Archive for March, 2008

Snowflake Software GML Viewer

Friday, March 14th, 2008

Today I came across the GML Viewer of Snowflake Software. It promises to display any GML2 and GML3 file. After testing several GML viewers I was a bit sceptical about that. However it really did open any GML 3 file I tried! Really great! I have not used it very extensive yet, but a few random GML documents I retrieved from my Deegree setup for GDI4DM were indeed visualised without problems.

There are some minor points as well, the user interface could be more friendlier and usable. Also the WFS 1.1 request didn’t work for me.

In the end it seems a nice additional tool to easily visualise GMLs without much problems.

Actually I am a bit sad as it does almost the same as I was planning to do. I was about to write a GML viewer in .NET/WPF capable of displaying any GML3 file as well by just parsing any GML without validation and simply walking through the structure and displaying any found GML geometries and their sibling elements. Well I’ll still do that, just for fun at home to play around with WPF/C# and make it open source.

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Posted in GIS, Open Standards | 1 Comment »

Turning OpenStreetMap into a WFS

Saturday, March 8th, 2008

Yesterday I worked with my colleague Martijn on making openstreetmap data available through a WFS. First he put the data in a PostGIS database (see the post on his blog). After that it was quite easy to make the data available in Deegree WFS.

It appeared the import tool om OSM did not add primary keys, so they were made by adding a serial type column to all OSM tables and making it the primary key.

After running a java tool to create the Deegree WFS datastore XML for OSM and adding some lines to make the OSM features visible and queryable the Deegree WFS was up and running.

So now we have a WFS 1.1 service supplying OSM data in GML 3.1.1 format.

Nice result in a few hours, but I still want to do some things, namely:
- Change the default app namespace into an osm namespace. Actually this is done in 5 seconds…
- Try to output GML SF. The OSM tables are very simple and flat, so SF should be more than enough.

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Posted in GDI, GIS, Open Source, Open Standards | 1 Comment »

ATP PhotoFinder & Nikon D series

Friday, March 7th, 2008

Luckily last evening the ATP PhotoFinder was sold out because it appears the ATP PhotoFinder is not supporting Nikon D series cameras. I was interested in it myself, using a Nikon D40x, for the Tripod project using a D300 and a colleague was interested who has a D70.

On the site of the dutch reseller of the PhotoFinder it says:

From ATP: We can’t support Nikon D series, the known models are D50/60/70/300 because their Exif format is ” Over Address”, we can’t add any GPS information. And it may crush the photos in memory card sometimes for D70 & D300 that we tested. Depend on the product original application definition, we don’t focus on the high level DSLR models.

On the ATP site I couldn’t find anything about the support (or not support) of Nikon D series so I hope this problem is solved already.

Posted in GPS, Mobile | 1 Comment »

ATP PhotoFinder

Friday, March 7th, 2008

In January ATP Electronics launched an easy and cheap GPS device to geotag photos. Their quick tutorial below shows how it works.

 

More information can be found at this site:
http://photofinder.atpinc.com/

In the Netherlands you can buy it for 89 euro at shop4memory:  
http://www.4memory.nl/index.php/cPath/88

89 euro for such a device doesn’t sound much. Unfortunately it is sold out at this moment :(

Posted in GIS, GPS, Mobile | No Comments »

Siemens SX 45 vs OQO2

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

When tidying a closet here at Geodan I discovered the first Siemens Smartphone (apparently unused), a Siemens SX 45 Pocket PC.

Some of the specifications:
- Windows CE 3.0
- GMS (phone only usable with a headset)
- optional GPRS module
- 240×320 screen
- 8 x 6 cm screen, 9.6 cm diagonal
- 300 gram

The price (including GPRS module) was approx. 1300 euros.

Recently we bought an OQO2 which has almost the same size as the Siemens SX 45 but slightly different specifications like:
- Windows Vista
- UMTS
- HSDPA- 800×480 screen
- 12.6 cm diagonal screen
- 450 gram

The price for such an OQO is like 1800 euros.

Taking into account an inflation rate of approx. 4% means the prices are almost comparable but 7 years later you can buy an real, yet very mobile PC instead of a PPC.

Now a lot of fieldworkers use PDA/PPC like devices. Extrapolating the trend from the Siemens to the OQO it is clear that in the near future PDA like devices will be replaced with tiny PCs running the same software as your notebook or desktop.

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On the left the Siemens SX 45, on the right the OQO2

Posted in GIS, Mobile | 4 Comments »

Dutch Government – List of Open Standards

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

In 2007 the state secretary (deputy minister) Heemskerk launched an actionplan to improve interoperability between and inside governmental organisations using Open Standards and Open Source.

On march 3th the first action was presented: a first version of a list containing the open standards Dutch government organisations should use or support. The list can be downloaded here: http://www.forumstandaardisatie.nl/fileadmin/OVOS/Basislijst_OS1.pdf

Apart from several national standards some of the choices are:

  • Support of ODF
  • Usage of PNG for lossless compression
  • Usage of JPEG for lossy compression
  • ebMS and/or WUS

Regarding GDI it is proposed to use the “Framework van standaarden voor de Nederlandse GII”, version 2.0 as defined by Geonovum.

Posted in GDI, GIS, Open Source, Open Standards | 1 Comment »

GeoDeo – first post

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

GeoDeo is ready to spatially freshen the armpits around the world!

Or should it be Deo Volente? Spatial, if God is willing?

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Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »