VirtualGeography is a collection of interesting snippets from all over the shop, dealing with industry issues concerning the computer based visualisation of geography and a few other associated (or otherwise) interesting bits and pieces. You are receiving this either because you subscribed to VirtualGeography or you have had recent dealings with VizMAP Pty Ltd. If you do not wish to receive further instalments of VirtualGeography, just click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this e-mail. 

A new VirtualGeography is pushed out about once per month, towards the end of the month, which shouldn’t be too big a drain on your mailbox if you’re not already subscribed (of course it won’t be a drain on your mailbox if you ARE subscribed, either ). If you know of anyone who might like to get VirtualGeography, feel free to forward this to them and ask them to subscribe. By the way, subscription and unsubscription details are at the bottom (click here).

So, g’day to all you enthusiasts requiring to visualise and simulate both urban and rural geographic information (GIS), cartography, photogrammetry, remote sensing, digital elevation modelling (DEM) and general mapping.

By the spelling of "Visualisation" you may have already guessed that we’re not US based – that’s a good thing, or at least not a bad thing. This comes to you from Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia, where it’s beautiful one day and perfect the next. The link between visualisation and mapping may seem a little esoteric if this is your first encounter with this sort of stuff, but let me tell you, the bond is significant… but enough of that: on with the show… I hope you like it. Any feedback you might have is highly appreciated. E-mail me hereto make your comments. Enjoy… Graeme Brooke VizMAP Pty Ltd

P.S. You’ll need an active internet connection to view any images that are in the content. We’ve done it this way to keep the size of the e-mail to a minimum.

"ImageSat undertook the revision of its web site to make browsing sample imagery and acquiring Company information more inviting," said Karen Gold Anisfeld, Vice President Corporate Communication. 

"The new site is intended to be dynamic, with areas designated for industry input, media access to downloadable information and imagery, and convenient access to ImageSat’s image gallery on ImageNet. 

"We also make available our camera model and EROS Viewer through the web site, to enable potential customers to efficiently use our imagery and to create from it value-added products," she added.

Following delivery in June of this year, ETC will install and commission the revolutionary trainer in the RAAF Aeromedical Center. The GYRO-IPT-II will be used by the RAAF to train its high performance aircraft pilots and other aircrew to successfully deal with the problem of spatial disorientation.

The GYRO-IPT-II combines the latest available simulation technology, including real world out-the-window visual effects, realistic engine and flight sounds, detailed aircraft cockpit with closed-loop flight controls and high fidelity aeromodels for a single engine turboprop aircraft and a generic, turbine powered helicopter. The trainer incorporates ETC’s patented technology in sub-threshold motion science. Conversion of the GYRO-IPT-II from a fixed-wing configuration to a helicopter configuration can be done in less than two minutes. Also, force feedback control loading is included to provide the pilot trainee with the most realistic flight experience short of actually flying an actual aircraft.

The high fidelity cockpit is mounted on an electromechanical motion system that exceeds the capability of conventional six-degrees-of-freedom motion systems, while quietly and economically delivering high reliability. This motion system, developed by ETC specifically to support spatial disorientation training, stimulates the pilot with simultaneous continuous and transient motions. Accordingly, the GYRO-IPT-II accurately reproduces the motion and visual cue combinations that cause pilots to mistake their aircraft position and motion with respect to the earth’s surface. This type of pilot error is called "Spatial Disorientation (SD)."

Spatial Disorientation remains a largely unsolved problem for military air forces and commercial airlines worldwide, and results in many lost pilot lives and hundreds of millions of dollars in aircraft losses. Possible reasons for the lack of a reduction in mishaps caused by SD include increasingly complicated flight activities, increased night and IMC flight operations, night vision goggle flight operations, and more complex and capable aircraft. However, the primary reason may lie in the approaches traditionally taken to train aircrews to recognize and manage SD, since they typically place the pilot in a passive learning role. ETC is pleased to offer its latest technology, a fully interactive solution, to remedy this problem with the GYRO-IPT-II.

Sample still images from the completed dynamic visualisation database are displayed here. An active internet connection is required to be able to view these scenes.
 

Click on these small resampled images to view the full screen images on the VizMAP website. Bear in mind that these are just screen dumps from a dynamic, interactive, 3D "flythrough". 

That is because characters like Shrek (from the movie of the same name) and the talking Sorting Hat (in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone") have to be realistic, especially when they speak, and to achieve that level of realism takes a lot of work. 

In movies, characters are meticulously built from scratch using 3-D modeling software – first creating a skeletal and muscular structure, then adding a layer of padding to simulate body fat and finally a texture layer to imitate skin. The result can be a very realistic-looking figure – but one contained in a data file that is so overstuffed it takes hours of computer processing time to animate. 

