ILMF and ASPRS Open with Workshops and Keynotes

With a very successful MAPPS Winter Meeting winding down, the focus shifted to the opening of the ASPRS Annual meeting and ILMF 2019. From what I saw the joint location of MAPPS, ILMF and ASPRS produced a packed exhibit area with a lot of interaction taking place.

MAPPS, ILMF and ASPRS

The 3D digital mapping community geo-located to Denver, CO this week for three days of education, information, innovation and networking. ILMF opened today with product reviews from the vendors in the morning, followed by two keynotes and then a multi-track program in the afternoon. ASPRS offered a number of workshops.

MAPPS then hosted a social event in the exhibit hall from 5 to 7 PM. It was packed and everyone that I spoke with is very busy, whether it be vendor or service provider.

The first keynote was presented by Paul Doherty of the Digit Group. Paul is seeing the potential for enormous growth and usage of lidar data in the context of Smart Cities. He commented, “Trusted, authenticated data is the foundation of high performance urban environments which will enable advances in safety, security and an improvement in the quality of life. Capturing this data through ubiquitous LiDAR installations is providing this foundation in the form of firefighting, education, healthcare, autonomous vehicles, law enforcement, construction and city management.” Real world implementations from China, the Middle East and the United States were showcased.

Thomas Garrison from Ithaca College provided the second keynote. Lidar is changing a number of commercial industries and scientific disciplines, but perhaps none more than Maya archaeology. Thomas’ talk explored why the lidar revolution in the Maya area captures the public’s imagination and what its real impact has been on our understanding of the ancient Maya. He looked at how the fusion between social science and technology brings an ancient voice to global discussions in the present relating to climate change and sustainability.

The opening keynote tomorrow is being given by Dr. Barry Behnken, who is Co-Founder and Senior VP of Engineering at AEye, Inc. He will be discussing how to bridge the gap between geospatial mapping and autonomous vehicle perception.

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