[Board] Google Geo Challenge

[Ned Horning]

Frank,

I'm a lurker and not a board member but wanted to let you know that I
have an interest in this and would be willing to participate in
discussions if that's appropriate. We are working on developing
photo-monitoring tools and the concept below is along the lines of a
proposal we submitted for NASA funding a few months ago. We are
proposing to use OSSIM and teamed up with Mark Lucas for RadiantBlue
support. I don't expect to hear back about the proposal for a few
months. I'm not certain if I could participate in a project like the one
described by your associate unless I can weave in conservation
applications but regardless I may be able to lend some of my experience
to help develop a proposal.

All the best,

Ned

Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> Folks,
>
> I received the following email from an associate.  The general concept
> seems good, and my question to the board is whether it is felt that it
> would make sense for OSGeo to try and assemble a project to pursue
> funding from Google to accomplish something like this.  The timeline is
> short.  I would likely be interested in involvement in such a project
> but I'm not sure I would want to lead it.
>
> """
>   I've sent this around to a couple of prominent people I know in the 
> geospatial community, to see if anyone is interested, or knows of 
> anyone interested in working on a project like this. Feel free to 
> forward it to anyone you care to, or ignore it entirely. I'm happy to 
> answer questions from anyone about it. As I said below, I have no 
> personal interest in it, other than I think the geospatial world would 
> be a better place if this project were to come to fruition.
>
>   http://www.google.org/geochallenge.html
>
> I'm sure you've heard of it. There's an idea I've been wishing someone 
> would pick up and run with, but I don't have the time and resources to 
> pursue. Perhaps with the Google Geo Challenge Grants, someone else 
> could make it happen. I'm wondering if it might be a cause you'd be 
> interested in championing and finding if someone else is interested in?
>
> Let me be clear, I don't want any part of the project. I don't want to 
> work on it, and I don't even (personally) have any need for it. but, I 
> realize that it could benefit many geo-practitioners, and a variety of 
> other groups (especially search and rescue operations). And, I would 
> like to see them have this capability. I think Google too, and all web 
> mapping products and services could benefit.
>
>
>   Here' the gist of it:
>
> Orthophotos are difficult to produce rapidly. Aerial platforms capable 
> of acquiring digital airphotos quickly are becoming more common and 
> inexpensive (even hobby UAVs with digital cameras). During a 
> time-sensitive event like a wildland fire, other disaster, or search 
> and rescue operation, it could be very valuable to acquire 
> up-to-the-moment ortho imagery. Many times, aircraft will already be 
> flying, but they are up there for other purposes and not dedicated 
> orthophotography platforms. The challenge is to take less-than-perfect 
> (probably digital) imagery and turn it into the best orthoimagery 
> possible given the constraints. And do it quickly and economically. 
> Even not-great imagery is better than no imagery if you're looking for 
> a lost hiker.
>
> I believe this can be done through a combination of existing 
> technologies and web 2.0 crowdsourcing.
>
> First, the air vehicle needs to record the best images it can, and 
> record any metadata at the same time. This means a GPS at a minimum. 
> Some news helicopters have powerful stabilized zoom lenses -- it would 
> be great if something like Red Hen's video metadata storage could be 
> used to record camera aim and zoom too. But this is outside the scope 
> of the project -- we just want to develop the software and process.
>
> Imagery needs to be transmitted to the ground at some point. 
> Worst-case, this would be done when the aircraft landed. Best case, HD 
> video from a news helo, or digital images from a UAV or the like could 
> be downloaded in-flight via radio. Once the images and metadata were 
> on the ground, the rectification process would be done.
>
> First, the basic GPS position (and aim/zoom) would be used to roughly 
> place the image geospatially. Red Hen already does this. At this 
> point, either or both of the methods below could be used.
>
>   #1. Simple crowdsourcing. A simple AJAX-y web based system would 
> allow users (local or online) to specify tie points and compute the 
> image rectification. Reference map layers from all major online maps 
> (Google, MS, WMS sources, etc) could be drawn into the UI to allow 
> users to find matching locations in the already-rectified map and in 
> the new imagery. Also, the user should be able to define regions of 
> the new image with varying "quality". So, if part of the image is 
> obscured, poorly focused, etc, it can be marked, and in the final 
> mosaic, if that area is available from multiple images, preference can be
> given to sources marked with higher quality. Some groupware features are
> needed to make notes about problems found or rationales for what a 
> given operator did. The original image and tiepoints will be stored in 
> case a problem is found later and a different operator wants to go 
> back and revise the rectification.
>
>   #2. Automated tiepoint matching. This would be a core program, 
> usable either as a batch process, or as a user-driven tool for #1, 
> (above) to try to automatically match features between an existing 
> (old) georeferenced image and a current non-georeferenced image. I 
> believe David Lowe's SIFT algorithm:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale-invariant_feature_transform
> http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~lowe/keypoints/
>
> would perform this task well. It is patented, but I hope permission 
> could be obtained to use it in this non-profit fashion.
>
> SIFT would allow an operator to batch-add a large number of images to 
> the system and get initial quick registration of them. images that 
> initially failed to register could be queued for manual registration 
> (#1 above). Even after initial registration, operators could revisit 
> each batch-registered image and tune the registration if needed.
>
>
> The final output would be a mosaic of up-to-date images. These could 
> be viewed in a local command environment on a large display. They 
> could also be available on a web-mapping system so that a crowdsourced 
> group of people could examine each one. Similar groupware features 
> would allow the crowd to make notes: "Red splotch in lower right 
> corner has been checked and found to be rusty car, not red parka of 
> missing hiker". Or, "unknown blue object spotted in upper right corner 
> yesterday, has moved 500ft in today's photos, may be a mobile human." 
> The crowd could have the option to queue anything they found for 
> further examination by the Search and Rescue team, or revisit by the 
> aircraft for better imaging.
>
> A realtime map could be created showing all areas that have been 
> imaged, which areas have been imaged with good quality (versus areas 
> imaged, but with poor lighting, angle, etc), which areas have been 
> thoroughly examined by photo searchers and which areas have been 
> examined by ground searchers. this would greatly aid in ensuring that 
> all areas were covered adequately and no important areas were overlooked.
>
>
> This is sort of an outgrowth of the search processes used to look for 
> Steve Fossett:
>
>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Fossett#Disappearance_and_search
> and Jim Gray:
>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_N._Gray#Disappearance_at_sea_and_search 
>
>
> I am not myself in a position to lead a project like this. I'm not a 
> non-profit, and I don't think I can be anytime soon. I'm wondering if 
> you know of any open source geospatial people who would be interested 
> in looking at a project like this, and picking it up and running with 
> it? I don't really want to be involved, in practice or name. i think 
> someone else would do a much better job of leading and implementing 
> this technology. I simply want
> to see it happen so that everyone can benefit from it in the future, 
> and I think the opportunity to have Google help fund it would be a 
> very good one. Google's deadline for submissions is December 22nd, 
> 2008, so a proposal would have to come together fairly quickly. I 
> think it's exactly the sort of project Google would fund through their 
> "while development of tools that enable many organizations to create 
> maps might receive US$100,000." criteria.
>
> """
>
> Best regards,