Outside of movies, lip-synched animations are also appealing – as avatars, or graphic icons representing real people online or in other electronic realms. Because of this, several software developers have been working on tools to make animation cheaper, more automated and less of a drain on processing power. The goal is to make animations with so little data that they can easily be sent not just over dial-up Internet connections but even over cellphones.

This kind of animation has become such a hot area that the Moving Picture Experts Group (the multimedia compression group behind the MP3 audio standard) has published a specification for facial and body animation that developers can adhere to. The MPEG-4 working group on face and body animation defined 68 separate features that can be moved to simulate normal facial gestures, including speaking. 

The group’s chairman, Eric Petajan, a former Bell Labs researcher, emphasizes that in this type of animation, the face and the animation are two separate entities. "You start with a model," said Dr. Petajan, now chief scientist at Face2face Animation of Summit, N.J. , which uses the MPEG-4 standard. "It doesn’t need to look like a person. It could be a talking dog or a talking pile of trash. In MPEG-4, the animation is kept separate from the face itself. Any face can receive an animation stream." 

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I am George Walker Bush, son of the former president of the United States of America George Herbert Walker Bush, and currently serving as president of the United States of America. This letter might surprise you because we have not met neither in person nor by correspondence. I came to know of you in my search for a reliable and reputable person to handle a very confidential business transaction, which involves the transfer of a huge sum of money to an account requiring maximum confidence. 

I am writing you in absolute confidence primarily to seek your assistance in acquiring oil funds that are presently trapped in the republic of Iraq. My partners and I solicit your assistance in completing a transaction begun by my father, who has long been actively engaged in the extraction of petroleum in the United States of America, and bravely served his country as director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. 

In the decade of the nineteen-eighties, my father, then vice-president of the United States of America, sought to work with the good offices of the president of the republic of Iraq to regain lost oil revenue sources in the neighboring Islamic republic of Iran. This unsuccessful venture was soon followed by a falling out with his Iraqi partner, who sought to acquire additional oil revenue sources in the neighboring emirate of Kuwait, a wholly-owned U.S.-British subsidiary. 

My father re-secured the petroleum assets of Kuwait in 1991 at a cost of sixty-one billion U.S. dollars ($61,000,000,000). Out of that cost, thirty-six billion dollars ($36,000,000,000) were supplied by his partners in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf monarchies, and sixteen billion dollars ($16,000,000,000) by German and Japanese partners. But my father’s former Iraqi business partner remained in control of the republic of Iraq and its petroleum reserves. 

My family is calling for your urgent assistance in funding the removal of the president of the republic of Iraq and acquiring the petroleum assets of his country. Unfortunately, our partners from 1991 are not willing to shoulder the burden of this new venture, which in its upcoming phase may cost the sum of 200 billion dollars ($200,000,000,000). The costs of the long-term management of the country will be higher, but covered by the sale of the petroleum assets, which will then be under our control.

Without the funds from our 1991 partners, we would not be able to acquire the oil revenue trapped within Iraq. That is why my family and our colleagues are urgently seeking your gracious assistance. Our distinguished colleagues in this business transaction include the sitting vice-president of the United States of America, Richard Cheney, who is an original partner in the Iraq venture and former head of the Halliburton oil company, and Condoleeza Rice, whose professional dedication to the venture was demonstrated in the naming of a Chevron oil tanker after her. 

I would beseech you to transfer a sum equaling ten to twenty-five percent (10-25 %) of your yearly income to our account to aid in this important venture. The internal revenue service of the United States of America will function as our trusted intermediary. I propose that you make this transfer before the fifteenth (15th) of the month of April. 

I know that a transaction of this magnitude would make anyone apprehensive and worried. But I am assuring you that all will be well at the end of the day. A bold step taken shall not be regretted, I assure you. Please do be informed that this business transaction is 100% legal and extremely profitable. The Republic of Iraq is known to have the largest oil reserves in the world, and all those who have made the transfer by the 15 of April will share in the petrol revenue for the following fifty (50) years. So far it seems that only the government of the United States of America and that of its 51st province are willing to take this bold step and share the revenue. Do not let yourself escape this golden opportunity. 

I pray that you understand our plight. My family and our colleagues will be forever grateful. If you wish to participate in this transaction, please reply in strict confidence to the contact numbers below, or simply do nothing. If you do not, please make it very clear in the loudest possible way.

Sincerely with warm regards, 
George Walker Bush

Switchboard: 202.456.1414
Comments: 202.456.1111
Fax: 202.456.2461
E-mail: president@whitehouse.gov