were used in the development of the Matrix movie series to provide the background images to the slowed-down scenes where the hero Nero dodges bullets.

From this early work, Debevec became interested in both the capture of the shape of objects and how they reflect light. His aim was to have complete control over how things are illuminated, because the shape just isn’t enough to capture realism. The project that was used to explore different techniques was a digitization of the Parthenon (http://gl.ict.usc.edu/Films/Parthenon/) where he took scans of the actual site and combined these with scans of the various sculptures in museum settings to bring back the full context of what the original building was like.

The technical hurdles to realistically render the model were significant, with 3D scans for a detailed point cloud at multiple resolutions combined with detailed capture of lighting to take out shadows for a model that could be completely manipulated to add lighting and weather. To accomplish this task, Debevec  used light probes to understand all that’s needed to know about incidence of light  from the sun intensity, to the direction, and also capturing indirect light. The ultimate outcome is a rendering that matches neatly to the photo, with the photo used as a tool to calibrate the texture map to make sure that he got it right.

This exploration of the properties and influence of light on the realism of models was then put to the ultimate test in his follow-up and current work to capture the human face. The complexity of dynamic human face motion is compounded by the complex surface reflectance with the oily glow of the surface compounded by the interior translucency of skin that bounces light in different directions. To understand the properties of skin and faces, Debevec and his team created a sphere with 156 white LEDs that surround and model the face of actors to get away from a  plastic and synthetic rendering.

The goal was to have complete control over the lights with an ability to isolate both diffuse light to get the sub-structure of skin surfaces with the reflectant properties to capture the human glow. Very detailed scans of textures have been married with the normal reflectance of skin to render faces digitally. This technology was used to model all the Avatar characters, not to animate but to inform the animators about the properties of the actor faces so that they could create realistic scenes in different lighting and atmospheric conditions.

Debevec continues to fine-tune the realism of his models, with the ultimate goal of realistic animated computer renderings. The level of technical hurdles to capture true realism shows the many benefits that Hollywood investments will enable in other fields, including forensics, medical, AEC, etc.

Allan Carswell, the founder of the Canada-based LIDAR company Optech, provided the opening keynote for SPAR 2010 in Houston this morning. Carswell has been working with LIDAR since 1960 and has been responsible for a great degree of technological advancement as well as the application of the technology in areas as diverse as the capture of measurements of the built world to use on Mars exploration missions.

Carswell reminded the audience that the concept of LIDAR is really simple, and that it’s the unique quality of this light source that makes measurement possible. With lasers we are able to tune wavelengths and modulate the pulse width and frequency. The returned light provides measurements of X, Y, and Z measurements based upon the time it takes for the light to return, but we can also measure the light intensity which provides a means to classify the objects that the light strikes.

Carswell’s first LIDAR project was in 1968 to measure smoke plumes for pollution and air quality with a laser instrument that won the inventors the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics. From those early days of atmospheric mapping, there are now LIDAR instruments on satellites (NASA Calypso) that can measure air quality and atmospheric changes on a global scale. He continues to be involved in atmospheric applications of the technology with development of Raman LIDAR that can provide species-specific returns to measure such things as natural gas or ozone in the air. The fluorescence spectrum measurements that are available from this technique can detect different environmental effects on vegetation, chemical soil pollution, mechanical soil disturbance, etc.

Marine applications are a growing area as the LIDAR as the laserc can penetrate 40 to 50 meters of water to capture the bathymetry, water conditions and sub-surface resources. A combination of technologies with both LIDAR and hyperspectral instruments allows you to understand how murky the water is
to get a chlorophyl count and by capturing bottom reflectance measurements you can classify the bottom. With advancements there are now Coastal Zone Mapping and Imaging projects that can capture both shoreline and coastal water at the same time.

There have been a number of advancements on the measurement and mapping of the build environment with tripod mounted systems that can measure both inside and outside of a building. The combination with Lidar 3D Color Imagery provides very realistic captures of textures and colors that make this technology appealing in both building and construction as well as entertainment industries. The capture of complex built structures such as bridges and plants are providing a whole new area of opportunity.

Mobile mapping systems have risen to prominence this year as they can look both forward and backward (in order to omit shadows) and can measure at highway speeds a great deal of data. Carswell provided examples of bridge scans and wires in rural settings as well as dense urban environments including the scanning of the Coliseum of Rome from a moving vehicle. With just a 10-second drive by of the Coliseum, a tremendous amount of detail was captured. These new capabilities are a disruptive area for data collection with a tremendous amount of opportunities.

Carswell spoke about the future development of the technology with greater and greater pulse rates of lasers and the measurement of multiple returns for whole new levels of accuracy and measurements that can be classified. On the software side there is a need and interest to provide synergy among the different sensors and to automate the data collection.

Carswell was asked about the application of these tools for global warming and global change. He asserted that atmospheric LIDAR are leading the way, particularly at the poles, for our understanding of warming. The tools are also of great use in improving our energy efficiency, with measurements of buildings for retrofit. He also discussed the application of coherent LIDAR systems that send out a beam to measure wind several kilometers out for precise wind measurements that avoid for wind farms.

The level of potential for this technology was referred to as the LIDAR Revolution, given the great potential. Carswell indicated that we’re just scratching the surface and there are all sorts of potential applications with exponential growth that will be accompanied by a great degree of changes in all aspects of technology application from planning, procedure, data acquisition and assimilation.

The field of geospatial technology is full of people on a mission. It’s not just the achievement of a paycheck that motivates workers, it’s predominantly about doing good work that makes a difference.

I recently interviewed Paul Ramsey with OpenGeo about open source software and his company’s recently released OpenGeo stack of software. Here’s Ramsey on the motivations that drive his organization:

“We’ve formed ourselves as a social enterprise, meaning a business, but a business where the variable of maximization is not value of capital. In your traditional startup you dump some capital into it and you hope to make that pile of capital as big as possible. Our goal as a social enterprise is to take that starting capital and use it to grow as much social good as possible.

