Raffaele de Amicis, General Manager
Fondazione Graphitech,Trento, Italy
1
“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point
is to discover them.”
Galileo Galilei

Center for Advanced Computer GraphicsTechnologies
Develop
advanced
computer
graphics
technologies
and services and
bring these
technologies
into applications
in cooperation
with industry
Enhance the
competitiveness
ofTrentino’s
industries
Stimulate
innovative
technology
collaboration
and friendship
between
Trentino, Italy,
and INI-
GraphicsNet
including
Fraunhofer IGD
et al., Germany
Transfer
innovative
technology to
industry in
Trentino, Italy,
Europe, and
worldwide
Promote,
organize and
finance the
incorporation of
companies at
the industrial
and business
use of
GraphiTech’s
results

Dimension:
Personnel: 10
Awesome
colleagues
HR next steps:
increase the
number of ER by
2 & EsR by 4
Research:
Books,
Publications,
Scientific
Committees, …
EUVII
Framework: 2.5
Millions Euros
funding
Innovation:
More then 20
Industrial
Projects: 1.8
Millions Euros
funding
3

that facilitates multidisciplinary collaborative product development
within a computer-generated environment
and related engineering tools such as analysis, and simulation, optimization, and decision
making tools, etc.,
of geometric models
Which is the integration and interoperability

that facilitates multidisciplinary collaborative product development
within a computer-generated environment
and related engineering tools such as analysis, and simulation, optimization,
and decision making tools, etc.,
Which is the integration of geometric models

 The availability of Web-based Geographical Information Systems
and more specifically 3D Geobrowsers such as Google™ Earth,
Microsoft® Virtual Earth™ or NASA WorldWind has extended the
domain of GIS-based application to the web. 3D Geobrowsers are
today used by a number of administrations both as a working tool
and as a platform to make geographical data publicly available to
the entire community.

The process of planning and
managing a territory requires a deep
understanding of a very large
amount of information and data.
Traditionally this process was carried
on with the use of paper-based
maps and more recently through the
use of GIS (Geographical
Information Systems) of systems.

 Several competences
 Complex procedures
 Isolated technological
infrastructures

…GeoVisual Analytics
What is it?

Beyond the paradox

meaning
Semantics

Especially for us the question is:
How to make the computer aware of the semantic level ?

analysis
syntesys

Ortho
photo
Infrared
images
SAR
LIDAR
Network
Geo-db
Information overload

CAD and GIS are like oil and water
CAD
• engineering-based
• high precision placement
• accurate measurement
GIS
• neither precise nor accurate
• work on larger scale
• cartographic in nature
CAD, GIS Integration: Why Would You Want to Do This Anyway?
By Hal Reid , Senior Technical Editor, Directions Magazine & Private Consultant
Direction Magazine, December 26, 2003

Advanced
visualisation
capabilities
Advanced
user
interaction
Connectivity
with existing
network
backbone
High
computing
power
GIS Suppot

What is it exactly?

© SAP 2008 / Soknos: An
InteractiveVisual Emergency
Management Framework /
Page 25
“London bombs killed 'at least 50'“
“Attacks paralyse New York”
“US jobless growth at 10-year high”
“Heart disease 'costs EU billions‘”
“Economic growth 'to slow' in 2006”
Natural Disasters,
Population Migration &
Global Pandemics
Organized Crime,
Civil Crisis &
GlobalTerrorism
Globalization, Urban & Landascape
Design, Environment Pollution &
Decreasing Economic Growth

Challenges

Lack of
interoperability in
terms of:
• Information (data
structure)
• Infrastructure (services)
• Data Formats (protocols)

 In order to support administrators and crisis managers during normal monitoring conditions as well as in case
of exceptional events it is essential to develop tools for modelling and simulating different operative
conditions within an environmental scenario.
 In fact planning on how to handle acute crises is of prime importance for adequate response. The impact of
proper modelling and real-time simulation tools is very high both in social and economical terms as proper
cross border crisis management can potentially save lives and bring to huge costs saving.
 For this reason it is necessary to develop an infrastructure capable to support access and management of
data coming from real world sensors. The simulation framework should be used to define hybrid simulation
strategies capable to allow real-time response and progressive refinement of simulation results over time.
 This is essential to provide users with different sets of counteraction alternatives, when facing simulations of
exceptional events. This way the resulting infrastructure can be used in control loop as a decision support
system during crisis events.

 to deal with a wide range of environmental data
 to detect potential dangerous patterns is of essential importance
 The management of the operation required for the disaster prevention
and emergency operations requires handling of information and
resources coming from various sources describing traffic levels,
weather conditions etc.
 It is required to develop specific advanced interactions for 3D large
scale visualization systems suitable for control rooms to improve the
effectiveness of the interaction between operators responsible for
emergency handling and the system.

