CONFERENCE OUTCOMES

The 7th Annual International Conference and Exposition ‘Laser Scanning and Digital Aerial Photography. Today and Tomorrow’ was successfully held in the President Hotel, Moscow, December 6-7, 2007. The present report is a traditional overview of the participants’ profile, subjects raised as well as the current trends and future perspectives in the Geoinformatics Industry.

‘Laser Scanning and Digital Aerial Photography. Today and Tomorrow’ had a record attendance with 250 participants, including 170 seniors and high-rank officials, from 19 countries.

Picture 1. Geography of overseas participants

This year delegates from Uzbekistan State Committee for Land Management, Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre as well as delegates from Azerbaijan State Committee for Land Management and Cartography attended the conference.  CIS countries are making huge strives to improve economic situation in their regions and they are currently facing quite a number of really burning issues that are to be solved on a state level: land inventory, facilities planning (industrial and urban), environmental monitoring. In this respect up-to-date geospatial information is the key factor for implementation of the above tasks and sustainable development of any region. The conference provided a platform for knowledge and experience sharing – delegates presented their reports bringing up the most up-to-date issues in Geodesy, Surveying, Mapping and Topography.

Pictuer 2. Profile of participants

Picture 3. Market segments

This year ISPRS Council members participated in the conference. Orhan Altan, Secretary General, John C. Trinder, First Vice President, Stanley Morain, Treasurer made their speeches.

Dr. Franz Leberl’s presentation came to be a real surprise for the conference attendees. The founder of Microsoft Photogrammetry announced the development strategy of Virtual Earth Project.

Microsoft Corporation competes with Google (Google Earth service) to gain the leadership in mapping. Microsoft Photogrammetry latest digital technologies will become the key advantage in “…digital, dynamic and immersive visualization of the real world” and will allow to strengthen positions of Microsoft Corporation in this market sector.

3D Mapping of more than 3000 cities is planned to be performed with photorealistic texturising of each building and object and with complete and proper representation of its geometry. More than 100 cities have already been mapped at the initial stage of the project implementation. The number will grow to 500 cities by June 2008 and then – to 1500 cities by June 2009.

Presentations were made by Miles Taylor (Aerodata International Surveys), Anders Ekelund (Airborne Hydrography AB), Dr. Miklos Gross (Eurosense), Hannu Korpela (Terrasolid), Nikolaus Studnicka (RIEGL LMS), Dr. Hans Joachim Hellmeier (Rollei GmbH), Dr. Sergey Kadnichanskiy, (Geokosmos), Valentin Zaitsev and Mikhail Druzhinin (Leica Geosystems)  and many others.  

Picture 4. Market segments

Another feature of the 7th Conference is the participation of satellite imaging companies. It demonstrates a good tendency of potential convergence and interaction of the two segments of geodetic market that were formerly opposed to each other, i.e. aerial surveying and remote sensing.

The Conference hosted an exposition demonstrating the latest innovations on the geodetic market, up-to-date equipment for aerial and terrestrial survey, software products. Among the exhibiting companies were Russian commercial, scientific and educational organizations as well as well-known overseas companies such as Airborne Hydrography AB (Sweden), Terrasolid Ltd. (Finland).