In my last blog entry from GEOINT 2008 last week, I spoke about how Virtual Earth was a common thread throughout the Microsoft geospatial story presented for the first time in our GEOINT booth. This included demonstrations of Virtual Earth allowing visualization of SQL Server 2008 data on the Virtual Earth Server for closed networks, Virtual Earth integrated with Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server for web portals that provide visualization of intelligence data and collaboration around that data by remote personnel, and Virtual Earth integrated with our ESP Visualization & Simulation platform.

For the Virtual Earth and Sharepoint integration, Microsoft partner IDV Solutions joined us to demonstrate this visualization/collaboration capability through the beta version of their new SpatialWiki product. Geared for enterprise customers but public in Beta, SpatialWiki combines a Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 / Virtual Earth interface & Microsoft Cloud services (or Sharepoint) for storage and archiving of user contributed data. My buddy John Nelson describes the SpatialWiki in his blog (see screenshot below) and a press release can be found here. Read those and then go play with the demo application ... just a lot of fun.

As noted previously, we were also joined by the Microsoft Public Sector Industry Unit team who unveiled the SingleView Platform. Visit the SingleView web site for official messaging and information but, to me, here is the gist: Microsoft has been offering technologies such as Windows Server, SQL Server, Sharepoint, PerformancePoint and Virtual Earth to assist enterprise customers in creating applications to meet specific business needs, such as business intelligence, performance monitoring, process management, etc. What SingleView now delivers is one platform that integrates these Microsoft technologies, along with what I am going to call solution templates, to allow customers to more quickly build applications and then "pour" in their data to (as the web site suggests) have a "single, geographic view of complex information and data sets across multiple roles, locations, and user interfaces can improve agency communication, collaboration, and decision-making to increase the success of essential initiatives."  I know at least one Director-level member of the SingleView team who reads this blog ... if my "SingleView in a nutshell" description is cutting it, I will count on him to add a comment.

The centerpiece of our GEOINT 2008 exhibition was the Surface computing table. If you were not at the event and if you are unfamiliar with the Surface (pictured below), it provides effortless interaction with digital content through natural hand gestures, touch and physical objects. In my admittedly biased opinion, it never looks as good as when it is showing Virtual Earth, especially our 3D environment. In our booth, we showed the ability to navigate Virtual Earth 3D through physical touch and to allow multi-user collaboration of this unit by users seated around the table.

A great example of a Virtual Earth application ported to the Surface can be seen in a video found here on the web site of Microsoft partner Infusion Development (filename to run or download is Infusion-Falconeye-WithOilRig-small.mp4). The application, Falcon Eye, on the Microsoft Surface provides the ability to navigate real-time, 3D data, providing users with actual hands-on manipulation of their world and data. Falcon Eye supports importing data from a list of sources that includes ESRI shapefiles and geodatabases, Microsoft Sharepoint, Microsot Excel, SQL Server, web services and XML files, CAD docs, 3D Studio Max, KML, custom satellite imagery, and standard video formats.

What I love most about this Falcon Eye video is how it demonstrates integrating volumetric data in Virtual Earth, something I have been waiting to see since we launched the 3D environment in November 2006. Pretty cool. Be sure to check it out.

Meanwhile, as also mentioned in my last blog entry, we demonstrated Geosynth, an offline version of Photosynth. Using techniques from the field of computer vision, Photosynth examines images for similarities to each other and uses that information to estimate the shape of the subject and the vantage point each photo was taken from. With this information, you recreate the space and use it as a canvas to display and navigate through the photos. While at the event, Marty Marra from the Vexcel team that was showing Geosynth, created some "synths" of our exhibition at the show. You can check them out here. Be sure to check out the synth of Elvis operating the Surface, true testimony to its appeal!

-=Virtual Jerry