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Summer 1999 NewsletterA note from the Newsletter Editor Some of you may have been wondering what had happened to the Spring edition of the PSR Newsletter. My plan was to publish the first issue of the year shortly after our February AGM and prior to the ASPRS Meetings in Portland in May. However, for a variety of reasons, that didn't happen and we are at least one Newsletter short for the year thus far. We will try to do better for the remainder of the year. I have decided to publish the articles originally intended for the Spring issue. Alan's article provides a good summary of the events at our AGM, held in late February in Vancouver, BC. Alan Walford My name is Alan Walford and I am your new President for the Puget Sound Region of the ASPRS. I was installed at the Annual General Meeting of the PSR on Feb. 26, 1999 in Vancouver, BC. I thought I would use my first newsletter missive to tell you a bit about myself and about that Annual General Meeting. First off, I would like to extend a heart-felt thanks from all PSR members to Steve Reutebuch for all the great work he did as board member and President of our region. He is well connected to the Geomatics community in the Pacific Northwest and through his good organization and board meetings he got us through another successful year. These are big shoes for me to fill! Let us all hope we can keep him involved. The AGM was held at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). The meeting was held in conjunction with an Information Exchange. The idea of an Information Exchange is to spread knowledge of work being done in the Pacific Northwest in the areas of remote sensing, GIS, and photogrammetry. We also had some folks from the Canadian Institute of Geomatics (CIG) join us. We had an excellent turn out with approximately 40 in attendance. The Information Exchange and AGM went very well and I think were well received by all. When the Info Exchange was planned I do not think there was any theme in mind but in retrospect I think it could have been labeled "New Imaging Modalities for Mapping"! We listened to a number of talks on laser and radar imaging. We should all thank the folks that organized the Info
Exchange as it was so successful. Special thanks go to
Gord Shields for liaison with CIG and for organizing the
room and lunch at BCIT. Info Exchange Part 1 The first talk was by Mike Renslow of Spencer Gross Mapping (who is also ASPRS National President Elect). He introduced laser-based mapping and DEM creation. The focus was on forestry applications, which are dear to our hearts here in the Pacific Northwest. He talked about the capabilities of the system they use at Spencer Gross Mapping and its excellent potential for DEM (ground surface and tree top) creation. Then Jim Dow of Aerotec (visited us all the way from Alabama!) talked about their mapping of power lines and their right-of-ways using a combination of helicopter-based laser mapping and aerial digital color photography. Jim has also done some testing with the forest services in laser DEM creation. Mike Renslow then changed to his ASPRS president-elect hat, got up again and talked about all the changes at the National level - in particular the revamp in financial reporting etc that will keep our society on a good solid footing in the future. Terry Curtis (our PSR national director) got up to make sure everyone knew how much help Mike has been during the revamp of National's procedures. We should all thank Mike for his excellent work. We can all go to the National convention in Portland in May and watch him be sworn in as National President. I am sure with his enthusiasm and ideas he will be a great asset to our society! Annual General Meeting and Lunch The PSR board and a number of the members then got together to have the ASPRS PSR AGM. The main purpose of this meeting was to swear in the new board of directors for 1999. At the AGM, I was sworn in as President, Kamal Ahmed as President-Elect and George Maalouli as Vice President. Steve Reutebuch moved on to Past President. Terry Curtis remains as our National Director and Tracie Luthi as Secretary. Kathie Muhlbeier stepped down from Treasurer and was replaced by Hans-Erik Andersen. Gord Shields remains our PSR Newsletter Editor. The signing authority for the PSR bank accounts was arranged for hand-over to Hans-Erik and George. A week or so after these meetings Tracie Luthi informed the board that due to a change in her work she would be stepping down from her role as Secretary. On behalf of all PSR members, I want to extend a big thanks to Kathie Muhlbeier and Trace Luthi for their wonderful support of the PSR membership. We will miss you both! The Secretary spot is currently unfilled so if any member wishes to help out the region, please contact any board member or me and let us know you are interested in the Secretary position. The next PSR AGM will probably be held in conjunction with the 2000 