GIS Methodologies developed to Acquire and Mosaic

High Resolution Imagery acquired from Google Earth Pro

 GIS Methodologies developed to Acquire and Mosaic
High Resolution Imagery acquired from Google Earth Pro

EWHRAWHRA EDIRIN EMMANUEL

Geowhrax Mapping Solutions

October 2008

Abstract

An off-the-shelf data acquisition method and user friendly GIS approach for
acquiring and mosaicking High Resolution Imagery obtained from Google Earth
pro without downgrading its spatial and temporal information is presented in this
paper. Two sets of images with overlapping area were captured from Google
Earth in form of screen dumps using TTQV; the overlapping images were
subsetted using the batch process to remove unwanted areas within Leica Erdas.
Finally, the first set of images and the subsetted images were loaded into the
mosaic command tool for mosaicking. The results proved proficient having been
able to provide more information to enhance general research work. Developed
methodologies in research, science and technology if documented and understood
can often be enhanced or revised.

Keywords:

Google Earth, High-resolution imagery, Georeferencing, Subsetting, Mosaicking

Email of corresponding author: info@geowhrax.com or eee@students.unibe.ch*

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Chapter 1

With the rapid advancements of technological activities and modern science, there is a high need for proficient
and readily available information in the field of research and development. More so, the urgent need for
results prompts the want for up to date and readily available information. Nowadays, internet has become a
media where most readily available information can be accessed and obtained online. Internet technologies
been vast with web applications which can be either at the user end or server side provide different options on
how information can be accessed or obtained. With the basic understanding of modern internet technologies
and development, varied ways to obtain information from the internet or web can be developed

Introduction

This chapter introduces the tasks performed to achieve proposed aim. An outlined diagrammatic
description of each task performed and corresponding text will be presented. These tasks are
broken down into several amounts of manageable procedures with the aid of imaging tools and
Geographical Information Systems (GIS). An illustrative scenario for different tasks performed will
be described using our area of interest as a case study.

The next section this chapter shall describe the aim of this innovative methodology and the
corresponding set out objectives. Chapter two describes the tools utilized; chapter three describes
the methodological approach, an illustrative scenario of different tasks performed. Chapter four
describes diagrammatically the subset and mosaic processes.

This report describes briefly the tools used and do not contain literature on tools or algorithms
utilized but associating cited work and website links to software companies are listed in the
reference section.

1.1 Aim

To develop an innovative and user friendly approach for the acquiring and mosaicking high
resolution imagery obtained from Google Earth Professional thereby facilitating the availability of
GIS data using off-the-shelf secured-GIS- method.

1.2 Objectives

To understand off-the-shelf GIS data acquisition method

To develop a secured method of obtaining high resolution imagery from web based Google
earth
To use GIS algorithms associating data preparation
And to get geodata ready for information extraction

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Chapter 2

Tools /Software packages

This section describes the materials or tools used in (acquiring and mosaicking high resolution
imagery acquired as off-the-shelf data from Google earth professional. The tools used for
completing this work are

Google Earth Professional Version,

TTQV, Leica Erdas Imagine 9.2
ESRI ArcGIS 9.2
Windows XP operating system

Google Earth Professional

Figure 1 Screen shot of Google Earth centered in African Continent

According to Wikipedia and Google, Google Earth is unlikely to operate on older hardware
configurations. The most recent downloads available on the internet have the following minimum
system configurations:

Pentium 3, 500 MHz with 128 MB RAM

12.7 MB free disk space (400 MB for Linux), Network speed: 128 kb/s
16MB 3D-capable graphics card
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 Resolution of 1024x768, 16-bit High Color
Windows XP or Windows 2000, Windows Vista(not Windows ME compatible), Linux and Mac
OS X

Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings
and even explore galaxies in the Sky. You can explore rich geographical content, save your toured
places and share with others.

TTQV

More information about this software package can be obtained at the address:
http://www.ttqv.com/. With the aid of this package images up to 500 tiles with associating
referenced information can be obtained from Google Earth Professional edition. The figure below
shows a screenshot of TTQV in operation mode. A test version that last one month is available for
download at the vendor’s website.

Figure 2 Screen shot of TTQV

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 Leica Erdas Imagine 9.2

LEICA ERDAS IMAGINE is a suite of software tools designed specifically to process geospatial
imagery. It allows you to extract data from images like a seasoned professional, regardless of your
experience or education. This imaging software was used for subsetting and mosaicking the acquired
images. The subset algorithm was used to remove unwanted areas associating the captured images
while the mosaic process merges image.

