Sanborn Observes 150th Anniversary
Sanborn Observes 150th Anniversary

High-Tech Mapping Firm Celebrates Notable Heritage

Colorado Springs, Colo. (April 11, 2016)—The Sanborn Map Company Inc. (Sanborn) is well known by its customers as a cutting-edge technology firm, but its rich history often surprises many. Founded in 1866 to produce fire insurance maps, modern-day Sanborn offers high-tech mapping services that include mobile and aerial light detection and ranging (Lidar), aerial oblique imagery and orthoimagery, 3-D visualization, autonomous robotic indoor mapping, FAA-approved unmanned aircraft system (UAS) services and more.

“It’s highly satisfying to note our strong technology leadership position in today’s market while at the same time reflecting on a host of achievements comprising our 150-year legacy,” says John Copple, Sanborn CEO. “It’s a little-known fact that Sanborn even made key contributions to America’s World War II efforts.”

Celebrating Storied Success

Copple refers to when the company secretly housed classified Allied invasion maps critical to the D-Day invasion of Normandy in its historic Pelham, NY, building. That building is 110 years old this year and Westchester County has declared April 20 as “Sanborn Map Building Day” to honor both the building and company anniversaries.

Sanborn’s legendary fire insurance maps are distinctive because of their sophisticated set of symbols that precisely and clearly convey complex information. The Library of Congress Sanborn map collection includes some 50,000 editions of the maps comprising an estimated 700,000 individual sheets dating back to 1867. The maps depict commercial, industrial and residential sections of some 12,000 cities and towns across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Focus on Innovation Drives Technology Leadership

Continually extending its rich mapping tradition, Sanborn remains positioned at the forefront of modern geospatial technology. The company pioneered the collection and delivery of digital orthoimagery. It’s now at the leading edge of collecting and processing high-resolution oblique aerial imagery and designing derivative products.

The firm boasts one of the world’s premier oblique imagery collections, which is growing by leaps and bounds. In 2015, Sanborn added approximately 2.8 million new images to its Oblique Imagery Solutions database and provides proprietary tools, such as Sanborn Oblique Analyst software, so its customers can extract the maximum value from the imagery.

Sanborn also offers 6-inch resolution orthoimagery covering the entire continental United States in both natural color and infrared products, and has one of the industry’s widest range of 3-D, off-the-shelf mapping products. These include 3D Buildings, a suite of modeling products designed for 3-D visualization and geographic information system (GIS) applications; 3D Cities for virtual city implementation; and CitySets, which comprise digital datasets covering the core downtown areas of most major U.S metropolitan areas.

About The Sanborn Map Company, Inc.

Sanborn (www.sanborn.com) is a preeminent innovator in the geospatial industry, delivering state-of-the-art mapping, visualization and 3-D solutions to customers worldwide. The firm currently operates a fleet of 14 aircraft located strategically across the United States. Embracing cutting-edge technology, Sanborn specializes in oblique aerial imagery, aerial and mobile light detection and ranging (Lidar) mapping, aerial orthophotography, 3-D modeling and visualization software and services, indoor mapping with its proprietary SPIN robot, unmanned aircraft system (UAS) sales, services and image processing, and a host of geospatial software products.

Please contact:
Jason Caldwell
(719) 593-0093
jcaldwell@sanborn.com

To view the original version of this release on PR Newswire, click here.

Sanborn Avenger UAS
Sanborn Commercial Drone Services in Full Swing

Colorado Springs, Colo. (Dec. 29, 2015)—The Sanborn Map Company, Inc. (Sanborn) announces that several of its seasoned pilots have completed extensive unmanned aircraft system (UAS) training and now are qualified to perform commercial flights with the firm’s UAS. Earlier in 2015, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted Sanborn a Section 333 Exemption to commercially operate a UAS.

“Our pilots are among the nation’s most skilled at performing complex mapping missions,” says Sanchit Agarwal, director of mapping operations. “Their vast knowledge and experience will seamlessly transfer to our UAS operations, putting Sanborn at the forefront of offering exceptional UAS services anywhere in the United States.”

Sanborn already has successfully completed several commercial UAS data collection projects, as well as numerous test flights to validate the system’s geospatial data collection capabilities. The efforts have resulted in unprecedented data accuracy and resolution, enabling a broad portfolio of services that include high-quality, engineering-grade digital terrain models (DTMs) exceeding 2-inch accuracy; multispectral frame imagery at sub-centimeter resolution; crisp, vibration-free video; high-resolution light detection and ranging (Lidar) data; and thermal imaging data.

In addition to providing UAS flight services, Sanborn offers a full range of professional image processing and analysis services for all UAS imagery collected. As with all Sanborn offerings, the firm’s UAS data is available as a licensed product within the firm’s cloud service, allowing customers to cost-effectively store and securely access their data around the clock. Customers also can purchase and host the data on their own servers if desired.

Several functional examples of how Sanborn serves customers with its UAS include damage assessment and response efforts, site mapping, water resource mapping, volumetric assessment and asset estimation, highway survey and accident mapping, corridor asset review, assessment, and mapping, and precision agriculture.

About Sanborn’s UAS

Sanborn’s commercial UAS is a vertical take off and landing (VTOL) platform with a hefty 15-pound payload capacity. This enables the use of a wide range of sophisticated sensors or combinations of sensors, including video, multispectral, hyperspectral and infrared (thermal). The high-performance aircraft features a full military-grade autopilot with GPS waypoints and laser altimeters that are integrated with its sensor payload, permitting pinpoint sensor control. Additionally, the rugged aircraft has demonstrated amazing reliability, including maximum stability in winds up to 50 mph.

About The Sanborn Map Company, Inc.

Sanborn is a preeminent leader in the exploding geospatial industry, delivering state-of-the-art mapping solutions to customers worldwide. The firm currently operates a fleet of 14 aircraft located strategically across the United States. Embracing cutting-edge technology, Sanborn specializes in oblique aerial imagery, aerial and mobile light detection and ranging (Lidar) mapping, aerial orthophotography, 3-D modeling and visualization software and services, indoor mapping with its proprietary SPIN robot, unmanned aircraft system (UAS) sales, services and image processing, and a host of geospatial software development.

Please contact:
Jason Caldwell
(719) 593-0093
jcaldwell@sanborn.com

To view the original version of this release on PR Newswire, click here.

Sanborn Oblique Imagery - National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C.
Sanborn Expands Extensive Oblique Imagery Collection

Mapping Firm Adds Nearly 3 Million New Oblique Images in 2015

Colorado Springs, Colo. (Dec. 22, 2015)— Just as The Sanborn Map Company, Inc. (Sanborn) pioneered mobile light detection and ranging (Lidar) mapping at the turn of the century, the firm now is at the leading edge of collecting and processing high-resolution oblique aerial imagery. In 2015, Sanborn added 2.8 million new images to its Oblique Imagery Solutions line of products, including fresh coverage of 107 new cities. Sanborn now has the one of the nation’s fastest growing collections of oblique imagery products, with the acquisition of 12 million new high-resolution oblique images covering more than 200 U.S. cities during the last two years.

Sanborn offers its Oblique Imagery Solutions as a licensed product available within the firm’s cloud service, which allows customers to cost-effectively store and securely access their data around the clock. Customers also can purchase and host the data on their own servers if desired. Additionally, Sanborn’s uniquely liberal data licensing policy offers a terrific value proposition for its customers.

“We’re still in the early innings of the broad-based adoption of oblique imagery as a cost-effective way to view and analyze urban areas for a host of applications,” says Jason Caldwell, Sanborn VP of business development and sales. “As our customers continue to recognize how oblique imagery can streamline their workflows by greatly enhancing the visualization and analysis of all types of infrastructure, Sanborn will have the nation’s most current and accurate oblique data ready for them.”

When customers purchase Sanborn’s Oblique Imagery Solutions products, they also receive Oblique Analyst, the firm’s proprietary web-based oblique imagery viewer featuring a suite of tools that enables easy analysis of oblique imagery. Oblique Analyst presents all five views of a building or structure—nadir and four 45° oblique angles—and provides the ability to select any view as the primary one. A built-in compass feature lets users know the current view as they pan and zoom around a project area to analyze and extract critical information from the image.

About Sanborn Oblique Imagery Technology

Sanborn’s Oblique Imagery Solutions products comprise aerial imagery that gives users multiple views of any location. Upholding its reputation for product innovation and technology leadership, the firm captures the imagery with five separate state-of-the-art cameras at once, resulting in the highest-quality oblique data available in today’s marketplace. The imagery is georeferenced and delivered to users in a format that makes it easy to view, analyze and use effectively.

