Tuesday, May 11, 2010 Company's TerrainOnDemand online service provides users with cost-effective means to query, analyze, acquire, and manage a wide variety of accurate 3D geospatial data and images worldwide
DENVER: Intermap Technologies, a worldwide 3D digital mapping and geospatial solutions company, today announced its new Web services portal — an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)-compliant platform that supports the acquisition and delivery of the Company's NEXTMap database and new online geospatial services, all leveraging 1-meter vertically accurate digital elevation models and geometric images. Intermap's TerrainOnDemand portal has been specifically designed to encourage seamless access and use of geospatial data online, while integrating the resulting information into user-specific geospatial application environments. Supported clients include GIS desktop software, Web browsers, and Web services-enabled custom software. Additionally, users can now acquire geospatial information under new financial models that provide greater flexibility and control to customers who desire to solve geospatial challenges quickly and efficiently.
"The quality, resolution, size, and complexity of geospatial data is increasing exponentially, driving the need for more efficient data management," said David Cunningham, Intermap's senior vice president of sales and marketing. "Instead of storing and managing large datasets locally, customers are requesting a cost-effective, Internet-hosted solution that's compatible with both their existing application environment and their data access requirements — that's what TerrainOnDemand is all about." Unlike many Web service offerings that focus on Web Map Service (WMS) functionality that displays geo-registered map images that can be displayed in a browser application, TerrainOnDemand offers full Web Coverage Service (WCS) functionality that allows users to easily access native raster content such as digital elevation data, satellite images, digital aerial photos, and other phenomena represented by values at each measurement point.
The OGC WCS Implementation Standard states, "WCS provides access to potentially detailed and rich sets of geospatial information, in forms that are useful for client-side rendering, multi-valued coverages, and input into scientific models and other clients. The WCS may be compared to the OGC Web Map Service (WMS) and the Web Feature Service (WFS); like them it allows clients to choose portions of a server's information holdings based on spatial constraints and other criteria. Unlike the WMS [OGC 06-042], which portrays spatial data to return static maps (rendered as pictures by the server), the Web Coverage Service provides available data together with their detailed descriptions; defines a rich syntax for requests against these data; and returns data with its original semantics (instead of pictures) which may be interpreted, extrapolated, etc. — and not just portrayed."
TerrainOnDemand increases the inherent value of Intermap's highly reliable NEXTMap® cross-border elevation data by:
- minimizing in-house infrastructure and data management investment costs
- providing non-GIS clients automatic access and analysis to the most current 3D digital map data
- increasing the number of data sharing opportunities across organizations
- eliminating wasted GIS processing time and custom analysis development
- further reducing upfront and lifecycle costs via subscription or as- utilized payment options
The Company's countrywide NEXTMap datasets include uniformly reliable digital surface models that include cultural features (such as vegetation, buildings, and roads), digital terrain models that display the bare earth (with all cultural features digitally removed) and orthorectified radar images corrected to remove normal geometric distortions (grayscale images that accentuate topographic features).
Custom-developed analytical and querying tools for Intermap's microwave link planning and flood risk assessment applications are also available via the TerrainOnDemand Web services portal — other application-specific tools are in development.
"The launch of these Web services now allow customers to solve their geospatial challenges through a host of different methods that serve their individual needs and computing architecture," commented Kevin Thomas, Intermap's vice president of marketing. "Whether they want to purchase and download data, connect to data via our OGC services, gain access to answers via specific applications based on our data, or need custom data management solutions, Intermap is positioned to meet all their terrain data needs."
About Intermap Technologies Intermap (TSX: IMP.TO) is a global digital mapping company creating uniform high-resolution 3D digital models of the earth's surface. The Company has proactively remapped entire countries and built uniform national databases, called NEXTMap®, consisting of affordably priced elevation data and geometric images of unprecedented accuracy. Demand for NEXTMap data is growing as new commercial applications emerge within the GIS, engineering, automotive, GPS maps, insurance risk assessment, oil and gas, hydrology, renewable energy, environmental planning, wireless communications, transportation, aviation, and 3D visualization markets.
Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Intermap has offices in Calgary, Detroit, Jakarta, London, Munich, Paris, Prague, and Washington D.C. For more information, visit www.Intermap.com, www.mobile.AccuTerra.com or www.TerrainOnDemand.com.
NEXTMap® and AccuTerra® are registered trademarks of Intermap Technologies Corporation. TerrainOnDemand™ is a trademark of Intermap Technologies Corporation. Open Geospatial Consortium Inc., OGC, OPENGIS, and the OGC CERTIFIED COMPLIANT logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Licensor in the United States and in other countries.
For more information, please contact:
Intermap Technologies
Kevin Thomas, Vice President, Marketing
kthomas@intermap.com
+1 303.708.0955
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