Online Maps: The Next Generation
A team of computer scientists at USC’s Integrated Media Systems Center, led by Cyrus Shahabi, is providing the magic to make those maps interactive, three-dimensional, extremely accurate and easy to access.
The technology is being developed in a project called GeoDec: Geospatial Decision Making.
“GeoDec is designed to enable an information-rich and realistic three-dimensional visualization and/or simulation of geographical locations, such as cities or states, rapidly and accurately,” said Shahabi, who specializes in databases and information management. “The technology has a similar look and feel to the new, high-powered interactive mapping tools, such as Google Earth and MSN Virtual Earth.”
For a start, with the GeoDec technology, Shahabi and his team have shown that they can build accurate 3-D building models in a relatively short time – a fraction of the time required by other existing technologies and procedures.
“We can also map images and live video textures to the models to make them even more realistic,” he said.
In addition to those advances, GeoDec technology can automatically and accurately integrate a broad range of spatial and temporal data, including road networks and GPS data, into the model to prepare it for sophisticated, spatio-temporal data analysis. That type of analysis is necessary for decision-making tasks.
An abundance of geospatial information – such as digital maps, high-quality satellite images, road network data, traffic data, 3-D building models, global positioning system data and more – is rapidly transforming the Web into a geospatial Internet.
Shahabi said the time is right to build more advanced data management and visualization systems, such as GeoDec, to integrate all of this information and make it easily accessible to users.
“The idea is not just to allow navigation through a 3-D model, but to be able to submit queries and get information about the area seamlessly and effortlessly,” he said. “Our main challenge is to figure out how we can quickly and cheaply integrate, visualize and simulate all aspects of a geographic region.”
The ability to create high-fidelity, information-rich models of cities, states or countries is critical for a wide variety of decision-makers, including city managers, city planners, emergency response planners and first responders.
Applications can be made in commercial development, tourism and hospitality industries, retail sales and advertising, job training in simulators and in the field, and transportation and military operations planning.
Shahabi’s GeoDec team is made up of faculty members specializing in four areas: databases, artificial intelligence (Craig Knoblock), computer vision (Ram Nevatia) and graphics (Ulrich Neumann and Suya You).
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Los Angeles ran an op-ed by Bill Deverell of the USC College about looking to the past in order to move on to the future. “You can do better, Los Angeles. You’ve heard it before: admonishment from the lecture hall pulpit or the pages of a book or magazine. History matters. You should pay closer attention,” Deverell wrote. “The history of Los Angeles reflects and illuminates American and world history all at once. With a little effort, something powerful happens: historical sensibility provides perspective on the here and now. Who wouldn’t want that?” The column is the first in a series for the magazine’s new CityThink section, L.A. Observed reported.
SoCal Minds featured the USC Good Neighbors Campaign, in which USC faculty and staff donate money for programs benefiting the neighborhoods surrounding the USC campus. The program was launched under the direction of USC President Steven B. Sample in reaction to the Los Angeles riots, the story noted. The campaign raised a record-breaking $1.2 million in donations this past year, despite tough economic times, the article stated. The story reported that several university units had 100 percent participation, including the USC Rossier School, KUSC-FM, the USC Fisher Museum of Art, the Office of the Treasurer, the Office of the Senior Vice President, Administration, the Health Sciences Libraries and USCard Services.
CNN cited research conducted by Adam Rose of the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development for USC’s Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events. Rose’s study found that the standard economic costs of the 9/11 attacks, estimated at $25 billion, were exceeded by the costs of behavioral reactions far from the site of the attack (for example, an additional $85 billion due to a decrease in demand for air travel).
Variety reported that the 22nd annual USC Libraries Scripter Award was given to “Up in the Air” novelist Walter Kirn and to USC alumnus Jason Reitman and Shelton Turner, who adapted Kirn’s book for the screen. In his acceptance speech, Reitman noted that his father, Ivan Reitman, used USC’s Doheny Memorial Library as a stand-in for the New York Public Library in “Ghostbusters.” The Wrap noted that Catherine Quinlan, dean of USC Libraries, emceed the ceremony.
National Public Radio’s “13.7” ran a commentary by K.C. Cole of the USC Annenberg School about the role of science in diplomacy. “We all know that the technology produced from scientific research can make international conflicts more deadly than ever. But can science help stop war?” Cole said. She mentioned that she recently took part in a USC Center on Public Diplomacy conference on science diplomacy and the prevention of conflict.
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