From: ismail@pci.on.ca (Karim Ismail) Subject: SOFTWARE: Fly! Abstract: VR in GIS Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1993 09:19:49 -0500 Organization: PCI Inc. FLY!: A virtual, interactive, data visualization tool for Remote Sensing/GIS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Canadian Head Office United States """"""""""""""""""""" """"""""""""" PCI Inc PCI Remote Sensing Corp 50 West Wilmot St, 100E 1925 N. Lynn Street, # 803 Richmond Hill, ON Arlington, VA 22209 L4B 1M5 Canada United States ------------------------------------------------------------------- tel: +1 416 764-0614 tel: +1 703 243 3700 fax: +1 416 764-9604 fax: +1 703 243 3705 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Key Researchers involved: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ David Stanley, VP Research & Development Timothy Wilson, New Product Development Frank Warmerdam, Software Analyst Areas of Research/Interest: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Remote Sensing/GIS specific research in: - graphics algorithms - simulation/modeling/visualization - parallel processing Research Directions: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Development of GIS/Remote Sensing applications with immersive and interactive environments. Primary focus will be on a software product called Fly! Overview of Fly! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fly! - PCI has developed a 3-dimensional Perspective Scene generation package that generates its scenes in near real-time, allowing an interactive "fly-through" of the dataset. Most imagery, at least in remote sensing applications, is taken from high altitudes looking straight down. It is occasionally useful, however, to simulate the view an observer would have if he were standing on the ground looking out over the image at an oblique angle. This is generally known as `Perspective Scene Generation'. Virtual Environment results achieved to date: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Interactive control of position, direction, elevation and speed. Stress is placed on "interactive". R&D underway is on making the Fly! product immersive - support for Head-Mounted Display (HMD), dataglove and spaceball interface support. The user will be within the Fly! datasets, and will have gesture recognition support, with full 360 degree "look-around" capability. Interactive support at present includes: ---------------------------------------- - height exagerration - wide degree view cones - zooming/panning abilities - dynamic datset resizing - 3D anaglyph capability (Fly! generates left/right scenes as red and blue superimposed images. These can be viewed at present with r/b glasses. (support for LCD shutters, such as Stereographics "Crystal Eyes" (c) product will be incorporated into the immersive version) - view capabilities: nadir (overhead) - record option saves positional info for replaying a "fly-through" Current GIS/RS applications of Fly! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - DEM quality assesment; terrain visualization, visual environment assessment; geological structure determination; mission planning/rehearsal and non-intrusive reconnaissance. Datasets can be loaded from a variety of file formats including: Arc/Info, PCIDSK, ERDAS, TIFF and Raw. Requirements for Fly! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - X/Motif or Open Look, 8 or 24-bit color and minimum of 16MB of RAM. - Platforms supported are: SUN, SGI, KP, IBM, HP, DG, DEC, Intergraph, Apple Macintosh and PC SCO/Unix. Summary of Research Directions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Focus will be made on making Fly! a true Virtual-Reality product with full immersive features. Support for major VR hardware/devices will be incorporated into Fly!-VR. Further Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For information regarding Fly! or PCI, please contact: Karim Ismail, Support Engineer PCI Inc Internet: [MODERATOR'S NOTE: Commercial postings are offered on sci.virtual-worlds as a public service. Their appearance here does not necessarily indicate endorsement by the moderators or by the USENET or its administrators. -- Mark A. DeLoura]