GiS, GIs and gIS

The All Points Blog has a good article on the changing scene involving GIS interoperability. It is locatd here. Link. It really is all about the enterprise architecture helping make consumption of data as easy as possible.

Google Tailors Earth For DOD Users

Here's a great article on how Google Earth is creating the ability to fuse geospatial information layers for visualization purposes for the US Department of Defense. Link.

I'll have to admit, even as a die-hard former ESRI employee, that the Google Earth visualization platform is hard to beat. It is simple and easy to use, provides a good viewing tool, and Google seems to be able to responsively make changes to Google Earth rapidly to meet customer's needs. But, it still isn't useful as an analysis tool like ESRI's ArcGIS is. The DOD executive decision makers may be asking for Google Earth to help them visualize the information needed to make the tough decisions, but most of the information creating the layers behind what they see comes from ArcGIS users.

ESRI is marketing a Google Earth-like viewing platform that will work well with ArcGIS 9.2 called ArcGIS Explorer that blends good visualization tools and detailed analysis capabilities, but it still isn't quite there. I played with it extesively last week and it still has some bugs in it. ESRI is trying to compete with Google Earth, and it is sad to say, but I believe as the Google organization gets bigger and more cumbersome it should be easeir for ESRI to compete in the viewer market.

Developing Reasoning Robots for Today and Tomorrow

The Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) Signal Magazine has an article on artificial intelligence efforts in the military setting. It is located here. Link. The article provides some highlights of where the military community is at as far as the research and development effort for artificial intelligence and robotic assistance with decision making. They are instrumental in equipping our military leaders with the information they need to make informed decisions.

Artificial intelligence and robotics do well with reasoning skills, but as the last paragraph of the article states,

Even with all advances in artificial intelligence, humans always will have to make the important judgment calls..... When a robot makes decisions, it is conditioned on the rules of engagement and other factors. No robot will release a weapon without a human taking responsibility for it.

The usefulness of artificial intelligence and robotic assistance is limited when it comes to the decision making to place bombs on target. The risk of collateral damage liability is just too great. The humans will always make the decision, but the information gathering process that gets us to the point of decision making is a task that artificial intelligence and robotic assistance is custom made for.

U.S. Warns About Canadian Spy Coins

Yahoo has a great article on using RFID bugs in Canadian coins to track US Department of Defense contractors as they travel through Canada. Here's the link. Link.

IEC Awarded DHS Contract for First Responder, Three Dimension Locator Systems

Here’s a link to good article on the ASD daily about GPS 3-D indoor use in emergency settings. Link. Maybe a new line of business for those of us involved in GIS?