Category Archives: Aerial/UAS
WaldoAir &The Space In-Between
James Summerville, president and CEO of WaldoAir, talks about how its aerial imaging system is capturing the niche between conventional UAS imaging systems. Heights: What were the driving forces for the development of the XCAM system? James Summerville: In 2013, my business partner Jim Kain and I decided the marketspace for imaging systems was overloaded...
UAS Legislative Round-Up
What will 2016 mean for online commercial sUAS registration in the NAS? Online Registration Last year, registration for hobby/recreational sUAS went online. It was so simple I think it has confused people as to what the commercial registration process will look like. Because I have a recreational sUAS and am required to register it, I...
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...