SDI 1.0 Analytics at GEOINT

We rolled out a couple unique capabilities this week at GEOINT 2007, including a slick set of analysis tools based on OGC Filters - a SQL-like spatial and logical language to make advanced data queries possible.

We showed how GEOINT analysts could combine OGC Filters with Microsoft Virtual Earth - for analysis. Our demo used a simulated release plume polygon to construct new features such as impacted airports, power infrastructure - pretty much any feature. This involved intersecting release plume polygons with the impacted areas.

We did this using OGC Filters and the capabilities of CarbonTools PRO, CarbonArc PRO, CubeWerx WFS - and combined it with Microsoft Virtual Earth.

To leverage OGC Filters, Nuke used tools and interfaces in CarbonArc (built with CarbonTools PRO) to create or use an existing feature like a release plume polygon, construct a Filter Encoding request using Spatial Operators (in this case it was the Spatial Operator "Intersect"), then send it to a CubeWerx WFS-T and acquire new features such as impacted areas from the WFS.

All done in real time yesterday using OGC Filters and Microsoft Virtual Earth.

The demo is based on Filters - The basic idea of an OGC Filter is to provide a SQL-like spatial and logical language to make advanced data queries possible in a distributed environment. Filters do this using a series of logical ("AND" this, "OR" that), comparison (is this "Equal To") and spatial (does that road "Intersect"?) operators. The Filter Encoding (FE) specification, when wrapped up into easy-to-use tools, lets SDI users quickly add complex and powerful queries to their work flows.

All this means a big change from the days when geospatial content was delivered as files and CDs.

NOTE: More on this type of analysis will be coming out of the CGDI Project.