 Regular triangle grids are generated on the fly from
the paged elevation data.
 Normals of neighboring grids are averaged to
reduce seams visibility
 No logical structure is kept

 Precision issues

 Adding Precision to DEM through Vector-Based
Registration
 Adding Precision to Vector through DEM-Based Registration

Regular grid Irregular grid Irregular grid
(TIN)
Approximate
(TIN)
Composite /
Hybrid

 multiresolution geometry hierarchy to be incorporated into the
terrain model quadtree
 No pre-processing should be required
Original terrain terrain with new geometry

Geo-Visual Analytics
Data
Public repositories INSPIRE services Sensor data Satellite data
Data access and Processing
Edit access Download Process filter
Digital Right Management & Access policy
User policies Catalogues CSCW
Analytic reasoning
Tactic analysis Scenario building Simulation Decision Support
Knowledge
extraction
data
information
knowledge
ANALYSIS
SYNTESYS

Ensures management of data asset
User friendliness
Interoperability
Web access
Multi-platform
Highly customisable

• “How to improve the usability of the system?”
(visualization and user interaction)
• “How to facilitate the creation of new information
within the system?” (information creation).
• “How to get information into the system?”
(information integration)
• “How to get from the integrated information basis
just the information required for a certain task?”
(information aggregation and generalization)
We work
along the
following
research
questions:

Interactive Geo-spatial Intelligence Services
a business idea

• LBS will enjoy a very fast growth.
• Turnover: from $0.5 bil 2007 to $13.3 bil 2013
• Users: from 61.3 mil 2008 to 486 mil 2012
According to
ABI Research

• territorial market
• e-government
• tourism
• e-health
• logistics
• transportation
• facility management
• …
services related to:

 Thank you for your attention
48

Eng. Raffaele De Amicis, PhD
General Manager,
Fondazione Graphitech
Via Alla Cascata 56/C, 38100 Povo (TN)
ITALY
Tel.: +39 0461 883395
fax.: +39 0461 883398
e-mail: rda@graphitech.it
Skype: rda_gti_skype
Web page:
www.graphitech.it
www.inigraphics.net

 Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) solution
consists in three main logical components:
 consumers
 SOA infrastructure
 applications
 service support
 services
 producers

 The logical component ”Consumers” is composed by
entities that makes use of offered services (e.g.
desktops, laptops and mobile interfaces or even web
services that can call a service)
 communicates with the SOA infrastructure through a
transport protocol (e.g. HTTP or ..).

 SOA infrastructure layer can be divided into three
subcomponents:
 ”Applications”, which provides a graphic interface
for consumers to visualize and perform tasks
 ”Service Support”, which provides the background
support functions for SOA (e.g. CSW for directory
and ESB Architecture for communication)
 ”Service” which is composed by entities that
performs a specific task when invoked

 all the entities that offer a specific service or
functionality then offered as service are
classified as ”Producers”
 search engines
 flat files
 Geospatial One-Stop
 etc.

 client application presents a 3D
environment:
 developed using Java
 built over the World Wind APIs
 exposed with Java Web Start technology
 Using OSS libraries such as Geotools
and JTS

 the application has been engineered with
the goal of delivering a web-based 3D and
OGC compliant solution
 the application is capable to provide
interoperable access to geographical
information through the support of web
services such as WMS, WFS, WPS e CSW

 strong support to operators looking for
decision support through an ideal
environment for analysis that integrates
computational and visual techniques
 a thin client (that just offer support to
display, manage and analyze information)
 the entire work load is delivered by server
clusters

 maps can be navigated and visualized in 3D environments
 users can use any mapping service that support the WMS
protocol
 Since we have direct access to processed imagery, we increase
the performance in the presentation stage, because large
amounts of processed information can be displayed over one
single image
 Through WFS-T the client can retrieve or operate on any feature
(vector data like roads, borders) exposed with this protocol by
any server
 the user can manipulate or create new geometries through
simple mouse interactions or through a context menu
 Some strategies raster / vector are used in order to increase the
application performance

 with the 3D pie, users can have:
 an ante view of the last value in relation
to the minimum and maximum value
 the trend of the variation, indicated by an
arrow
 the concrete value for the trend
 the last value displayed close-by to the
arrow
 the 3D sensor is shown in its geographical
position

Main features of the system
• Independent data management through a software infrastructure
customizable according to the specific requirement of the
customer.
• Data access through a 3D Geo-Browser.
• Multi-platform support via a 3D Geo-Browser deployed as Java™
WebStart multi-platform.
• Application start-up directly from a web page with no need for
installers.
• Reduced download size of the WebStart client (2 Mb).
• Server technology based on Java Enterprise Edition.
• Support for user profiling to customised services available
according to the type of user.
Client – server communication
• Client-server communication based on OpenGis
Consortium (OGC®) Web Map Service (WMS).
• XML-based server configuration.
Compatible with:

 3DWorld Context
High scalability (server side).
 Support for load balancing.
 Multi-layer support.
 Support for several file format (shp ,GML etc.).
 Support for high-res LIDAR data.
2D and 3D interactive operations
 Real time data update (e.g. GeoRSS support.)
 Real time sensor support.
Integration with GeoDB
OGC-compliant communication protocols

Unique SDI.
 Data synchronisation.
 Data integration.
 Data filtering.
 No data redundancy.
 Spatial Clusters.
 Search for spatially close and thematically similar objects.
 Time series forecast .
 Prediction of future developments on the basis historical data.
 Data dressing.
 Improvement from wrong data and replacement of missing data.
 Sub-groups search .
 Interactive data analysis on the basis special characteristics.