About The Sanborn Map Company, Inc.

Sanborn is a preeminent leader in the exploding geospatial industry, delivering state-of-the-art mapping solutions to customers worldwide. The firm currently operates a fleet of 14 aircraft located strategically across the United States. Embracing cutting-edge technology, Sanborn specializes in oblique aerial imagery, aerial and mobile light detection and ranging (Lidar) mapping, aerial orthophotography, 3-D modeling and visualization software and services, indoor mapping with its proprietary SPIN robot, unmanned aircraft system (UAS) sales, services and image processing, and a host of geospatial software development.

Please contact:
Jason Caldwell
(719) 593-0093
jcaldwell@sanborn.com

To view the original version of this release on PR Newswire, click here.

MOBILE LIDAR Glacier National Park
Sanborn Maps Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks

High-Resolution Lidar Data Help Ensure Effective Road Repairs

Colorado Springs, Colo. (Dec. 3, 2015)—The Sanborn Map Company, Inc. (Sanborn) has completed mobile Lidar data collection for two corridors in Glacier National Park and one corridor in Yellowstone National Park totaling approximately 40 linear miles.

Sanborn was selected for the project to provide data that could be used to determine the level of effort and cost to resurface the roads, which are in dire need of repair. In Yellowstone alone, about 185 miles of main roads are in a structurally deficient state, with poor quality road bases failing under the weight, speed and volume of modern traffic, for which they were not designed. Harsh winter weather and short construction seasons in both parks provide additional challenges.

During the 2015 fall season, Sanborn acquired the Lidar point clouds, which were particularly dense with 300-500 points per square meter, along with accompanying georeferenced imagery. The firm’s post-acquisition approach involved auto-filtering the point clouds in the ground and non-ground classes. The points in the ground class were used to derive road centerlines and edges of pavement, and the non-ground points were used to derive guardrails in vector format.

“This project was particularly rewarding because both of these parks truly are national treasures,” notes Arjan Mooij, Sanborn program manager. “There’s no doubt that the quality data we provided will help streamline the process for their much-needed road repairs.”

Sanborn is a mobile-mapping technology pioneer, with solid experience dating back to 2001. The firm’s advanced mobile mapping system combines Lidar with high-resolution video to meet the accuracy required for modern engineering-grade applications and solutions. With a system delivering better than 5-centimeter accuracy and image resolution as fine as 1 centimeter, Sanborn’s mobile mapping products and services provide unprecedented 3-D detail, while offering the efficiency of data capture at vehicle speeds of up to 60 mph.

About The Sanborn Map Company, Inc.

Sanborn is a preeminent leader in the exploding geospatial industry, delivering state-of-the-art mapping solutions to customers worldwide. The firm currently operates a fleet of 14 aircraft located strategically across the United States. Embracing cutting-edge technology, Sanborn specializes in oblique aerial imagery, aerial and mobile light detection and ranging (Lidar) mapping, aerial orthophotography, 3-D modeling and visualization software and services, indoor mapping with its proprietary SPIN robot, unmanned aircraft system (UAS) sales, services and image processing, and a host of geospatial software development.

Please contact:
Jason Caldwell
(719) 593-0093
jcaldwell@sanborn.com

To view the original version of this release on PR Newswire, click here.

LiDAR 3D Wireframe Extraction
Sanborn Helps Boulder Solar Maps Shine

3-D Building Data Foundational for City’s Rooftop Solar Tool

Colorado Springs, Colo. (Nov. 17, 2015)—In pursuit of transitioning its community to clean, local, affordable and reliable energy, the City of Boulder selected The Sanborn Map Company, Inc. (Sanborn) to optimize its 3-D building data for use as the cornerstone of the city’s Rooftop Solar Tool. The tool helps citizens determine how much electricity can be produced on their rooftop from a solar photovoltaic (PV) system, what system may work best, and estimate their system cost and payback time.

