All posts by Juan B. Plaza

What AI Can Do for GIS

Part 2 By Juan B. Plaza and Giulio Maffini Before we can even attempt to describe what AI can do for GIS, we need to understand what a GIS is and how it is used. What do these three letters mean? A pretty good definition is: A geographic information system consists of integrated computer hardware...

Interview with ChatGPT

Answers to Questions put to ChatGPT 3.5 Validating our Thought Experiment Premises  How do you convert an ArcGIS vector map to a Geodesic Planetary Model using a Quaternary Triangular Mesh (QTM)   ChatGPT:Converting an ArcGIS vector map to a Geodesic Planetary Model using a Quaternary Triangular Mesh (QTM) is a complex process that involves several steps....

The Complex Issue of AI and GIS

Part 1 We attended remotely the ESRI User’s Conference (UC) held in San Diego on July 10th and, for the first time, saw and heard how the leading commercial GIS software company in the world positioned itself for the use of AI in its products. It is reasonable to assume that AI can make GIS...

AI in the Sky

Will artificial intelligence solve the beyond visual line of sight problem for uncrewed aerial vehicles? For more than a decade now we have been moving more and more processes and tasks from crewed aviation to drones in a variety of industries, but the promise of widespread massive deployment of these electrically powered wonders is still...

The Responsibility to Map the U.S. Coastline

(And the Inevitability of New Geodetic and Tidal Datums) Since the arrival of the first pilgrims to the North American continent, there has been a need for precise knowledge of the coastline of the new country, and the reasons are obvious. Arrival by boat was the only alternative when crossing the Atlantic and escaping religious...

A Decade of Uncrewed Photogrammetry

Some might have had a peek at photogrammetry drones before 2013, but for me 2023 marks a decade since I first laid eyes on an uncrewed aircraft that “claimed” to do what I had been doing for years in bigger, more stable airplanes in the joyful company of pilots, copilots, camera operators, and navigators.  In...