Figure 3 Screenshot of Leica Erdas Imagine 9.2 showing available tools

ERDAS IMAGINE®, from Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging, is the foremost imagery software
package, used throughout the geospatial community. Designed for image processing, it’s easy-to-
learn, easy-to-use and comprehensive collection of tools will help you create, manage and analyze
accurate base imagery that enhances all your geospatial information

ESRI ArcGIS 9.2

Information on ESRI ArcGIS 9.2 can be obtained at www.esri.com. ArcGIS was only used for
visualizing images, visualizing the images gives insights of the final results. This can also be
performed in other imaging software like Adobe Photoshop.

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 Chapter 3

Methodological Approach

The tasks carried out in this chapter are broken down into the following procedures:

Creating workspace
Google Earth illustrated
Tools preparation and Capturing image from Google Earth
Subset images
Mosaic images

3.1 Creating workspace

Since this approach involves navigating from one folder to the other and file checking, the
orientation of the files and folders to be used should be well planned. In this work images captured
from different locations within a region are stored in separate folders. For example folders
containing images captured for Sudan are labeled Darfur and Al Khartoum; respectively Darfur
folder should contain three folders.

Folder structure

Each folder for any location contains two folders:

F1: First folder: Images of first screen shots

F2: Second folder: Images of second screen shots or overlapping images

F3: Third folder: Images containing subsetted images from operation carried on F2

Structurally, F3 are subset images of F2.

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3.2 Google Earth Illustrated

The following figure will be used along explaining this report; figure will be referred to using
numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 for easy workflow and documentation.

1
2

3 4

1 shows Google Earth Menu

2 shows Google Earth Compass

3 shows Google Earth Layers

4 shows Google Earth Logo and Altitude

Figure 4 Illustrating Google Earth Settings

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 1. Google Earth Menu

Figure 4A Illustrating the Menu bar and View

2. Google Earth Compass

Figure 4B Illustrating the Compass

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 3. Google Earth Layers

Figure 4C Illustrating the available layers

4. Google Earth Logo and Altitude

Figure 4D illustrating the available layers

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3.3 Tools Preparation

In this work before images were captured the following preparatory steps were performed:

Zooming in to altitude and area of interest

Planning overlapping technique
Adjusting Google Earth Settings
Setting up TTQV and Capturing images (First and second overlapping set)

3.3.1 Zooming in to altitude and area of interest

Figure 5 Google Earth showing area of interest at 1000 meters. The compass can be used to
zoom to desired altitude

This step is to zoom in to Area of Interest (AOI) using the compass tool and altitude respectively
labeled 2 and 4 in Figure 4 (the compass tool controls the altitude). Altitude might vary depending
on the features the researcher wants to visualize. In our work, we have used 500 meters to enhance
visual analysis and information extraction processes. Generally, the number of images to be
captured depends on the desired altitude, AOI size and the screen size.

Since names might likely exist in more than one location, we have used coordinates to search for
AOI. For instance the coordinates 39.032N, 125.748E when entered in Google Earth search bar the
images will be centered in Pyongyang, Korea.

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3.3.2 Planning overlapping technique

The aim of this step is to arrange the start position of the first and second sets images to be
captured in order to get overlapping areas between them. This section will be described
diagrammatically.

Work Scenario: 39.032N, 125.748E is chosen as a center point of my area of interest which is 100
square kilometers. The below figure shows the position is indicated by the arrow in Google Earth:

Figure 6 showing position of coordinates in Google Earth

To get an area of 100 square kilometers with the center point at the middle, measurements were
made using the ruler tool of Google Earth shown below. From the center point distances of 5
kilometers were made to four vertices as represented by the figure below:

5km 5km

Center point >>

10km

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Figure 7 Google Earth ruler tool

The measurement was performed by zooming out for screen view and using the ruler tool as shown
below: The distance shown below is 3.81 kilometers

Figure 8 Measuring distance in Google Earth

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Figure 9 showing points measured from the center

Points ABCD are measured using the ruler of Google Earth, point A is the first set image starting
point, the next step is to zoom to point A and take a new point for the second set starting point.

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Figure 10 shows point –A- 500 meters altitude

For calculating a new starting point for the second set of images, no calculation were made, a
point is chosen visually by using the compass and pan tool to ensure a sufficient amount of
overlapping. As shown below A1 is the start point for second set images.

Figure 11 showing points A and A1 as starting points for image capturing

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3.3.3 Adjusting Google Earth Settings

This step is to adjust the settings and configuration. It is performed after selecting the desired
starting points described in the last section. The aim is to eliminate as much objects that might
overlay captured images. Recalling Figure 4A, using the view tab, the toolbar, compass, status bar,
atmosphere can be unchecked to remove from screen. The logo shown in Figure 4D cannot be
removed as this is the Google official log.

Re-Figure 4A Illustrating the Menu bar and View

Figure11 below shows two screen shots of Google Earth when the objects are switched on and off.
The difference between images is that when the features are turned off, the image has no overlays
as it would be in the other case.