Joint LSAW/ASPRS/ACSM Regional Annual Convention to be held February 17-19 at the Shilo Inn and Ocean Shores Convention Center in Ocean Shores - so mark your calendars! Info Exchange Part 2 After lunch the Info Exchange continued with more talks. Don Furseth of Radarsat talked about DEM creation at quite a different scale than the laser DEM talks of the morning! He was talking about creating DEMs for a large part of the South American continent! Obviously DEMs from Radarsat have different uses than helicopter and airplane flown laser-mapping equipment. He told up how Radarsat differs from standard imaging and laser and mentioned radar's strengths and weaknesses. Terry Curtis gave an interesting talk on the process and thoughts behind the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) conversion to soft-copy photogrammetry. He showed us some interesting ortho-photo products that are their staple for inventory management. After a coffee break the Info Exchange switched to a short presentation format. We had talks by:
The talks all went well and everybody learned something new. Come to the next Info Exchange, I am sure you will enjoy it! See the article by Steve Reutebuch in this newsletter for more details. Your new Region President For you fans of the British comedy Monty Python, I will say in my best imitation of John Cleese, "and now for something completely different." While most of the PSR members are involved in aerial remote sensing in some fashion (whether it be forestry related, or mapping, ortho-photos, GIS, etc) my background is somewhat different. I am currently the CEO of a small and successful high-tech BC firm specializing in close-range photogrammetric software. That is non-stereo photogrammetry for ground based operations - such as industrial measurement, architectural preservation and forensics. My background is more on the theoretical side with degrees in Computer Science, Systems Engineering and Computational Vision. Naturally my interest in photogrammetry tends towards the mathematics and analysis. I did do work at MDA for a few years on a modern GIS system used for combining aerial and satellite raster data with geographic vector data. I trust that with this different background I can contribute a different outlook to ASPRS. Camera Calibration? Above I mentioned how the Info Exchange talk on camera
calibration by Huang Youcal generated some confusion in
the audience. I think that with my background I can shed
some light on the confusion. The issue comes down to one
of definition. Mr. Youcal has done some study with
computer vision folks. Computer vision people are
primarily interested in mapping a robot's environment
from a fixed-dual-camera video camera setup. To them the
"instrument" is comprised of two cameras and
their internal (interior orientation) and external
(exterior orientation) relationships. So to a robot
computer vision person "camera calibration"
means both interior and exterior orientation. When increased cross-pollination of photogrammetry and computer vision started in the last decade this different view of the "instrument" caused some confusion (and still does). To a photogrammetrist, the "instrument" is one camera and so "camera calibration" means determining the interior orientation parameters (focal length/principal distance, principal point, lens distortion, etc). To a person with a computer vision background the "instrument" is two cameras and so "camera calibration" means determining the relative orientation between the two cameras as well as the interior orientation of the two cameras. So if you hear someone talk about camera calibration and then start talking about object point XYZ positions and relative orientation terms in the same sentence then you can understand their point of view. Hopefully as the computer vision people come to understand the long history of photogrammetry and the photogrammetrists start to use many of the new and exciting techniques developed by computer vision folks we will all come to a better understanding of this great field of measurement and mapping through imaging. PSR Web Pages Another role I have is the webmaster of the ASPRS Puget Sound region web pages. The address of these pages is: http://www.photogrammetry.com/ASPRS-PSR Do note that last part, "/ASPRS-PSR", is case sensitive and so "/asprs-psr" will not work. We hope to publish all the newsletters here as well as any other timely information. The web publication of the newsletters will be delayed from the publication of the printed version. If you have any suggestions or comments on the web pages please email them to me at a.walford@computer.org. Closing Please feel free to contact me at 604-732-6658 or at a.walford@computer.org if you wish to discuss anything about the 1999 PSR activities or if you have any ideas. One last reminder to everyone to attend the 1999 ASPRS Annual Convention that is in Portland, Oregon, May 17-21, - it looks to be a great conference and meeting.