Sanborn designed a fully automated, time-saving workflow that efficiently extracted 3-D building wireframes by auto-filtering the city’s Lidar point cloud in the ground, building and vegetation classes. Sanborn then tested and fine-tuned the parameters—depending on the land-cover and type of terrain—and the points in the building class were used to derive 2-D building polygons. Finally, the 2-D polygons were used to create bounding boxes to extract the 3-D wireframes. Altogether, Sanborn extracted wireframes for more than 40,000 buildings with this approach. The data was found to be more than 90 percent accurate, far surpassing the city’s requirement of 80 percent accuracy.

“For many community members, Boulder’s Rooftop Solar Tool will spark the conversation about what is possible in terms of personal—and communitywide—power generation. For others, it will provide the information they need to take the next step toward going solar,” says David Driskell, the city’s executive director of community planning and sustainability. “This exciting development represents a key step on our community’s path to clean, local power.”

The project has identified 553 Megawatts of potential high-yield photovoltaic capacity capable of delivering 740,000 Megawatt-hours per year. This is enough clean, renewable energy to power 70,000 American households, create more than $2 billion in local business, and offset carbon emissions equivalent to planting more than 11 million trees.

About The Sanborn Map Company, Inc.

Sanborn (www.sanborn.com) is a preeminent leader in the exploding geospatial industry, delivering state-of-the-art mapping solutions to customers worldwide. The firm currently operates a fleet of 14 aircraft located strategically across the United States. Embracing cutting-edge technology, Sanborn specializes in oblique aerial imagery, aerial and mobile light detection and ranging (Lidar) mapping, aerial orthophotography, 3-D modeling and visualization software and services, indoor mapping with its proprietary SPIN robot, unmanned aircraft system (UAS) sales, services and image processing, and a host of geospatial software development.

Please contact:
Jason Caldwell
(719) 593-0093
jcaldwell@sanborn.com

To view the original version of this release on PR Newswire, click here.

Sanborn Drone Brings Denver Golf Courses to Life

High-Definition Images Give Golfers Incredible Bird’s-Eye Views

Colorado Springs, Colo. (Nov. 9, 2015)—The City of Denver has contracted with the Sanborn Map Company, Inc. (Sanborn) to collect high-resolution, full-motion video imagery of the city’s seven public golf courses and its Aqua Golf facility.

The city will use the images for marketing, as well as to give golfers a bird’s-eye view of every hole with realistic fly-overs down each fairway from the tee box to the green. Denver’s courses are among the most beautiful in the nation. Its Overland Park course is steeped with history, as it is the oldest operating course west of the Mississippi River.

“We launched our new golf website earlier this year and now we look forward to adding the Sanborn imagery,” says Leslie Wright, Denver Golf director of marketing. “Our course locations range from densely populated urban areas to mountainous terrain with elevations above 7,000 feet. We also had a very tight window in which to perform the work. Considering these diverse challenges, Sanborn has approached the project with a high degree of professionalism and has been great to work with.”

Sanborn employs a commercial-grade unmanned aircraft system (UAS) from Denver-based Leptron Unmanned Aircraft Systems. The UAS is capable of producing unprecedented accuracy and resolution, including high-quality, engineering-grade digital terrain models (DTMs) exceeding 2-inch accuracy; multispectral frame imagery at sub-centimeter resolution; and crisp, vibration-free video. Earlier this year, the Federal Aviation Administration granted Sanborn a Section 333 Exemption, which permits the firm to offer commercial UAS services nationwide.

“Sanborn’s UAS technology is a great fit for a host of customers,” affirms Sanchit Agarwal, director of mapping operations. “Among them are police and fire departments, agricultural operations, utilities, oil & gas concerns, emergency response managers, local government, mine operators and the media.”

In addition to media projects like the Denver golf courses, Sanborn’s UAS applications include damage assessment and response efforts, site mapping, water resource mapping, volumetric assessment and asset estimation, highway survey and accident mapping, corridor asset review, assessment and mapping, and precision agriculture.

Click here to view a Sanborn UAS video of the 17th hole at Denver’s Evergreen Golf Course.

About The Sanborn Map Company, Inc.

Sanborn (www.sanborn.com) is a preeminent leader in the exploding geospatial industry, delivering state-of-the-art mapping solutions to customers worldwide. The firm currently operates a fleet of 14 aircraft located strategically across the United States. Embracing cutting-edge technology, Sanborn specializes in oblique aerial imagery, aerial and mobile light detection and ranging (Lidar) mapping, aerial orthophotography, 3-D modeling and visualization software and services, indoor mapping with its proprietary SPIN robot, unmanned aircraft system (UAS) sales, services and image processing, and a host of geospatial software development.

