Request for Information: “Mixed Reality to the Edge”

7 January 2019: As part of its Mixed Reality to the Edge Concept Development Study (CDS), the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is requesting information about needs and solutions involved in the automation of workflows that curate, discover, process, integrate, and publish (disseminate) 3d/4d geospatial content to users at ‘the edge.’

In this sense, ‘the edge’ represents field deployed users with mobile devices that may have only limited or no internet connectivity (aka denied, disconnected, intermittent, and limited bandwidth (DDIL) environments). Users at ‘the edge’ include first responders, field deployed utility workers, warfighters, and more.

The volume and variety of spatial and temporal data sources are increasing exponentially. These sources include machine-generated data, video, photos, point cloud, sensor data, user-generated content, and traditional photogrammetric sources. The ability to find, process, integrate, analyze, and visualize this content is critical to many information communities, including disaster & emergency management, earth systems modelling, mission planning, fire-fighting logistics, and more. There is a critical requirement to provide curated and 3d/4d content - potentially fused and/or integrated from multiple sources - to mobile and field users on handheld devices.

The RFI results will provide information on the current state of automated geospatial 3d/4d activities with the objectives of: 1) reducing human intervention (ie mouse clicks); and 2) enhancing provision and interoperability of 3d to users at the edge. The gathered information will additionally be used to define reference use-cases and scenarios for use in ongoing OGC Domain Working Group discussions and standards development. Standards enable governments, non-governmental organizations, private industry, and citizens to better and more cost-effectively transform and integrate 3d/4d geospatial content into actionable information for decision makers at all levels.

This activity is sponsored by SOFWERX, a non-profit, neutral facilitation platform accelerating delivery of innovative capabilities to U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and facilitating capability refinement through exploration, experimentation and assessment of promising technology from industry, academia, labs, and non-traditional solution providers.

The OGC Website has further information on the Mixed Reality to the Edge Concept Development Study.

Responses to the RFI are requested by February 15 2019. The RFI includes instructions on how organizations can respond to and submit questions about the RFI. The RFI is available for download from portal.opengeospatial.org/files/82438.