Category Archives: techadvisory

The spatial password

A secret spot – a potential password? Hardly anyone knows about this 5 meter high rock face in the forests outside Trondheim.

Remembering passwords takes focus and time. I want to authenticate myself without having to write in a meanlingless stream of characters. I am on a weekly basis nagged by different systems to change my paswords.

We already have several biometrically based authentications metods. Fingerprints, iris scans, selfies, hand geometry and what have you. More are probably more to come. The jury is out on several of the metods. I will leave this to the experts.

Being a geographer my favourite authentication metod will rely on spatially referenced secrets buried deep inside my mind. I want to propose a novel metod for authentication. I want to use a map to navigate to a place which has a special meaning for me. It would basically work like this:

  1. I am stating my username (written)
  2. The system then asks me to authenticate my user status by asking me for one or several geographical position.

The position could be the answer to questions like these:

  • Where did you find your wallet when you lost it in 2012?
  • Where was your father born?
  • What is your favourite place to pick blueberries?
  • Where is the secret rockface outside Trondheim?
  • Where did you spend the night the 17th of november 1995?
  • and so on…

My answer would be made not by entering a string of characters. I would answer the question by panning and zooming a map to the  particular place. My answer would be to place a pin somewhere.

The method could be strengthening by asking for a combination of several places, or by varying the required precision in my answer. The answer (coordinates backoffice) would then be used to establish a string which again is the authentication variable (password).

Here are some combinations of the screen based password:

  • One position
  • Several positions
  • User traces a path

Real position combinations

  • Actual position represents the password
  • transport between several position srepresents the password
  • A track based on movements represents the password

The method will of course have it’s weaknesses. But it could work. And if someone already made this – then please send me a link!

An other variation of this method could be physical location or relocation in a given pattern. This would of course require a positional system which can not be spoofed, but where the position and its reporting is possible to confirm.

Uganda QGIS and remote sensing workshop

qgisThis week I had the privilege of coordinating a workshop on QGIS and remote sensing in Kampala, Uganda. Our trainers were Thomas Ballatore and Shane Bradt. We were very pleased with their walkthroughs and presentations of crucial software and plugins. The training is part of the Norwegian Oil for Development Program.

The focus was of course QGIS. But to be hones BEAM Visat was a real eye-opener. Yes, I have been introduced to the software while working in an expert group on satellite imagery. We earlier this year concluded a report for the Norwegian Space Centre where BEAM Visat was mentioned as one of several crucial components for handling remote sensing data. But – the workshop provided an applied context which gave me a whole new perspective to both software and methods.

Continue reading

Converting shapefiles to Mission Planner .poly-files

15-9-plannedMission Planner by Michael Oborne is an impressive piece of software. It is used to program the open-source APM autopilot. The autopilot is used to control planes, copters and rovers. I have used Mission Planner a lot and I can not do without.

Some years ago I started making a map for the Mindland island in the archipelago of Norway using a GPS, OpenStreetMap and Bing aerial imagery. The main driver for this project was to document old place names. With the drones becoming somewhat of a hobby last year I thought it would be nice to also establish a proper open license ortophoto for the island. Mission planner has what it takes to approach such a task in a structured manner, save for one thing. The polygon tool only imports .poly-files.

When working with maps some of us tend to stick with shapefiles or geodatabases. I have made a small script which allows for the conversion of a shapefile with a geographic coordinate system (wgs84) to as many .poly files as there are objects in the shapefile. Adding the functionality to Mission Planner has been indicated as possible, but has yet to materialise. So until then the script associated with this posting remains relevant. Continue reading

Processing Sentinel 2 satellite imagery in Norway

ANB-11-05_frontpage_shadowThe second report on “Preparations for acquisition and application of optical satellite data for Norway Digital” (Gjertsen et al) written for the Norwegian Space Agency has now been published.

