I sat down with the principals at Earth Eye — Jason Amadano, CEO, and Mark Romano, CTO — at the SPAR 2010 Conference. I’ve known Mark for quite a while as a LIDAR and remote sensing data collection guru and custom software builder. Their new organization is funded by Data Transfer Solutions, the same outfit that Dave Bouwman and his DTSAgile team is a part of. What impresses me most about this group is their technology expertise and vision for a seamless in-house workflow from data collection through to software solutions and Internet mapping.
The idea for the company got its start when they would bid on the data processing and storage aspects of large projects. They would see the bulk of these large project budgets (on the order of 80%) go toward the collection of data, and in many instances they would be frustrated by the quality of data that they would then be working with.
With a vision in place to gain larger chunks of these projects, a team was built that could not only cover the requirements of these projects, but that could also push the envelope of integrated sensor work and improved software workflows. The team has an aerial platform for the collection of LIDAR, hyperspectral, RGB and thermal imaging. They also have built a vehicle-mounted mobile LIDAR system to collect road asset and condition information.
On top of this state-of-the-art collection capability they have built 64-bit desktop software called EarthView that is designed to load LIDAR data from its native format into any other industry standard 3D analysis format, while also performing some LIDAR data analysis.
The company just got off the ground last June, and its remarkable to see how quickly these technology pieces have been put into place. With their emphasis on streamlined workflows and processes tailored to the needs and goals of their clients, I expect that they’ll see rapid growth.