Please contact:
Jason Caldwell
(719) 593-0093
jcaldwell@sanborn.com

To view the original version of this release on PR Newswire, click here.

Sanborn Technology Benefits Government Appraisers

Oblique Imagery Solution Reduces Costs, Boosts Efficiency

Colorado Springs, Colo. (Oct. 8, 2015)—The Sanborn Map Company, Inc. (Sanborn) offers a complete solution for government appraisers to decidedly streamline the process of property valuation. Using this process, some counties have reported adjusting the values of thousands of properties upward by millions of dollars, adding several hundred thousand dollars to annual tax rolls.

Sanborn provides the nation’s most accurate oblique aerial imagery, available in 2.5-inch, 3-inch, 4-inch and 6-inch resolutions, which enable extremely precise property measurement and assessment. Because the imagery is collected using multiple camera angles during the same flight, not only are the tops of buildings visible, but also the sides, allowing appraisers to discover features that may not be visible in traditional aerial imagery, or even by walking past the property.

Additionally, Sanborn provides automated change-detection tools that eliminate the time and expense of visually searching the data for new or altered features. The tools help speed up the appraisal process by highlighting areas where change has occurred.

“Most appraisers will realize a substantial return on investment with this technology because it significantly reduces the time and effort compared with traditional assessment approaches,” says Jason Caldwell, vice president of marketing and sales. “Sanborn’s solution allows government appraisers to efficiently analyze thousands of properties and assign the appropriate property values.”

Sanborn Data Licensing a Boon to Local Government

Additionally, because Sanborn offers the industry’s most liberal data licensing policies, appraisers can form partnerships to help share the cost of the imagery with other entities. Similar to the appraisal process, county planners can use the data to detect new zoning violations and monitor properties granted special-use status or some other variance from zoning code. Data sharing can include departments within the appraisers’ governments, such as public works, or separate entities within their jurisdictions, such as water or fire districts.

About The Sanborn Map Company, Inc.

Sanborn (www.sanborn.com) is a preeminent leader in the exploding geospatial industry, delivering state-of-the-art mapping solutions to customers worldwide. The firm currently operates a fleet of 14 aircraft located strategically across the United States. Embracing cutting-edge technology, Sanborn specializes in oblique aerial imagery, aerial and mobile light detection and ranging (Lidar) mapping, aerial orthophotography, 3-D modeling and visualization software and services, indoor mapping with its proprietary SPIN robot, unmanned aircraft system (UAS) sales, services and image processing, and a host of geospatial software development.

Please contact:
Jason Caldwell
(719) 593-0093
jcaldwell@sanborn.com

To view the original version of this release on PR Newswire, click here.

The Big Geospatial Data Management Lifecycle

The Big Geospatial Data Management Lifecycle as it pertains to a typical Sanborn customer – Part 1.

Illustration of the Big Data Management Lifecycle

Over the past few decades, as geospatial data has enabled increased efficiencies in management and operations for both government and private enterprise, there is greater understanding of the value in geospatial data. However, as geospatial data is put to more widespread use, many entities struggle with the acquisition, organization, and storage of Big Geospatial Data.

This blog series will provide an overview for each of the five primary components that make up the Big Geospatial Data Management Lifecycle.

Enterprise System Assessment1. Enterprise System Assessment

A successful enterprise geospatial system is based on well-defined user needs, functional requirements, and application specifications. For clients to get the most success out of Big Geospatial Data, they must first understand their current positions and decide on an approach that models the needs and purposes of their business operations. The Enterprise System Assessment is a critical stage in the lifecycle as it provides input for the entire cycle, which includes: data acquisition, data analysis, data distribution, and data maintenance.

As an example, orthophotography /orthoimagery are a key component to most customers’ base mapping needs. A thorough needs assessment prior to purchasing data will assist in determining multiple variables, such as: resolution, accuracy, refresh requirements, and storage requirements. Ensuring these variables are assessed prior to investment is an important aspect of the enterprise system assessment stage.