Our synthesis of how to do that best is to take our startup capital and work to be financially self sustaining. We’re working to build a business around open source tools that allow people to more democratically do mapping, but building a business with an aim to self sustain the development of that software so that we’re not tied to the vagaries of funding at the end of this process.”

Read the full interview for more insight into the status and prospects for open source geospatial tools here.

The SPAR 2010 Conference kicked off last evening with some in-depth workshops and a Super Bowl reception. The program for this year’s event mixes a number of focus areas for technological advancement along with breakout sessions for key technology applications. In this hot technology area there’s a lot of buzz about improved workflows, and with this year’s event there’s a focus on key areas of opportunity.

Among the key application areas outlined with multi-day sessions are Mobile Surveying, Industrial Plant, Security Planning & Forensic and Scan to BIM. The diversity in application areas are supplemented with some interesting sessions on the cutting edge of technology advancement.

Stay tuned for more details from this event.

Fusion Core, the mapping system that combines Microsoft’s SharePoint Server with ESRI’s ArcGIS Server, is at the center of the security system developed for Super Bowl XLIV. The system brings together various data streams into one system and allows users to exchange documents, information and alerts.

The system, called Project Dolphin, enables multi-agency collaboration for situation response.

Read this story in Information Week for more details.

Just became a recent convert to e-readers. Got a Kindle, but not wedded to this specific device. I really like the whole category now that I’ve got one in my hands. I’m enjoying reading books on a device rather than holding a book and flipping pages. I do most of my personal reading in bed early or late, and it feels really natural, and even more comfortable. I swear I’m reading faster too.

I’m kind of into the one-task aspect of e-readers, precisely because they don’t let me check e-mail, check Twitter or view a video. The book format is still a sacred space for concentrated absorption in a story or topic. I get enough pressure to multi-task in front of my computer screen, and I think a multi-function device like the iPad might just add another distraction-driving device.

If you’re into reading, you’ve got to check these devices out. Bummer that the price of e-books looks like they just spiked, but still I’d say it’s worth it. Consider a more open device for more options on content. I hear the Barnes & Noble nook has more options on content, including the sharing of books. Might just have to pick one up for my wife in order to check it out.

In the president’s 2011 budget there’s a good deal of commitment to earth observation and climate change monitoring and modeling. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been allocated $2 billion ( 58 percent more than this year’s budget) for a decade-long project to launch earth observation satellites that focus on collecting climate measures. At the heart of this is a mass restructuring of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). There’s also a strong commitment to earth observation and earth sciences at NASA, much of it climate-related.

Autodesk recently acquired Dynamite VSP and Dynamite SIM visualization software tools from UK-based 3AM Solutions. This software provides an easy and automated workflow for engineers that are working in Autodesk’s AutoCAD Civil 3D software to port their data directly into the powerful visualization environment of 3ds Max Design software. The tools is specifically optimized for road design and corridor modeling in the transportation market, but there are plans to extend the toolset into other domains.

The VSP part of this toolset primarily provides the connection capability, porting the 2D drawing over into the 3D visualization tool and retaining all of the original design detail without losing the intelligence in the model. It also contains elements that help add to the realism of the model, such as country kits with the appropriate signage and foliage for the location of the project. It also includes a wide array of “street furniture” that can be manipulated to fit the design specifications, and includes road surface textures that are automated for greater realism, including patterns of wear to make the textures more real.

Dynamite VSP includes a library of infrastructure-related content such as vehicles, signage and textures.

Allowing engineers to become design and visualization specialists in an automated way breaks some new ground. Traditionally top-quality visualization has been the realm of designers and artists, but software is slowly filling that aesthetic void. The VSP functionality offers automation and a guided view of 3ds Max so that it matches the engineers intent and domain expertise. For instance, there are tools for the engineer to control the camera that are specific to roadway visualization, allowing them to match the speed of normal travel.

The ability to quickly move into the 3D visualization environment provides a great degree of flexibility for communication and collaboration. The intuitive features of the product that don’t require a high level of artistic input means that the engineers can complete both the design and visualization work themselves, and have the visualization provide direct feedback that informs their model in a way that allows them to do things that you couldn’t do in a 2D environment–going beyond simply plan and profile..

The SIM component provides traffic data and simulation so that the designer can review the performance of their design and test it against different scenarios to evaluate and optimize their design with different real-world scenarios. The analysis capabilities currently center on visual analysis, but there’s research into extending this capability to noise analysis, and other dynamic feeds such as weather.

View the following YouTube video to get a sense of the kind of visualizations that are possible with this product.

Autodesk has a vision for a fully integrated Civil BIM concept to meet the growing demand from designers and clients who are designing large multi-year projects. These customers want an integrated digital model of the whole project with interoperability between structural, civil, geospatial, analysis and visualization tools. The intent is to maintain the intelligence of the model and to manage iterative change in a the complex lifecycle of many-year projects.

In the past, the AEC community only created visualizations at crucial project phases (bid, design phase, public inquiry). Today, this community is creating visualizations at any moment possible, because it can provide insight that informs the design process and helps communicate and handle change. With these new approaches, construction on large projects is starting before design is actually finished, which saves both time and money. Having the visuals very early in the process can speed and meet the urgency of design.

Autodesk holds all the pieces to integrate all the different disciplines and design flows that take place in the AEC space. This Dynamite acquisition provides a window onto future development where the intelligence of the model is preserved, and the power of 3ds Max for visualization is tuned to the demands of a subset of users. We can expect other custom workflow tools in the future that aim for greater interoperability between tools and greater collaboration.