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8/19/2008 5:27:43 PM

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GEO Conference
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  By Paul G. Garland, vice president, Z/I Imaging Corp., Huntsville, Ala. (www.ziimaging.com).
   
  Many mapping professionals are familiar with a variety of Earth imaging software tools that offer advanced capabilities for image processing, feature classification, and feature recognition and extraction. Some are enhanced to handle multispectral and hyperspectral imaging, and more information is being derived from data-fusion techniques.

Many of these functions have boundless benefits, but are time consuming and costly. They become even more complex when used in a production workflow environment, requiring easy-to-use cataloging and image management software to achieve optimal productivity. Such products include EMC’s Image Storage Architecture, Leica Geosystems’ GeoVault Data Manager, Red Hen Systems Inc.’s PixPoint and Z/I Imaging Corp.’s TerraShare.

Enterprise Data Management
Effective data-management products query and search massive amounts of data, taking the guesswork out of finding and managing information. Production shops need help managing data. But the data are linked directly to production efficiency, and tracking data isn’t enough. Process-management tools must be tightly integrated with data management products so managers can effectively track product generation, employee performance, product quality and, most importantly, project cost.

Effective data management software manages and tracks data throughout the enterprise. Some product offerings have evolved into geodata management systems that manage images, elevation data, vector data–basically any data related to a physical location. Such capabilities extend beyond traditional cataloging systems; they include a programmable ability to understand geospatial data content and extract metadata (number of rows and columns, compression techniques and parameters, number of pyramid levels, etc.). In addition, some products store user-defined metadata such as acquisition date, operator identifiers, miscellaneous data, process logging and other workflow-related information.
With enterprise data management software, users aren’t concerned about data location; they access data through logical files and folders or geospatial location, not through arbitrary or confusing file names. Data management systems offer different user interfaces. For example, Red Hen Systems’ PixPoint software integrates directly into ESRI Inc.’s ArcGIS package (see Figure 1). Users access image data through the geospatial view in the ArcView client, or through a thumbnail window.
  
 
  Z/I Imaging’s TerraShare product extends the Windows Explorer user interface. Through motions as natural as file operations in Explorer, users manage data, create catalog entries, enter metadata and user metadata, view data and manipulate data within the TerraShare environment. Through natural Windows methods, users interact with TerraShare through drag and drop, cut, paste, copy, move, search and delete operations. Advanced functions (like SQL Query capability) make searches—based on user-defined metadata—as easy as finding a file in Explorer. For example, a Microsoft Word document or scanned legal paperwork can be entered into TerraShare’s storehouse and retrieved by queries on metadata, geospatial location, data type or file name. A geographic view of data can show the document tied to a single location and area, or several locations. By double-clicking or right-clicking on the document, users can launch Word or any associated application on the georeferenced data (see Figure 2).  
   
 
  In the more advanced data management systems, a “logical” file is really one or more physical Windows files. Using this capability, users can refer to multiple files with one name, moniker or footprint, and applications can operate on complex file clusters that users conceptualize as a single entity. For example, a hyperspectral image may be composed of 256 different files, each one a single-band JPEG2000 image. The system would treat them as a single entity—to be processed and managed as a single image—with common metadata, but possibly dissimilar extended metadata.

Geodata management software products are relatively new, and there’s plenty of room for improvement. For example, certain common extended metadata (workflow statistics) are used by most production shops. Data that relate to the current production status of products being developed are typically carried along with the product itself. Information such as percentage complete, operator name, operator cost, estimated time to complete, estimated cost, actual cost, etc., helps control production costs and validate customer expectations.

Workflow Management
The next great productivity leaps will come from a new direction in workflow enhancement: workflow management. Workflow management encompasses several concepts: process management and monitoring, user-defined data visualization, distributed and queued processing, and programmable services. Such functions will allow users to manage workflows and geodata. Together, they will improve users’ workflow and production management capabilities by automating interprocess functions, improving process flow monitoring capabilities, increasing CPU use, and improving and standardizing graphical data and process status views. Combining geodata management and workflow management into a user-friendly, efficient system will increase production throughput and lower product costs.		  
   
 
  Extending workflow management principles to the enterprise means taking advantage of enterprise data management, process management and process monitoring, data visualization, distributed processing and enterprise programmability. Clearly the largest gains from these attributes of enterprise workflow management can be seen in distributed processing and enterprisewide access to data through the next generation of geodata management software.  
 

 

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