Existing or legacy client information can also be discovered at the Enterprise System Assessment stage and the information gathered may affect requirements for the Data Acquisition phase of the cycle. For example, conditions such as government-restricted access to a project area may play a role in the data acquisition decision making process. Sanborn recently completed a project where the client would allow only a single flight over the area of interest (AOI) – but the project required a complete aerial Lidar survey, a complete oblique aerial imagery acquisition, and a complete multi-spectral orthoimagery acquistion. Additionally, the client had existing GPS survey points and planimetric mapping data to employ in support of the Data Acquisition stage. The project requirements, existing client data and client restrictions identified through the Enterprise System Assessment led to an acquisition plan specific to this project.

Data Acquisition2. Data Acquisition

Data Acquisition can take many forms, including: satellite imagery, aerial photos, digital airborne systems, unmanned aerial systems (UAS), field investigations, and the import of existing databases and existing maps. Processing techniques are used to further refine acquired data into usable geospatial products such as orthomosaics and value-added data such as planimetric feature databases. The acquisition phase of the Big Data Management Lifecycle includes the development of innovative methods for integrating many different data types. Through this model, a project may leverage multiple geospatial information sources with the goal of increasing accuracy and quality.

Sanborn’s Data Acquisition phase of the Big Data Management Lifecycle includes development of mapping products. Toward completion of this stage, final base maps are generated and include, but are not limited to, planimetric maps, Lidar-generated topographical/contour maps, geo-referenced oblique aerial imagery, land use maps, land cover maps, and 3D cities data.

Data Analysis3. Data Analysis

Sanborn designs and implements custom software solutions for geospatial Data Analysis, providing direct value for the client. Typically performed through a combination of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) and custom-developed software applications, all Sanborn software is developed to work seamlessly with industry-standard mapping platforms. For example, Sanborn has developed and implemented an Ecosystem Decision Support System (EcoDSS) designed to incorporate land cover map databases and Aerial Lidar-generated topo data with client-provided land use mapping plans. The EcoDSS identifies areas of concern and potential impacts for prescribed forestry activities and then delivers information for preserving and enhancing bio-diversity while maintaining sustainable forest resources.

EcoDSS satisfies a range of analysis requirements, including: strategic planning, tactical planning, database development and maintenance, forest economics, timberlands investment, timber sales, and operational activity tracking.

Data Distribution4. Data Distribution (Cloud)

With Data Acquisition and Data Analysis complete, deployment of the data is the next step…

As more customers require a single authoritative source for information for staff utilization, clients are less interested in “one-off” databases that will require significant investment for later integration into or migration back to a single database. Cloud Infrastructures are making it much easier to manage the daily workload without having to implement multiple workflow exceptions for individual staff. In addition, Cloud-Based Data Distribution may allow for significant savings for clients through a leasing pricing model versus outright hardware purchase. New cloud-based pricing models also support an OPEX budgeting cycle versus the dreaded CAPEX budgeting cycle.

Cloud Implementation for Big Geospatial Data provides multiple benefits to the customer, including: security, redundancy, scalability, and lower cost. In addition, building geospatial business solutions on Cloud Platforms allows Sanborn to eliminate potential concerns about future scalability and lack of infrastructure for client data.

Data Management5. Data Management (Example: Change Detection)

Data Management / Maintenance are critical aspects for ensuring success with Big Geospatial Data Management. The geospatial landscape changes constantly, as a result of human activity and natural forces, impacting ecosystem management, community planning / development, and property revenue assessments. These changes can be monitored through multiple methodologies, including client-provided databases (e.g. zoning permits) – or they can be more efficiently identified through remote sensing technologies. For example, when a mining company needs to determine the volume of aggregate that’s been removed from a location, Sanborn can apply advanced proprietary analysis and processing techniques to aerial imagery in order to locate areas of volumetric change quickly and efficiently. When a data management practice such as this has been developed and implemented, Data Acquisition, Data Analysis, and Data Distribution are completed to create the Big Geospatial Data Management Lifecycle.

Posted at GISCafe – October 5, 2015. Check in over the next several posts to read entries that will go into greater detail regarding each of the primary components associated with the Big Geospatial Data Management Lifecycle.

