More on why I think what is different is so important.
I have done a lot in visualization. I have worked with and created a lot of visualization.
watman.com My own 3D imagery. I think I have published more high res 3D images than anyone one else in the world. watman.com
pbase.com
I also have over 13,000 photos 2d at xga resolution.
If you want to learn about IFSAR and see my 3d fly by of BWI airport. watman.com
To download my 10.9meg 640x480 simulation of a flyby and landing created using radar data. watman.com
And I attended this Defense Summit last week and saw what was described in this article.
Visualization supports special forces
By DAN VERTON
(November 05, 2001)
CRYSTAL CITY. Va. -- U.S. fighter pilots and the military's Special Forces are preparing
for missions in Afghanistan and elsewhere using advanced visualization technologies that
provide amazingly accurate virtual models of buildings, cities and terrain.
The Navy has deployed a 3-D visualization software tool developed by Bethesda,
Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp. called Tactical Operational Scene (TopScene) aboard
several U.S. Navy aircraft carriers that are now supporting raids against terrorist targets in
Afghanistan, experts said.
TopScene, which runs on commercial, high-performance computers designed by SGI,
integrates real-world satellite imagery, handheld photography, and video with Digital Terrain
Elevation Data to produce realistic 3-D pictures that are accurate to within less than 1
meter. Pilots and soldiers are able to use the system to fly or walk through a virtual
representation of the exact location to which they are being sent to conduct operations.
Anteon's Bob Mace
demonstrated TopScene at
the Defense Summit.
"They order imagery like they do ammunition," said Bob Mace, an executive at Fairfax,
Va.-based Anteon Corp. who serves as deputy program manager for mission rehearsal at
the Navy's TopScene program office in Patuxent River, Md. Mace demonstrated the system
here at the first SGI Defense Summit, sponsored by SGI and seven other IT companies.
The system was also used during the 1999 war in Kosovo. And an imagery and terrain
database of Yemen was built in only two days after terrorists detonated a bomb that nearly
sunk the Navy destroyer USS Cole, Mace said. Since then, TopScene 4000 systems, which
run on SGI Infinite Reality high-performance computers, have become standard equipment
on every aircraft carrier, Mace said.
Special Forces, which are operating on the ground in Afghanistan, have a 3-D urban
visualization tool at their disposal called RealSite. Developed by Melbourne, Fla.-based
Harris Corp., RealSite was used by security forces to plan where to position monitoring
equipment and personnel during the Summit of the Americas in Quebec in April. It has also
been used to prepare for the Olympics in Salt Lake City and to study the aftermath of the
Sept. 11 attacks in New York.
Harris developed the imagery database for the Olympics security planning in one week and
produced virtual walk-through scenes of 3,000 buildings in New York in two days, said Joe
Nemethy, Harris' RealSite product manager. Harris is currently working with the city of
Orlando on security planning and with the Pentagon's National Imagery and Mapping
Agency to produce models of every major port facility in the U.S., said Nemethy.
"Collaborative visualization" is the key to teamwork, said SGI Chairman and CEO Robert
Bishop. He said these technologies could also benefit private industries, including the
manufacturing, energy, medical and media industries.
Related stories:
Private-sector IT key in war on terrorism, Nov. 5, 2001
Complete Computerworld coverage of the terrorist attacks in the U.S.
computerworld.com
tom watson tosiwmee |
