From the News Room

1 May 2013

Custom Google Earth Tilesets for Android Tablets in 2014DV

Custom Google Earth tilesets that you create in TNTmips for real-time 3D perspective viewing can be transferred to an Android tablet for viewing using the Google Earth app. Having your tileset on the tablet means that it is completely portable and can be viewed even in the field when the tablet does not have an Internet connection. Your WiFi-enabled tablet can also be configured so that its screen image is beamed to a large-format television, enabling a room full of people to share your Google Earth view of your custom tileset.

The series of Technical Guides illustrated below show how you can prepare Google Earth tilesets in TNTmips 2014DV for use on tablet computers. The Export Raster Tilesets, Mosaic to Image Tileset, and Subset Tileset processes can now package a small Google Earth tileset as a single KMZ file for easy transfer to a tablet. The Subset Tileset process can now also extract a Google Earth tileset from either a Google Maps or Google Earth source, including the extensive set of on-line web tilesets hosted at microimages.com. Your tilesets can be transferred to a tablet via data cable, MicroSD card, cloud storage, or e-mail.

Anyone using TNTmips 2013, the current release version, can also explore these new features in the TNTmips 2014 Development Version at no extra charge. If you have not yet upgraded to TNTmips 2013, contact MicroImages sales for more information.

24 April 2013

Improved Tools and Simplified Interface
for Feature Mapping in TNTmips 2013

Feature Mapping is an interactive image classification process that lets you use your expert visual interpretation skills to guide automated analysis of simple or complex multispectral images. TNTmips 2013 introduces a simplified Feature Mapping window that makes all of its powerful tools easier to use, along with refined classification tools and new ways to save your results. The series of Technical Guides illustrated below provide an overview of the new Feature Mapping design and its classification tools, as well as describing how you can convert your styled feature mapping raster result into a TNT vector object or a KML file. Contact MicroImages for information on purchasing or upgrading to TNTmips 2013 so you too can use the revamped Feature Mapping process.

24 April 2013
Feature Mapping: Grow Prototypes and Save Features as Vector and KML

   

The Feature Mapping process in TNTmips provides a Grow and Mark Features tool that you can use to define localized feature prototypes. This tool finds a contiguous set of image cells with spectral properties similar to the point location you designate. You can use the mouse wheel to dynamically vary the variability and size of the prototype before choosing whether or not to add it as a feature. Feature Mapping also allows you to save the feature areas you have created as a TNT vector object and as a KML file, each of which includes the assigned feature names and colors.

Feature Mapping: Grow Feature Prototypes ...
Feature Mapping: Save Features as Vector and KML ...

17 April 2013
Feature Mapping: Draw Features, Prototypes and Protected Areas

   

In addition to automated tools for classifying multispectral images, the Feature Mapping process in TNTmips provides drawing tools that let you manually modify the set of features you are creating. Using the Draw Features tool set you can draw and add individual features, draw prototypes for later assignment to features, change all or part of an existing feature to another feature type (or unclassified), and define protected areas to be left unclassified by the automated classification procedures (Define Samples and Grow and Mark Features). You can switch between classification tools at any time.

Feature Mapping: Draw Features, Prototypes and Protected Areas ...

10 April 2013
Feature Mapping: Define Samples and Mark Features

   

Feature Mapping, the interactive image classification process in TNTmips, provides several tools that let you guide your computer in identifying areas to assign to different spectral feature classes. You can use the Grow and Mark Features tool to click within a feature area and automatically find contiguous cells with similar spectra (see the Technical Guide entitled Feature Mapping: Grow Feature Prototypes). In contrast, with the Define Samples tool you identify a number of sample cells for a feature, automatically find cells with similar spectra throughout the image (a class prototype), then decide which prototype cell clusters to assign to the feature class using the Mark Features tool.

Feature Mapping: Define Samples and Mark Features ...

3 April 2013
Feature Mapping: Interactive Image Classification

   

Feature Mapping is a multispectral image classification process that couples your visual interpetive skills with automated image analysis methods. The goal of this interactive process (Image / Interpret / Feature Map) is to subdivide an image spatially into a set of spectral categories, or feature classes, that you define based on your visual analysis and knowledge of the image area. Using Feature Mapping's interactive tools, you indicate image locations that are representative of a particular feature class, then let the tool automatically find image cells that are spectrally similar ...

Feature Mapping: Interactive Image Classification ...

27 March 2013
Feature Mapping: View Features as Outlines

   

The image areas that you classify interactively in the Feature Mapping process in TNTmips are recorded as areas of solid color in a Features raster. This raster layer overlays the image you are using as a visual reference in the Feature Mapping main view, so the image areas you have already classified are obscured beneath the feature class colors. As a solution to this issue, Feature Mapping also provides a Feature Outlines raster layer.

Feature Mapping: View Features as Outlines ...

20 March 2013
GeoToolbox: Graph Values from Multiple Rasters/Terrains by Location

   

The GeoToolbox Profile View allows you to create cell value plots from corresponding positions in multiple raster objects or web terrain tilesets. These graphs, which plot cell value (y-axis) versus object number in the list of selected objects (x-axis), can have many applications. For example, you might have a time series of vegetation index rasters for the same area and want to plot variations in the index over time for one or more locations. Or you might want to make simple "spectral" plots for selected locations in broadband multispectral images, such as SPOT, Landsat, or WorldView.

