PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
November 2016
827
advertorial
T
echnological advancements
in geospatial imagery col-
lection in recent years have
resulted in the increasing avail-
ability of greater quantities of
higher quality imagery. This
availability has been matched
by increasing demand as busi-
ness and nonbusiness users have
grown to expect high-quality
geospatial imagery in more ap-
plications on more devices. How-
ever, what has not changed is
that the bandwidth available for
transferring this imagery is lim-
ited, which means that, in gen-
eral, delivery is the bottleneck
in any workflow involving image
repositories and end users. This
article describes a sophisticat-
ed software solution that takes
advantage of the architecture of
the wavelet-based MrSID and
JPEG 2000 image formats to de-
liver high resolution imagery to
more users, faster, over any con-
nection
.
Compressed Geospatial
Image Asset Handling
with Express Server
I
ntroduction
In recent years, the volume and variety of geospatial imagery has skyrocketed. Not only has
the resolution of satellite imagery increased, but so has the complexity. It is now common for
new satellites to capture multispectral imagery with dozens of bands. Moreover, these im-
provements have been matched by the rise of microsatellites and unmanned aerial vehicles,
both of which promise cheaper and more frequent image collection.
In addition to traditional camera-based imaging, the integration of inexpensive laser
rangefinders, GPS and IMU units has enabled rapid growth of lidar scanning options.
Improvements in the sensors themselves have vastly increased the point cloud
density and volume of data that can be collected in a short amount of time.
Emerging technologies like full waveform, single photon, and Geiger
mode will make future point cloud collections even larger and more
dense. Moreover, lidar use is expanding from topographic
mapping into the areas of indoor mapping, oceanographic
seabed and coastal mapping, facility management,
and emergency response, to name a few.
These innovations come at the
expense of vastly increased image file
sizes and numbers, which for modern
organizations presents new problems in the
form of rapidly rising file storage costs and
increased complexity when hosting and
distributing imagery. The need for
reliable and storage-efficient
image delivery has never
been more pressing.
By Glen Thompson, Don Johnson, and Jeffrey M. Young