73

74
This is what we think Virtual Reality will be.

Servizi di base
Servizi di registro e catalogo
Servizi di alto livello
PORTALE WEB
ALTRE PAALTRE PAALTRE PAALTRE PA
LIVELLO APPLICATIVO
LIVELLO DI SERVIZIO
LIVELLO DI DATO
cataloghi
intranet
Servizio
base
Servizio
base
Servizio
base
Servizio
base
Servizio
base
Servizio avanzato Servizio avanzato
Servizio
di look-up
per (UUID)
PDD
Porta Applicativa
Porta Delegata
OGC WRS
(Web Registry
Server)
GeoDB GeoDB DB DB utenti
Servizio avanzato
SOAPSOAP
SOAP
e-Gov
CITTADINANZA
SOAP
PAT
UDDI
OGC
LIVELLO DI INTEGRAZIONE
LIVELLO DI
MIDDLEWARE
Servizio avanzato
(CONFINE DI DOMINIO)
ESB
RMI RMI
RMI
CUSTOM
SERVLET
SERVLET
SERVLET
SERVLET
SERVLET
CONTAINER
RMI
OGC
SENSORI

Users discuss jointly prototypes and scenarios
•Navigation and annotation
•Scene content retrieval
•Minor modifications
Perceptive Pixel ’s Multi-Touch Screen
CNN reporter John King

Video capturing
Terrain CLOD
Augmented Geo-referenced Terrain
Videostream + Virtual Topology are combined
through GPS and Inertial sensor creating a
georeferenced augmented scene.

WMS query
Shading +
Transparency
Terrain invisible
but present

 to facilitate:
 re-distribution
 widespread access to data
 subscription-based approach.
 Action within the 3D scene where
the event is localised. The user can
then add textual information on the
nature of the event.
 GML geometries the user can send
also other geometrically-related
information as GML - Geography
Mark-up Language

WPS (Web processing service)
WPS 52 north API
WPS-G 52 north
API
Grid
computing
Sextante API

SOAP/RMI
Crawl
website
using a
schedule
Update DB

SAS
SERVER
CLIENT
SOSConnector
SOSConnector
SOS
Existingcrawler
SASConnector
SensorML
SWE 52 north API
SWE 52 north API
SWE52northAPI

Processing units available fromWPS service

Servizi di baseServizi di registro e catalogo
Servizi di alto livello
PORTALE WEB
ALTRE PAALTRE PAALTRE PAALTRE PA
LIVELLO APPLICATIVO
LIVELLO DI SERVIZIO
LIVELLO DI
DATO
cataloghi
intranet
Servizio
base
Servizio
base
Servizio
base
Servizio
base
Servizio
base
Servizio avanzato Servizio avanzato
Servizio
di look-up
per (UUID)
OGC WRS
(Web Registry
Server)
GeoDB GeoDB DB DB utenti
Servizio avanzato
SOAPSOAP
SOAP
e-Gov
CITTADINANZA
SOAP
PAT
UDDI
OGC
LIVELLO DI INTEGRAZIONE
LIVELLO DI
MIDDLEWARE
Servizio avanzato
(CONFINE DI
DOMINIO)
ESB
RMI RMI
RMI
CUSTOM
SERVLET
SERVLET
SERVLET
SERVLET
SERVLET
CONTAINER
RMI
OGC
SENSORI
PDD
Porta Applicativa
Porta Delegata

Servizi di base
Servizi di registro e catalogo
Servizi di alto livello
PORTALE WEB
ALTRE PAALTRE PAALTRE PAALTRE PA
LIVELLO APPLICATIVO
LIVELLO DI SERVIZIO
LIVELLO DI DATO
cataloghi
intranet
Servizio
base
Servizio
base
Servizio
base
Servizio
base
Servizio
base
Servizio avanzato Servizio avanzato
Servizio
di look-up
per (UUID)
PDD
Porta Applicativa
Porta Delegata
OGC WRS
(Web Registry
Server)
GeoDB GeoDB DB DB utenti
Servizio avanzato
SOAPSOAP
SOAP
e-Gov
CITTADINANZA
SOAP
PAT
UDDI
OGC
LIVELLO DI INTEGRAZIONE
LIVELLO DI
MIDDLEWARE
Servizio avanzato
(CONFINE DI DOMINIO)
ESB
RMI RMI
RMI
CUSTOM
SERVLET
SERVLET
SERVLET
SERVLET
SERVLET
CONTAINER
RMI
OGC
SENSORI

 the processing load is distributed across
different servers
 if any of the servers fails, the geo-
processing application is still accessible via
other cluster nodes
 clustering is crucial for scalable enterprise
applications, as it becomes possible to
improve performance by simply adding
more nodes to the cluster

 delayed time transactions are supported
through publisher/subscriber mechanisms
 when the operation is concluded, the server
publish a message that is received by the
client
 optionally, clients can access a page (the
link is received when a operations is
invoked) containing the status of the
operation