GeoVisionary Brings Different Perspective

Version 1.0 is capable of streaming and rendering terabytes of height and photography data, as well as geological information, covering a huge geographical area in real-time.

"GeoVisionary is simply stunning in it's ability to visualise and interpret massive spatial datasets", commented Bruce Napier, project leader, BGS Virtual Field Reconnaissance, "allowing seamless access to terabytes of high-resolution geoscience data and bringing the virtual landscape in immersive 3D to users. We are delighted that this amazing technology is now available as a complete solution for any organisation wishing to make full use of their valuable spatial data assets."

GeoVisionary has been designed in such an open way, using XML formats, that other software, such as ESRI, links into it easily. The Virtalis and BGS teams are working to extend GeoVisionary's ability to connect to external applications over a network link for control and modification and expect to announce the list of additional packages later in the year.

Richard Davies, Development Team manager at Virtalis, explained: "Our approach to GeoVisionary is different from any other company involved in GIS mapping. Our starting point was that we want to view all of the data all of the time. And we want to view that data in 3D. Our engineering background and ability to handle massive datasets has influenced the way we've designed GeoVisionary and it is those features, that we take for granted, like the ability to be fully immersed and interact with your data so that you feel like you are part of it, that has stunned people. Our deep understanding of graphics technology allows us to pull a client's photographs and maps into the model and blend them seamlessly into the terrain. We've been doing this kind of thing for two decades and to us it is standard, but to the people who are able to experience their disparate data brought together for the first time, it is jaw dropping. As an example, even our mini demo of the UK has an unbelievable 15 trillion pixels in it."

GeoVisionary enables the visualisation of high detail GIS source data, and allows other data, such as geoscience, geotechnical, environmental, sub-surface, geochemical and other specialised information to be overlaid onto it, giving a complete picture. Andrew O'Keeffe, Virtalis' business development manager for GeoVisionary, said: "The feedback I've had from interested people has been tremendous - I've been rushed off my feet doing demonstrations to a range of market sectors in the UK, US, Saudi Arabia and South Africa in recent months."

Version 1.0 of GeoVisionary supports the ability to import several different data sources other than ERSI. These include individual georeferenced and non georeferenced image files, GeoTIFF images, JPG images, TGA images, SRTM data, most formats of GOCAD, GSI3D - GXML, LiDAR point cloud data surface or points and Enhanced Compression Wavelets.

Richard Davies and his team are working with the earlier adopters of GeoVisionary in geological research and public sector organisations to create a development path to add application specific functions. "Naturally, version 1.0 can give you height data and cross sections" he said, "and we've also added a gazetteer and a way of bookmarking places for users who aren't using GeoVisionary immersively. Another neat function that 's been there since the beginning is the ability to annotate the terrain and save those annotations into your own software."

Andrew Connell, Virtalis' technical director, commented: "A real momentum is building up behind GeoVisionary. With version 1.0 already well received, we are creating an extensive list of functions for inclusion in the next release. Input from our partner, BGS, and the growing community of users will help shape the future for GeoVisionary. We are actively recruiting programmers for our Development Team to work on this project to allow us, quite literally, to visualise the world!"

Related Weblinks: Virtalis Web Site: www.virtalis.com British Geological Survey Web Site: www.bgs.ac.uk GeoVisionary Web Site: www.geovisionary.com MIS Web Site: www.mis.com.sa Pacific Geomatics Web Site: www.pacgeo.com