Luciad Client Implementation Engineering Reports | OGC

50 Copyright © 2011 Open Geospatial Consortium.

7.8 Luciad Client Implementation

Luciad contributed a client application to access the SAA data through the various OGC services used in the project. The application is built with the LuciadMap software suite, offering a number of OGC-standards based components and an application framework for rapid application development. Figure 7-13 shows the client and the services with which it interacts. The following sections highlight the features of the client application relevant for the SAA Pilot. Figure 7-13. Client-Service Interaction Overview The application provides its users with flexible means for efficient queries to WFS services for SAA data. These queries can be based on a geographical region andor a time interval. Additionally, an interface to the Event Service guarantees that the user is kept informed of any updates to the SAA data. The client supports four key features for effective use of the SAA data set: 1. 3D visualization 2. Time-dependent styling 3. Data browsing 4. User-defined styling The first feature is 3D visualization. The airspaces can be rendered as 3D volumes, based on the 3D constructive geometry operations specified in the data. These operations are used a lot in SAA airspaces and sometimes result in difficulties when trying to give a correct view of the airspace in 2D. Visualizing the data in 3D gives the user an optimal view on both the shape and the height of an airspace. An example is illustrated in Figure 7-14. In this example, the airspace geometry is defined by a base geometry and a circular subtraction. Due to a difference between the height of the base geometry and the subtracted geometry, the operation results in a blind hole. In 2D, it is not possible to describe such a blind hole without adding annotations to the map. This is not a problem in 3D, where you can clearly see the result of the subtraction. Copyright © 2011 Open Geospatial Consortium. 51 Figure 7-14. Airspace with partial hole in 3D A second feature is time-dependent styling, using the activation status and time before activation to choose a specific rendering style for an airspace. The time-dependent styling is very relevant as the most important use cases for flight planners are to know when an SAA is active. By using specific styles for the SAA based on their status, the flight planners get visual aids allowing them to work more efficiently. The information on the status of an SAA is contained in the extensive AIXM 5 temporality model. The resulting feature is illustrated in Figure 7-15. Airspaces that are active are displayed in red, while inactive airspaces are displayed in grey. Additionally, a color code is used for airspaces that will become active within 8 hours. This gives a visual indication of how much time is left before the airspace is activated. This enables flight planners to simulate their flight efficiently without having to dig through the data themselves. 52 Copyright © 2011 Open Geospatial Consortium. Figure 7-15. Time slider with active and inactive airspaces Next to a visual appearance on the map, users may also be interested in accessing the properties of the SAA data. To support this use case, the client application displays a convenient data browsing component for a selected airspace, illustrated in figure Figure 7-16. This component gives access to all available data properties in a way that is similar to a web browser. Users can simply follow a link from top level features to nested features or from one feature to a linked feature. Copyright © 2011 Open Geospatial Consortium. 53 Figure 7-16. SAA data browsing One style to visualize the SAA data does not fit the needs of all users. A flight planner wants to know what airspaces affect a potential flight route; an airspace designer may want to see the separate SAA components; while another user might be interested in the different types of airspaces. All of these needs can be fulfilled in one application by allowing custom user-defined styles. These styles can be defined in the OGC Symbology Encoding format, and stored in an online Web Registry Service. This enables you to define a set of styles that can be shared between users. The use of an open format ensures that they can be used across a range of applications. Figure 7-17. SAA type-based styling 54 Copyright © 2011 Open Geospatial Consortium.

7.9 Component integration with FUSE ESB