Category Archives: Aerial/UAS
Shedding Light on Lidar
RIEGL USA’s CEO talks about the important trends in the lidar profession. For an inside look at the lidar profession, Heights interviewed James Van Rens, CEO of RIEGL USA. RIEGL provides a wide range of lidar scanning solutions for the aerial mapping and surveying profession, as well as mobile and terrestrial scanning applications. Van Rens...
Thermal Imaging Heats Up the Geospatial World
Thermal Infrared (TIR) remote sensing technology makes existing applications more cost-effective and creates new applications, including for the environment. News footage frequently shows a dramatic scene of a suspect hiding in the shadows on a pitch-black night. Despite the darkness, the subject glows white-hot in the video recorded from a police helicopter’s thermal infrared (TIR)...
Cutting through the Hype
A roadmap for leveraging UAS for aerial mapping practitioners in the United States. I often ask my clients if they’ve had a conversation in the last 24-48 hours where the use of drones has come up. Invariably, they chuckle a bit and answer, “Yes.” Virtually all professional conferences in the geospatial industry have numerous presentations...
A Crowning Achievement in Nepal
An ICIMOD team manually validated the accuracy of the 2011 classification maps. Pairing satellite imagery with advanced object-based image analysis helps people in Nepal better manage vital resources. For decades, the high-mountain regions of Nepal have been caught in a perpetual catch-22. The small populations of these remote, isolated areas depend nearly exclusively on local...
xyHt Doer: Jeff DeBoer
Jeff DeBoer is program manager of OEM & Mobile Mapping Systems at Topcon Positioning Systems. My main role at Topcon is supporting our customers and working with our mass data collection systems. My responsibilities range from working internally with our engineering teams to help develop and improve products to going out in the field conducting...
Treasure Hunting with Geospatial Tech: Part One
Geospatial tech is increasingly being called upon in the search for treasure. Let’s look at some examples, and maybe you, too, could discover hidden riches! Pangaea #155 As the wind keens and the snow piles up outside my door I retreat into my cozy home for some arm-chair treasure hunting. I start with the Travel Channel’s...