Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/33025
ated static scenes due to limited resources. This no longer is the case with modern deployments, which are fully interactive and dynamic. Scenes are gener- ated “on the fly,” enabling the ad hoc interaction and manipulation required to fully communicate geocontext to users. And these lifelike geocontext-generation sys- tems are in wide use today. Although often a fantasy environment, some of the first systems to deliver this capability were video games. Whether a world filled with flesh-eating zombies or happy, fluffy bunnies, video games use 3-D visualiza- tion technologies to provide geocontext to players. It’s now common to render virtual scenes that repre- sent the real world to communicate geocontext. At the forefront of this trend is Google Earth, which provides a common platform to view, interact and display geo- spatial information within a 3-D scene. Geospatial Analytics Lifelike geocontext visualization capabilities are mov- ing from gaming and general consumer markets to specialized tools aimed at geospatial users. Going beyond virtual context generation, these professional- grade tools provide the required data format support, accuracy requirements and product-generation capa- bilities to meet geospatial users’ needs. A good example of this transition and use is shown within Esri’s ArcGIS product suite. Originally centered on map generation and geoanalytics, ArcGIS now provides a fully interactive, highly accurate 3-D environment that supports a strong set of geoprocessing capabilities. lMaps and photographs as well as standardized symbology, graphics and terminology enable rapid visual communication about real-time events such as the 2010 Four Mile Fire in Boulder, Colo. The ENVI product platform from ITT Visual Information Solutions is another example of this capability. The recent addition of light detection and ranging (LIDAR) functionality to ENVI enables rapid geocontext gen- eration from LIDAR and imagery sources. With this capability, the relevancy of a geocontext only depends on gaining access to the latest data. A geocontext- generation operation that nominally would take weeks to complete is now reduced to hours—a dramatic decrease in accessibility cycle time. These professional-grade applications generate real- istic scenes that provide a foundational geocontext for information display, analytics and exploitation. They accept users’ input, including information from GIS and remote-sensing sources, and enable rapid comprehen- sion and understanding of the relationships between locational context and observed data. In these applica- tions, lifelike visualizations of geocontext enable geo- spatial users to rapidly meet operational goals. Augmented Geocontext Although lifelike, virtual-world visualization is leading a revolution in how people understand and operate with geospatial information, the next generation of visualization technology is moving the use of geocon- text from the workstation and into the field. Referred to as augmented reality, these applications leverage the connectivity, orientation and location capabilities of mobile systems to enhance the real world through real-time overlay of geospatial information. Long used in high-end and specialty systems such lUsing existing mapping structure and symbology, it’s possible to communicate real-time information within a GIS application, such as wildfire hotspots and fire-endangered structures. 20 GEO W ORLD / M AY 2O11 as aircraft heads-up displays, augmented reality is one of the rapidly expanding metaphors for visually enhanc- ing local geocontext. Leveraging the capabilities of DIGITALGLOBE WORLDVIEW-2 IMAGERY PROCESSED USING ENVI WITHIN ARCMAP 3-D Visualization DIGITALGLOBE WORLDVIEW-2 IMAGERY PROCESSED WITH ENVI