Geospatial technologies, the evolution and impact on our daily life (by Nicolas Helssen)

5.3 Geospatial technologies: the evolution and impact on our daily life 1
GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGIES: THE EVOLUTION AND
IMPACT ON OUR DAILY LIFE
Nicolas Helssen
ESA Business Applications Ambassador
Nicolas.Helssen@verhaert.com
TRACK 5
MyTechnology

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CONTENT
Geospatial technologies are all around us (literally!)
The impact on our daily life
The road ahead: AI and machine learning
What’s in it for you?

GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGIES ARE ALL AROUND US
(LITERALLY!)
Above your head and in your pocket

GEOSPATIAL TECH EXPLODING ONTO THE SCENE
What does a volcano have to do with GeoTech?
Swelling and ground deformations can be
detected before eruption by radar interferometry

RADAR INTERFERO-WHAT?

LET’S ROLL BACK A BIT…
“Geospatial technology is a field of information technology that focuses
on the geographical, temporal, and spatial context of data.”
This means that the records in a dataset have locational information tied
to them such as geographic data in the form of coordinates or
addresses.
GPS/GNSS data and remote sensing imagery fed into a Geographical
Information System (GIS), are all examples of geospatial technology.

THE BASICS OF SATELLITE REMOTE SENSING
Optical (passive) satelliteRadar (active) satellite

THE BASICS OF OPTICAL REMOTE SENSING (PASSIVE)
• Visible wavebands easily
interpreted by human eye
• Powerful aspect of passive
remote sensing is to see
light in the whole electro-
magnetic spectrum
• Reduced visibility when
cloudy or at night
• Difficult at poles and
equatorial regions

THE BASICS OF RADAR REMOTE SENSING (ACTIVE)
• All weather monitoring
systems (through could cover
and at night)
• Experience needed to handle
SAR data
• Ability to detect motion of
objects (azimuth or range
direction)
• Detect ground displacements,
dielectrics and roughness

BATTLE OF THE TITANS: ACTIVE VS PASSIVE?

ABOVE OUR HEADS?

WHAT’S THAT ROOF?

WHAT ABOUT GPS/GNSS?
Its True Power lies in Time
GPS isn’t just for determining location!

Money moves faster than
humans can think, banks
and regulators alike rely on
time stamps to monitor
transactions, catch fraud,
and make sure the right
people get paid.

In the power grid, you have to be
able to identify what the voltage
and the current are at specific,
highly precise points in time.
Phase measurement units (PMUs)
are devices that are aligned with
the atomic clocks used in GPS.

IF YOU STILL WEREN’T CONVINCED OF THE IMPACT OF GPS…
We experienced a GPS Y2K-bug on April 6 2019
1. GPS software uses 10 bits to store the week.
2. 210 is 1,024, meaning that all GPS devices can count up to about 19.7
years (1024 weeks).
3. Last reset on Aug. 21, 1999 when calculated from January 1980.

LET’S GO BACK IN TIME OURSELVES
Evolution towards user-friendly interfaces, dynamic maps and integration of
multiple data sources.

WHO BUILDS THESE MACHINES?

THE IMPACT ON OUR DAILY LIFE
To master a new technology, you have to play with it.

QUICK-FIRE ROUND

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX (OR CUBE?)
Geospatial data is just another source of data
True value of a technology can sometimes lie in its application in a completely different field
The integration of different data sources is often key to success
Stock market value prediction of large retail store
chains by analyzing the occupancy of parking lots
with satellite images
• Enable geolocation capabilities of mobile phones
to monitor consumer behaviour (inside stores)
• Fuse with camera feed machine learning and spit
out anonymized demographical data

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX (OR CUBE?)
Geospatial data is just another source of data
True value of a technology can sometimes lie in its application in a completely different field
The integration of different data sources is often key to success
Stock market value prediction of large retail store
chains by analyzing the occupancy of parking lots
with satellite images
• Enable geolocation capabilities of mobile phones
to monitor consumer behaviour (inside stores)
• Fuse with camera feed machine learning and spit
out anonymized demographical data
• Aggregate (anonymized) consumer transactions
• Track foot-traffic data of surrounding streets

ROAMING TREACHEROUS SEAS
Challenge: lack of highly available, high quality ocean surface current measurement to safely and
efficiently conduct offshore operations

Solution?
• Omni-situ sensors installed on ships
(currents, wave height, location)
• Data aggregated and combined with satellite
imagery and SAT-AIS data
• Buoyancy (salinity, temperature)
• Chlorophyll concentration
• Dynamic maps on handheld device (practical
& user-friendly)
• Geospatial technologies and satellites used
for location, monitoring, and communication

& user-friendly)

THE ROAD AHEAD: AI & MACHINE LEARNING
How to deal with all this Geospatial Big Data?

MACHINE LEARNING & AI
We are currently at the intersection of two major revolutions.
On one hand EO imagery is becoming ever more present, with an increasing number of drones, satellites
constellations and high-altitude platforms.
On the other hand, AI has gained a lot of attention with the availability of mature machine learning tools and
the emergence of methods such as deep learning.

We are currently at the intersection of two major revolutions.
On one hand EO imagery is becoming ever more present, with an increasing number of drones, satellites
constellations and high-altitude platforms.
On the other hand, AI has gained a lot of attention with the availability of mature machine learning tools and
the emergence of methods such as deep learning.

AI is a critical new enabling technology for Europe’s geospatial sector.

SATELLITES GETTING SMARTER
First ESA Artificial Intelligence Cubesats to be
launched in a couple of months (PhiSat)
• Terabytes of data to be processed
• AI will automatically detect cloud cover
• Only send through useable images
• Better quality data & efficient delivery

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?
Show me the money.

HOW TO BOOST YOUR IDEA?

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

One group, five brands
Our services are marketed through 5 brands each addressing
specific missions in product development.
INTEGRATED PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
ON-SITE PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT
DIGITAL PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT
OPTICAL PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT

Geospatial technologies, the evolution and impact on our daily life (by Nicolas Helssen)

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Geospatial technologies, the evolution and impact on our daily life (by Nicolas Helssen)