Jason Caldwell
Vice President, Business Development and Sales

Sanborn CEO John Copple Joins Mapcode Advisory Board

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Sept. 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — The Sanborn Map Company, Inc. (Sanborn) announces the appointment of CEO John Copple to the Stichting Mapcode Foundation (Mapcode) advisory board.

“I’m pleased to assist in this global effort,” says Copple. “The idea of using mapcodes to locate and identify places on Earth is intriguing. Mapcodes can be of particular value for applications such as emergency response in emerging nations, where accurate addressing isn’t always available.” Copple adds that even physical assets, such as individual power poles or fire hydrants, can be assigned a mapcode.

Mapcode is a non-profit foundation in The Netherlands that holds the intellectual property related to mapcodes, which are a free, open way to represent every house or location on Earth with a short code. The codes are designed to be easy to recognize, remember and communicate, and are precise to within a few meters, which in most cases is adequate for everyday use applications.

“The idea of Mapcode came about when we saw that millions of locations around the world do not have a recognizable address and were hard to find,” says Pieter Geelen, Mapcode co-founder. “Introducing a mapcode system means everyone is empowered with the ability to identify any location on Earth, regardless of the country or its infrastructure.”

By offering mapcodes as a standard and structured addressing system free of charge, the foundation aims to make locations for all citizens, dwellings and businesses in regions without street names or formal addressing systems throughout the globe addressable. Currently, two mobile mapcode apps are available for download: Mapcode Mobile for Android and Mapcode for iOS. For more information visit www.mapcode.com.

About The Sanborn Map Company, Inc.
Sanborn (www.sanborn.com) is a preeminent leader in the exploding geospatial industry, delivering state-of-the-art mapping solutions to customers worldwide. The firm currently operates a fleet of 14 aircraft located strategically across the United States. Embracing cutting-edge technology, Sanborn specializes in oblique aerial imagery, aerial and mobile light detection and ranging (Lidar) mapping, aerial orthophotography, 3-D modeling and visualization software and services, indoor mapping with its proprietary SPIN robot, unmanned aircraft system (UAS) sales, services and image processing, and a host of geospatial software development.

Please contact:
Jason Caldwell
(719) 593-0093
jcaldwell@sanborn.com

To view the original version of this release on PR Newswire, click here.

Sanborn Bolsters Industry-Leading 3D Offerings

Major City Coverage Expanded, Highly Accurate Building Interior Mapping Available

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Sept. 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — The Sanborn Map Company, Inc. (Sanborn) continues to broaden its massive 3D data collection, including the exciting new option to provide centimeter-accurate 3D modeling of any building interior, from giant warehouses, retail centers and manufacturing facilities to high-rise office buildings.

Sanborn recently updated its 3D coverage for multiple metropolitan areas, including updates to the firm’s proprietary Citysets building attribute data. Citysets is Sanborn’s popular off-the-shelf 3D product comprising highly accurate vector, raster, elevation and building attributes.

Citysets building attributes include detailed information about each structure, such as building address, name, construction class, occupancy type, height, year built, square footage and more. This information, coupled with Sanborn’s high-resolution 3D imagery, provides a wealth of value for a wide range of professionals, including real estate developers, urban planners, architectural and engineering firms and emergency operations, to name a few.

Additionally, Sanborn now offers the capability to create highly accurate 3D models of the interior of any building with the Sanborn Platform for Indoor Mapping (SPIN) fully autonomous indoor mapping robot. SPIN utilizes a pair of light detection and ranging (Lidar) sensors to capture data at better than 3-centimeter accuracy, which can be used to create life-like models of any interior, large or small. The robot is fully autonomous, navigating on its own and avoiding obstacles—including humans—while collecting more than 43,000 precision measurements per second.

“Our customers are amazed at how quickly and efficiently SPIN performs its work,” says Dr. Sharad Oberoi, Director of IT and Software Engineering. Oberoi headed the research and development team that created SPIN. “From the data, we can create highly detailed, measurable 3D models of the building interior that can be viewed from virtually any angle. Combined with our exterior 3D building data, Sanborn’s complete offering—literally inside and out—is unparalleled in the industry.”

Sanborn’s collection of high-resolution 3D visualization data now covers the core downtown areas of more than 110 major U.S. and international cities.

Please contact:
Jason Caldwell
(719) 593-0093
jcaldwell@sanborn.com

To view the original version of this release on PR Newswire, click here.