TatukGIS menu

News

TatukGIS DK Used for Homeland Security and Military Mission Planning Software

January 02, 2006

The TatukGIS Developer Kernel (DK) product has been used by the Israeli company IDAN Computers Ltd for the GIS and graphics rendering functionality in its popular IMPS™ Mission Planning System and Oblivision™ image handling and analysis technology. These products are used for mission planning and situational awareness management by military, homeland security, law-enforcement, emergency rescue, fire response, municipal planning, forestry, electric utility, and other customers in a number of countries. IDAN Computers has been specializing in civil engineering, mission planning and homeland security software since 1971.

As IDAN's CEO and chief software architect Joseph Freund comments, "We realized that the TatukGIS DK offers a much better alternative to the code that we had developed, in-house, over the decades. In recent years our graphics rendering functionality had been based on OpenGL. The adoption of the DK has allowed us to replace the use of OpenGL for most purposes. In some cases this means that we have been able to throw out tons of old code, replacing it with only a few lines to efficiently call the required functionality from the DK. The DK has allowed us to do things that I never before dreamed about. Furthermore, the same operations based on the DK are significantly faster than based on OpenGL. For example, the geocoding of oblique images which previously required 10 minutes per image is - thanks to the DK - now performed in less than four minutes per image. We also use the DK functionality to reproject vector map layers to the metrics of the georeferenced oblique images."

IMPS™ is a combat-proven mission planning software used by military, homeland security, and law-enforcement agencies in a number of countries to quickly derive actionable intelligence from aerial and oblique imagery and topographic map data. The IMPS solution packages IDAN's innovative Oblivision image analysis technology with a suite of tailored mission planning tools, including visibility analysis, 3D modeling and 360° visualization, tactical VISINT aids, image archives (geographically coded video and still images), and GPS integration.

Oblivision™ is an innovative, patent-pending, image handling and analysis tool which reveals otherwise inaccessible geospatial intelligence by combining the benefits of orthophotography with the rich detail of oblique photos. Oblique images are geocoded and then correlated with maps and/or orthophotos to provide 360° oblique viewing - presented in 2D or 3D - of any selected area from the orthophoto image. Because the oblique images are georeferenced, users can quickly and accurately assimilate information about the dimensions and elevations of structures, the size of windows, the presence of fences, ditches, road obstructions, etc. directly from the imagery. The Oblivision technology can add considerable value to software solutions used by military organizations, law-enforcements agencies, fire departments, emergency rescue and disaster response units, municipal zoning and inspection authorities, electricity service providers, parks and forestry management organizations, wireless communications companies, etc.

IDAN Computers uses the VCL version of the TatukGIS DK with Borland® C++Builder™.


 
Visibility analysis. The areas that are visible from the top of the subject building, and from which the building is visible, are presented in blue color.
  
 
Any object or structure of interest can be obliquely viewed from any angle ranging from 0 - 360 degrees. The building in this image is viewed from four different oblique angles.

 
Accurate vertical, horizontal, and diagonal measurements can be performed from the georeferenced oblique imagery. The measured height of this building is 21.4 meters.
  
 
Vector street map and contour line data are superposed on this oblique image. The DK functionality is used to reproject the shapefile (SHP, DXF, MIF, etc.) geometry according to the metrics of the oblique image.