U.S. Army SBIR Solicitation

[Dave Nuttall]

The latest solicitation from the US Army for "Small Business Innovative
Research" (SBIR) proposals, includes the following item that may be of
interest to some on this list.  

Contact me off-line if you're able/interested in bidding.

Dave Nuttall
San Antonio, Texas

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A06-087     TITLE: Improved Web-Based Mapping

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems, Battlespace

OBJECTIVE: Research available commercial web-based mapping tools to find and
leverage for use in military web-based mapping applications.  Develop an
Improved Web-Based Mapping (IWM) application server product that provides
thin client map access in a web browser but with fast response times.

DESCRIPTION: NEBC (Network Enabled Battle Command) is an Army Technology
Objective (ATO) in the Communications-Electronics Research, Development and
Engineering Center (CERDEC), the Command and Control Directorate (C2D)
focused developing C2 (Command and Control) mission planning and execution
monitoring services.  C2 Service clients will come in many varieties, but
the main difference is thin versus thick.  Thick clients are applications
that require heavy install processes and take up large amounts of hard drive
space.  They tend to run faster than thin clients but are available to a
smaller set of users.  Thin clients require little or no install processes
and take up almost no hard drive space.  While thin clients tend to run
slower than thick clients they are available to a larger group of users.
Thin clients could be something as simple as a web browser. 

There exists a need to display mapping information over a network in a
timely manner.  Current solutions (ArcIMS, JointWebCOP, etc.) work
adequately, but there exists new emerging solutions (Google Maps, MSN
Virtual Earth) that seem to work much more efficiently and display mapping
information over a thin client as if it was a thick application.  By
utilizing technology like AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) the user
can view information over a web browser with the response time close to that
of a local application (thick client).  The user can pan and zoom the map
with such speed that it appears to be running locally with no delays for the
communication to the server.

The goal of this SBIR is to create an IWM web server application that allows
commanders and other military and edge users to view mapping and plan
information over a web browser in an extremely fast manner.  Loading and
wait times should be virtually non-existent.  Research of existing
commercial tools will have to be completed to determine what can be
leveraged and what has to be created.  In addition to displaying mapping
products like DTED (Digital Terrain Elevation Data), the IWM should provide
an API (Application Programming Interface) that would allow other data
providers to incorporate their information into the map (e.g. weather,
intelligence, logistics).  Effectively this would create a combined mapping
product that merges all different types of information into one uniform
picture that can be provided to the user.  Examples of this type of merging
can be seen at HousingMaps, where real estate data is overlaid on mapping
information coming from GoogleMaps.  The end result is that the user is
presented with data from multiple sources but integrated into one picture.

PHASE I: Research commercially available thin client technologies (i.e.,
AJAX).  Explore how these components could work with available military
mapping technology and data elements.  Any solution must work in concert
with the C/JMTK (Commercial Joint Mapping Toolkit) as it is the standard for
generating military maps and symbology.  Also, this solution must be capable
of allowing multiple providers to incorporate data into the map.

PHASE II: Build an IWM that would reside on a web server and act as a
map/data displayer to any thin clients.  The IWM will also provide an API
such that any other data provider could incorporate its information into the
map.

PHASE III: The final product and API specification could be commercially
licensed to mapping companies like ESRI (Environmental Systems Research
Institute) or included as part of the C/JMTK.  Specific commercial
applications include the creation of a fast web-based weather map viewer or
dynamically updating traffic and congestion maps.

For military use, the IWM could be included as an enhancement to the
existing PM GCCS-A (Global Command and Control System - Army) product JWC
(JointWebCOP).

REFERENCES:
1) http://maps.google.com
2) http://www.jointwebcop.com
3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX
4) http://www.cjmtk.com
5) http://maps.msn.com
6)
http://zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Take_browsers_to_the_limit_Google/0,20
00061733,39204515,00.htm
7) http://www.housingmaps.com
8) http://www.esri.com

KEYWORDS: mapping, ajax, cjmtk, thin client, web services