Some board members and '99 AGM attendees The 1999 ASPRS Annual Convention Steve Reutebuch The 1999 ASPRS Annual Convention at the Portland Convention Center was a tremendous success. The meeting was well attended with registration exceeding projections. The technical sessions were kicked off by a very entertaining presentation by Dr. Moira Gunn, host of National Public Radio's Tech Nation series. If you think we're computerized now, just wait a few more years! There were many technical sessions on new technologies--I was particularly jazzed about the sessions on airborne laser scanning (LIDAR), radar mapping, and a report on some amazing results using combined GPS and inertial measurement units (IMU) to control aerial photos without any ground control! In addition, the exhibit hall was crammed full with lots of new software and hardware from over 90 vendors. Gord Shields (Eagle Mapping Services), PSR Newsletter Editor, was presented with an award certificate at the Annual Awards ceremony for his outstanding newsletters! Gord deserves a BIG thanks from all of us! And of course, the national crown was passed back to one of our own PNW locals when Mike Renslow (Spencer Gross Mapping of Portland, OR) ascended the throng as the new National ASPRS President. It's great to have a guy like Mike working for us this year. If you haven't had the chance to meet Mike yet, he'll be our Keynote Speaker at our Fall Info Exchange Meeting in Vancouver, WA on September 16th (see announce in this issue). Plans are well underway for the 2000 ASPRS Annual in Washington, DC, May 22-26. You can find more information on the convention on the web at: www.asprs.org. Steve Reutebuch The Puget Sound Region Board took the opportunity in Portland to meet. Terry Curtis, Kamal Ahmed, Steve Reutebuch, and Gord Shields were treated to an incredible Middle Eastern dinner by VP George Maalouli--being a board member sometimes has its perks! We discussed recruitment of a new secretary to replace Tracie Luthi. This position is still open, so please contact any of the board members if you or someone you know would like to join the board for the remainder of the year or longer. Terry reported that planning for the 2000 Joint Annual Convention with LSAW and ACSM in Ocean Shores is moving along smoothly. PSR needs to fill at least 2 technical sessions with interesting speakers/topics. Steve and Terry have volunteered to do a session on airborne laser mapping. We still have at least one more slot to fill--so if you have an interesting topic associated with surveying, mapping, or remote sensing, please contact Terry Curtis so he can get you on the agenda. Kamal reported that the Chittenden Award recipients (2) had been selected jointly with representatives from LSAW and ACSM (see article in this newsletter). I'm sure we discussed many more important topics, but unfortunately, George also treated us to a very tasty ( & potent!) Lebanese drink which seems to have scrubbed my memories of anything else! Kathie Muhlbeier Receives Service Award from PSR Steve Reutebuch The PSR board presented Kathie Muhlbeier (Nies Mapping Group) a plaque for her outstanding service as Treasurer. Kathie served us in this capacity for an astounding 9 years (1990-1999)! Hopefully, someone will nominate her for another PSR board position after she's had a reasonable break.
Terry Curtis, Director The Board recently unanimously approved a request by Columbia River Region and the Central Oregon Community College (COCC) to establish a Student Chapter of ASPRS at COCC. We welcome the new chapter to the Northwest and look forward to their contribution and participation!! The Tellers Committee reported the results of the 1999 ballot for ASPRS National Officers as follows: Vice President - George Heppner, Assistant Director GIS Division - Peggy Harwood, Assistant Director Primary Data Acquisition Division - Joan Zelinski. Please join in congratulating these folks as they begin their four year ASPRS journeys!! Puget Sound Region was selected to share the honors with Rolla Region for Third Place in the Newsletter of the Year Award! Congratulations and thanks to Gordon Shields, our newsletter editor! WELL DONE GORD!! ASPRS's new logo has been implemented, and now proliferates in all ASPRS publications and correspondence. Note that Puget Sound Region was the first to display the new logo on our webpage, created and hosted by Alan Walford, current Region President. Visit our page at: http://www.photogrammetry.com/ASPRS-PSR/ That's all for now! Puget Sound Region Sustaining Members Terry Curtis The Puget Sound Region extends a resounding "THANK YOU!" to our Region's seven "Sustaining Member" organizations, their proprietors, and staff for providing ongoing support of the National (and Regional) ASPRS, and for their contributions to and/or advancement of the mapping sciences through the products and services they provide. We'd also like to welcome our newest Sustaining Member, Eagle Mapping Services of Port Coquitlam, B.C. !!! (I wonder of Gord had anything to do with this?!) Thank you Eagle Mapping for your support of the Society and the profession!! These organizations pay annual dues at the National level in exchange for several Sustaining Member benefits including reduced advertising rates, 4 copies of the PE&RS Journal, reduced rate and preferential exhibit space at conferences, company profile in annual "Directory of the Mapping Sciences", and listing in the "Products and Services" section of the ASPRS homepage. Shouldn't YOUR company name be included here ?! For more information contact ASPRS Membership Dept. at
(301) 493-0290 or email at members@asprs.org, or download
an application form from the ASPRS website at http://www.asprs.org/asprs/society/membership/memcorp.html
!! In grateful recognition of all the Puget Sound Region's Sustaining Members: Cymbolic Sciences Int'l., Richmond, B.C. If you have a news item of interest to your fellow readers, please send it (preferably via e-mail) to the Newsletter Editor. We would particularly like to feature short articles which focus on ne w projects or new technologies . All contributions of professional interest will be considered for publication!! Send your news to: |