GeoToolbox: Graph Values from Multiple Rasters/Terrains by Location ...

13 March 2013
GeoToolbox: Analyze Raster and Web Terrain Profiles

   

The Profile View window provides a number of display modes and tools to let you analyze and view statistics of profile plots you create from rasters or terrain surfaces in TNT views.

GeoToolbox: Analyze Raster and Web Terrain Profiles ...

6 March 2013
Tilesets: Merge and Subset Web Terrains

   

Web terrain tilesets contain elevation data in a tiled form that provides local or internet access to actual elevation values for areas of unlimited size. TNTmips Pro provides processes to convert raster objects with elevation or other continuous surface data to web terrain tilesets and also processes that allow you to merge and to extract subsets from web terrain tilesets.

Tilesets: Merge and Subset Web Terrains ...

28 February 2013
Terrain Layer: Visualizing Terrain Layers

   

Elevation data in the form of a raster object or a web terrain tileset can be added to Spatial Display views as terrain surface layers, which are used primarily to visualize satellite or aerial images in stereoscopic or 3D perspective renderings. But terrain surface layers can also be visualized directly as independent layers, with your choice of adjustable relief shading, color-coded elevation, or a combination (color shaded relief).

Terrain Layer: Visualizing Terrain Layers ...

20 February 2013
Tilesets: Create Web Terrain Structures

   

Web terrain tilesets contain elevation data in a tiled form that provides local or internet access to actual elevation values for areas of unlimited size. Web terrain tilesets can be used as terrain surface layers in TNTmips Pro and Basic and can form the basis of web applications that present relief-shaded or stereoscopic renderings in a web browser.

TNTmips Pro provides several processes for converting a DEM raster or rasters to a custom web terrain tileset.

Tilesets: Create Web Terrain Structures ...

13 February 2013
Terrain Layer: Using Terrain Surface Layers

   

Raster objects and web terrain tilesets with elevation or other continuously varying numerical values can be added to geospatial views in the TNT products as terrain surface layers. Surface layers are used primarily to visualize other draped images in stereoscopic or 3D perspective renderings. Terrain surface layers can also be viewed directly as independent layers, including in stereoscopic renderings.

Terrain Layer: Using Terrain Surface Layers ...

6 February 2013
GeoToolbox: View Raster and Web Terrain Profiles

   

In geospatial views in TNTmips, TNTview, or TNTedit, you can use the GeoToolbox to view profiles of raster or terrain surface cell value versus distance along a path of any shape. You can use the Profile View in the GeoToolbox to view profiles for raster objects or web terrain tilesets (local or on the Internet) that are either current layers in the view or that you select after drawing a path over another reference layer. The Profile View can show a single profile from one object or show a set of profiles from a collection of rasters and/or terrains.

GeoToolbox: View Raster and Web Terrain Profiles ...

30 January 2013
Raster & Image Processing: Reproject Using Thin Plate Spline Model

   

The Raster Resampling using Georeference process in TNTmips (Image / Resample and Reproject / Automatic) offers a choice of mathematical models to perform the coordinate transformation to the designated coordinate reference system.

The Thin Plate Spline model is a global elastic transformation that maintains the assigned map coordinates of all control point locations but applies smoothly varying transformations between control points. Using the input control points, the transformation from image to map coordinates is modeled mathematically as the deformation of a thin elastic plate. The computed global transformation minimizes the bending energy (curvature) of this hypothetical plate. The influence of an individual control point in this model is localized and diminishes rapidly with distance from the point.

Raster & Image Processing: Reproject Using Thin Plate Spline Model ...

24 January 2013
Announcing the official release of TNT products 2013

   

The official release of TNT products 2013 is available. It is ready to download, install, and use immediately.

Download Now ...

16 January 2013
Tilesets: Web Terrain Structures

   

Web terrain tilesets contain elevation data in a tiled form that provides local or internet access to actual elevation values for areas of unlimited size. Web terrain tilesets can be used in TNTmips Pro or Basic as terrain surfaces for visualizing satellite or aerial images in stereo, or the surface can be visualized directly.

MicroImages has created and published a number of sample web terrain tilesets with global, national, and U.S. state coverage that can be used over the web. TNTmips Pro also provides processes that allow you to convert any DEM raster or rasters to a custom web terrain tileset and to merge and subset these tilesets.

Tilesets: Web Terrain Structures ...

9 January 2013
Tilesets: Subset from Remote Sources

   

The Tileset Subset process in TNTmips Pro (Tileset / Image / Subset) allows you to create subset tilesets of limited size from standard web tilesets created in TNTmips (Google/Bing Maps, Google Earth, and NASA World Wind tilesets) that are publicly accessible on the Internet. For example, you can extract small tilesets from any of the standard web tilesets that are hosted at microimages.com.

Tilesets: Subset from Remote Sources ...

2 January 2013
Spatial Display: Hyperbolic Tangent Contrast Enhancement

   

The Hyperbolic Tangent contrast enhancement method uses the hyperbolic tangent trigonmetric function to produce a nonlinear translation of raster values to display values to improve image contrast. Input and output range limits that you set in the Raster Contrast Enhancement window are automatically honored by this method. The Hyperbolic Tangent method is supplied with an adustable scale parameter that you can use to finetune the amount of contrast enhancement.

Spatial Display: Hyperbolic Tangent Contrast Enhancement ...