This report is a continuation of the work presented in the report “Preparations for acquisition and application of optical satellite data for Norway Digital” (Trollvik et al., 2012). The main goal has been to specify the requirements for a national satellite data centre for optical satellite data from the Sentinel-2 and Landsat series Earth observation satellites. The main objective of a national satellite data centre is to facilitate easy access to and use of Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8 data for Norwegian users. Continue reading

QDGC shapefiles available for national and continental scale distribution

Aqdgc_logo new set of the Quarter Degree Grid Cell shapefiles has been generated. The update is global and delivers an error fix for the country level files as well as a new product – continent level files.

The QDGC shapefiles contain center lon/lat coordinates and the QDGC string for the different squares. The files are offered down to level four. For a country around the equator level four covers around 45 square kilometers with length and height a little under seven kilometres.

Read more about the use of QDGC on this page:

The calculations/export  this time took around 60 hours computer pricessing time including generation of world fishnet with the different sizes, square area calculations, assigning QDGC strings, compression and more. Continue reading

Rekreasjonsorientert bruk av droner – 2

Quadcopter etter en litt hard landing.

Arm på quadkopter etter en litt for hard landing

OBS: Artikkelen nedenfor er nå et par år gammel. Nye lover og forskrifte han ha blitt vedtatt. Teknologien beveger seg også videre.I en tidligere posting beskrev jeg om de juridiske rammene som omfatter privat bruk av et quadkopter (drone). I denne postingen vil jeg se litt på erfaringer gjort etter om lag 20 flyvninger med et quadcopter på en avsidesliggende gård på Mindland – en øy på Helgelandskysten.

Jeg vil belyse to av de viktigste forholdene rundt utprøvingen av quadcopteret. Det er riktig å starte med sikkerhet. Deretter vil jeg se på tekniske forhold rundt denne utprøvingen.
Continue reading

Online in Timor Leste – update

logoI have now been three times in Timor Lestewithin a year. My first time was 14 days in September 2011. My only regret from that trip was not being able to use a local sim-card in my iPhone. Cards were bought, contacts with Timor Telecom were made, numerous efforts made – but in the end of the day I failed miserably. Turned out my cellphone provider back home in Norway had not unlocked my phone.

Last time, in March, I had decided enough was enough. I wanted to get on line in Timor Leste, but it took some efforts to get through with what was the plan. I am now here for a third time. With past experiences it took me less than an hour from landing at the airport until I had a new micro-sim-card in my iPhone.

This is an update of an article first posted feb 29th, 2012 @11:26 Continue reading

Clearinghouse for the environment – the scaffolding (I)

In our work with development cooperation GIS we have come to a point where we find it necessary to establish an overall publication system for environmental information. We will do this together with some of our partners. The system, a clearinghouse, should enable our partners to present project related information to the general public.

A draft system was set up and documented in a former posting on this website. In the article, Environmental Spatial Data Infrastructure – technology, I described the system and some of the challenges. In this article I am taking it a bit further, hoping to stimulate to discussions about how such a system could be implemented.

This posting is about designing a clearinghouse predominantly intended for environmental data. It describes a work in progress. We are working on a requirements document and this posting is ment to inform interested parties about the work. Inputs to our work is both asked for and necessary.

Continue reading

The rise of an amateur architect

Our family owns a house in the northern parts of Norway. The family spends around eight weeks there a year fishing, mowing the lawn, hiking, meeting family, eating good food and more. I have also spent a considerable part of my spare time sitting in Trondheim mapping the island using OpenStreetMap.

In all honest, the main house is due for some upgrades and repairs. We have started by upgrading two of the upstairs bedrooms. But more complex tasks are in line. The current bath was built by my grandfather some 30 years ago. The kitchen could need some paint. A wall should be torn down. And on and on it goes…

How do we plan these changes? How do we play around with our options? Pen and paper? Software? I have been looking for a tool which would let me plan the whole “estate” – from garden to loft. Line of sight analysis, landscape modelling, logging changes, versioning etc…

Ideally it should be an open source product. Easy to use. Sophisticated. Should handle modelling. Integrate with Google Earth or OpenStreetMap. I would like to have a tool integrating the best from OpenStreetMap with some fantastic architecture software. I want it all, I want it now – and preferably for free as well.

Continue reading