Tag Archives: GIS

GIS Visions 2045

I gave a presentation where GIS might evolve in 20 years from now as part of the GIS Ostrava 2025 conference on 5.3. 2025. it was great to see again colleagues ! get eye-contact with audience and not just virtual applause. Also nobody was showing physically thumbs-up or red heart (in that case I would call emergency), rather real spoken (I mean real sound wave based ) comments, real talk and smiles. That was the main topic of the talk – Spatial Interactive – with people, tech, discoveries. Step out of the ‘glass-illusion’ trap.

Spatial Interactive

Stanislav Sumbera, GIS Vision 2024, 5.3. 2025,GIS Ostrava 2025

  • What happens here is more important than what happens now.
  • Space is naturally interactive, enabling collaboration and sharing.
  • The computer is not behind a 2D glass screen but understands 3D space and interactions within it.
  • People learn through observation, collaboration, and play.
  • Community Computer
  • Projective Augmented Reality (Projective AR)
  • Bret Victor – Dynamicland

image sources:https://gislab.utk.edu/tag/ar-sandbox/ , Dyamicland.org, Lightform

  • HMD / Head-Mounted Displays – Apple Vision Pro
  • Spatial Computing
  • Control through advanced gestures
  • Super persistence” of objects – digital objects remain anchored as if truly part of the physical world
  • Pseudo-haptic feedback – realism in rendering creates the illusion of tactile response
  • Currently at the UNIX Workstation” stage of the 1980s – showcasing possibilities that will later become accessible to everyone.
  • Also bloged here

2. Web, Open Source, and Technology Accessibility

  • From Google Maps → OpenLayers → Leaflet → MapBoxGL → MapLibreGL → ?
  • Each step represents greater availability, democratization, and accessibility of mapping technology, pushing development forward.
  • How difficult was it to render an image in 1993? How difficult was it to share that image with others? And today?
  • What is difficult, expensive, yet possible today that will become commonplace in 20+ years?

3. Lifespan of Data vs. Lifespan of Technology

  • WMS – Simple for visualization
  • Vector tiles – More complex to render (OGC API Tiles, MapBox Tiles, MapLibre Tiles – MLT)
  • 3D tiles – OGC 3D Tiles, evolving standards for spatial data
  • More aesthetics, smoothness, and artistic expression in maps
  • Real-time rendering techniques, such as Gaussian Splat, for next-generation visualization

from Book: Eneterpise SOA by Krafzig, Banke, Slama

4. Scanning Spaces and Objects

  • 3D scanning is accessible to everyone
  • Spatial Video, Spatial Photo
  • 3D scanning is as simple as taking a photo
  • Photorealistic scanning

5.Precise Geolocation ~2-10 cm

  • VPS (Visual Positioning System) – accuracy < 10 cm
  • 5G geolocation
  • Affordable high-precision GNSS + RTK/PPP (< 10 cm)
  • Accessible VPS from panoramic images, Mapy.cz?

6. AI – Welcome to the Jungle

  • NPCs have become “thinking machines” (are we, on other side, turning into NPCs ourselves? aka Jumanji 2 )

Image from Jumanji 2,driver – Mason Pike ?

  • The Chinese Room paradox – an English speaker perfectly assembles answers in Chinese following instructions without understanding the Chinese language and symbols meaning.
  • AI cannot create true originality but excels at combining and compiling existing inputs – a “super plagiarist” or “super puzzle resolver” ?
  • Might replace a significant amount of human (intellectual + routine) labor – in GIS (georeferencing, recognition/classification), programming/syntax, and more
  • “Hard work for machines, thinking for people” (Tomáš Baťa) is evolving into “(Pre)thinking* for machines, creativity/ideas for people” (in Czech Language : pre-mýšlení)
  • AI model marketplace – grow (cultivate) your unique “thought twin” that integrates into an open AI network.
  • Developer Twin: Blog post

Image Storage with Oracle 9i and MicroStation

Summary: Paper describes a technology of storing rasters in Oracle database with usage of Oracle Spatial, Oracle intermedia option and Workspace managers. Rasters are displayed in MicroStation v8

Date: October 2002, Published in : ControlAltDelete III. 2002, Authors: Stanislav Sumbera, Petr Vinduska

Original site location 2002: http://www.sumbera.com/ustation/articles/Rasters/Rasters2.htm

download Java code

pdf version

Introduction

MicroStation plays important role in geoinformation systems (GIS) especially in Automated Mapping/Facility Management (AM/FM). In these areas, raster data such as satellite images, air photos, scanned topographical maps or other types of imagery are becoming increasingly popular. It has been estimated that these data may represents more than 90% of the average GIS data holding by volume. MicroStation V8 comes with Raster Manager as a solution for united raster management of different raster formats. Oracle 9i brings its GIS technologies like Spatial option, interMedia or Database Workspace Manager for effective database storing of geographical-related data. Oracle database is used in number of organizations to manage all kinds of data across the enterprise.

In this article, we will join Oracle GIS technologies with MicroStation v8 to build up a prototype called “Image Storage” for storing rasters in Oracle9i database using Oracle interMedia, Oracle Spatial, Oracle Workspace Manager and finally displaying query results with help of Raster Manager and it’s clipping capabilities. We are going to point out some interesting concepts and techniques in Image Storage.

Nowadays there are only a few solutions for storing rasters in databases, actually most of the interest in raster management lies in using compressed proprietary formats like Mr.SID or ECW. Note ECW is supported in MicroStation v8 as well. Continue reading