Warning: During image capture do not open other window

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Google Earth features turned on

Features turned off

Figure 12 Google Earth showing when Google Earth features are turned on and off

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3.3.3 Setting up TTQV and Capturing image from Google Earth

This step has to be performed after all preparation steps are successfully completed. Below is an
illustration of how to start to capture images using TTQV. While Google Earth is running with start
point in position, press the R key in the keyboard to flatten the image on screen and in Windows,
go to Programmes – click Touratech QV4; the below figure appears.

Figure 13 Creating a new database in TTQV

 Setting and Procedures

In the figure above, right click the QV Data and click new database, right click the new database to
rename it. The following dialog box appears

Figure 14 Import maps from Google Earth dialog box

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From the above dialog box, the File Name points to the folder already created (this is the location
for the first sets of captured images. The other settings are customized specifically for this work.
The rows to the south and columns to the east depend entirely on the coverage size and can vary
from location to location.

Figure 15 Import maps from Google Earth dialog box

(Second set or overlapping images location in file name)

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Figure 16 Screen shot of Google Earth and TTQV just before capturing starts-Click OK to start
capturing

The time taken for capturing depends on the number of images set to capture. When capturing is
finished, the captured images are stored in the specified location. The folder below shows files:

Figure 17 Folder containing captured images

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Below are examples of images obtained when images are captured using the two starting points
described in Figure 11:

Starting point-A

Starting point-A1

Figure 18 showing first images of both set of capturing operation. Point-A1 image will be
subsetted to remove Google logo right below
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Figure 19 Example of images when displayed in ArcGIS to visualize overlapping areas before
subset operation. Visually the overlapping area can be seen before performing subset.

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Chapter 4

Subsetting and Mosaicking Images

4.1 Subsetting Images

This process is proposed to remove unwanted areas from captured images. In this work, the second
set of images contained in F2 will be used for this process (see Section 3.1).

To subset Erdas Imagine the following steps were taken:

Open first image in F2 in Erdas Imagine Geospatial Viewer

Figure 19 Image opened in Erdas Imagine Geospatial Viewer

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 Activate the Inquire box from the Utility tab

On the GLT Viewer, click on the Utility tab and click on Inquire Box, a small dialog box
and a rectangular box appears as shown below. Use the rectangular tool to size area
to remove Google logo and trademark in image.

Figure 20 Activating Inquire Box in Erdas Imagine Geospatial Viewer

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 Activating Subset tool and using the Batch Process

Click the DataPrep tab and

click Subset Image. The figures
below show the complete
process.

(a)

(b)

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 Subset dialog box
of Erdas Imagine

Batch process
To load multiple
images

(c)

(d)

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(e)

(f)

Load images for subset

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(g) Multiple images loaded

Click on Finish to start

Subsetting process

(h)

Figure 21 (a –h): Diagrammatic description of Batch Subset Process

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4.2 Mosaic Image

This process is performed after completing the batch subset process. This process merges the first
and second sets of images as shown in Figure 19 using F1 and F3 images (see definitions in Section
3.1).

Using the DataPrep tool (Figure 21b), click on Mosaic Images tool to display the mosaic dialog box in
Figure 22

To add images for mosaic, click on the tool shown below in the box

Click on this tool to

load images for mosaic
as shown in next figure

Figure 22 Erdas Imagine Mosaic dialog box

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 Click on this tab to
change mosaic image
area option

In this work, the

Compute Active Area
option was used

Figure 23 Erdas Imagine Mosaic and Add Images dialog box

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Figure 24 showing F1 images in mosaic dialog box

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Figure 25 showing F3 (Subsetted overlapping images) images in mosaic dialog box

To start mosaic process, click on the Process in the dialog box above, see Figure 26 below

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 Process tab- Run process

Figure 27 showing how to run the mosaic process

The Run Process command prompt to save mosaic image (single image) as an output file

See Figure 28, give a file name and click on the OK tab. This process is repeated for different
locations.

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Figure 27 showing how to save output file

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Chapter 5

Conclusion

The above process is carried out repeatedly for the locations covering our area of interest and can
be applied to any location around the globe covered with high resolution Google images. The overall
process will depend on the type of computer used in relation to RAM size and processor speed, the
availability of Google Pro License, the size of area coverage, internet speed and finally ability to
manage tasks appropriately.

It is important to mention that the procedures implemented in this work are concepts brought
together because of the need for geodata and was successful due to constant practice. In the future
or further research work can be used to improve or speed up this process.

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References

Erdas Imagine
Internet site: http://www.erdas.com/
Date accessed: 10/09/2008

TTQV
Internet site: http://www.ttqv.com/
Date accessed: 10/09/2008

Wikipedia
Internet site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Earth#Resolution_and_accuracy
Date accessed: 8/07/2008

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