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Spain – Scientists from the University of Malaga have devised a procedure for accurately identifying shadows in high-resolution images captured by satellites, making it possible to obtain more precise information on streets, buildings, vehicles, crops and other elements detected from space.

The results of this research have been passed to a company in the Parque Tecnológico de Andalucía (Andalusia Technology Park) which is already applying them in satellite image processing and detection of urban changes.

The Professor of the IT Engineering School at the University of Malaga and co-author of the study, Vicente Arévalo, explained to SINC that high-resolution images provided by current satellites and planes “have opened a new era in the field of teledetection, and that resolution enhancement also means that shadows, something inherent in any image, take on special significance”.

For example, shadows fall on buildings, cars or street furniture, the researcher commented, and in an aerial photograph “it is very important to detect what is or is not a shadow to correctly identify the elements that appear in it”.

Arévalo pointed out that the identification of shadows enables the subsequent application of specific information recovery techniques, as well as the preparation of three-dimensional designs. Thanks to the shadows, IT engineers can estimate, amongst other parameters, the height of elements in a landscape, such as a house.

To carry out this study, researchers have used images captured by the QuickBird satellite, also used for capturing aerial photographs of the Google Earth virtual atlas. Images obtained with this satellite have a 60 cm/pixel resolution, i.e. 60 cm of the real terrain captured in a pixel (the smallest unit comprising a digital image, defined by its brightness and colour). Once the image has been taken, its colour components are analysed and the so-called “seeds”, small groups of pixels that have a greater probability of being shadows, are identified through circles. To these “seeds” other surrounding pixels are added which are significant statistically for detecting the shadowy areas of the photo as accurately as possible in a process in which other tools such as edge detectors are also used.

The method developed by Andalusian researchers has been successfully tested in images obtained under different lighting conditions, in both urban and rural areas. For example, in a field of olive trees, it is easy to quantify the trees and see their size more accurately if shadows are properly identified in the high resolution images.

However, scientists’ main line of work is to detect urban changes, seeing how certain areas of cities change over time. Their studies make it possible to detect things ranging from earth movements or changes in the area to discovering whether anyone has built a swimming pool on their land. “We do not judge the legality of these types of actions”, Arévalo said, but the high resolution images of areas do help the work of surveyors.

Source : http://www.innovations-report.de/

CAMBRIDGE, MA–(Marketwire – June 9, 2008) – MetaCarta®, Inc., the leading provider of geographic search and referencing solutions, today announced the creation of “The MetaCarta Blog,” an online community where MetaCarta and other industry experts and visitors can connect to discuss their views on new and innovative ideas and to share their collective knowledge of how geography is adding a new dimension to the Internet to create the “geoweb.” The geoweb enables information to be organized and searched by location and promises to generate new consumer, business, and entertainment opportunities.

The blog, located at http://metacarta.wordpress.com, will focus on advancing industry dialog on topics such as geography, location intelligence, and how digital maps have already started to become a new user interface. Already, there are several posts on the blog, including: “Time to put GIS — the term — out to pasture,” and “FT article nicely looks at Geoweb opportunities.” Moving forward, the blog will host articles and opinion posts authored by both MetaCarta experts as well as industry luminaries. Topics will range from the emergence of new services and devices that take advantage of the geoweb, to the role of open source technology and the impact of the geoweb on education. Combined with feedback from the readers, the blog will help advance the discussion of how mapping, content, and the Internet will radically change the behaviors of consumers, businesses, and governments.

“There is an incredible amount of interest and activity right now in combining maps and information,” said Gavin Maurer, Vice President of Marketing for National Geographic Maps. “Business and governments have been working on map and data integration for some time, but now consumers see it everyday on Web sites, in their cars, and on their phones. We are excited to know that the mapping and technology community will have a new place to talk about these changes on the MetaCarta blog, and we look forward to contributing to the discussion.”

“We at MetaCarta believe that the industry is on the cusp on a major shift,” said Claudine Bianchi, vice president of marketing at MetaCarta. “Consumer trends such as the popularity of mobile phones and GPS devices are driving digital innovation on the Internet to push the envelope of how we perceive geography today. The integration of maps and data is huge — in fact, far bigger than anything we could comment on from a commercial perspective. However, we are constantly seeing technologies and hearing about new ventures that people in our space should know about. The MetaCarta blog is the perfect forum for that.”

Source : http://www.metacarta.com/