Summer of Code 2006 Projects

There are five Summer of Code 2006 Projects.

Integrated Browser
by Ashish Datta, mentored by Matt Mills

The goal of this project will be two fold, to integrate a split-screen web browser into the World Wind application and to enable the parsing of KML (keyhole markup language) HTML tags. Integrated web browsing would be used primarily when loading additional information about a “point of interest”. While, parsed HTML from KML files would appear directly on the map, providing rich meta-content that is easily distributed.

As stated on the World Wind Wiki, the most obvious benefit to an integrated browser would be to eliminate the awkwardness in accessing point of interest information. In addition, the ability to parse HTML tags which are commonly found in KML files would enable a new layer of usability for World Wind. KML files are quickly becoming the preferred format for geographic markup, and allowing World Wind to fully support them would be beneficial to current and future users.

Support of Adding Imagery into World Wind
by Robert Walther, mentored by Adam Hill

I really would like to find a fitting solution for that. The pre-processing can be a very annoying act for people who only want to implement small chunks of imagery. With the wanted solution the user can add imagery pretty easy by using GeoTiffs or JPEG/PNG/GIF with world files which include the coordinates. The difficulty is not to import the images but to put them to the right place on the globe. But both are pretty possible because of the support of Direct3D. Maybe in a later version it could be possible to import a picture and put it to the right place by scaling/moving/rotating with the mouse on the globe and then to export the world file. But first it important to add the imagery to right place by reading the GeoTiff’s tag or the world file.

Correctly Handling Non-Ortho Images
by William Berry, mentored by Chad Zimmerman

I want World Wind to be able to quickly and properly render non-ortho aerial imagery. If the plane of the lens of a camera is not parallel to the ground (tangential to the globe, technically) when an image is acquired, then the image will have geometric distortion (observed as keystoning if the tilt of the vantage is about only one axis). Additionally, barrel or pincushion distortion of the image can be introduced by the lens itself. The solution might be as simple as an extension to Meshlayer, with tags comprising the telemetry (Altitude, Location, Heading, Pitch, Roll) of the camera at the time of image acquisition, and parameters of the camera lens. To correct the perspective, a projective transform can be applied as long as altitudes are low. Correction of the lens distortion requires a warp.

Shapefile improvements
by Daniel Klöck, mentored by Tishampati Dhar


 * The ability to link to a shapefile directly on a web page would be implemented.
 * After the URL is handed, the timestamp of the XML file would be checked to know if an update of the related .zip file is needed.
 * The .zip file will be left packed, and the shapefile code enhanced to read the .zip file contents
 * When the mouse cursor sits in the same polygon, or near the same line or point, for a reasonable period of time a window should be populated with all the data out of a shapefile database.
 * The user should be able to select text in the populated window, and copy it to the clipboard

Student Teacher interaction system
by Tim van den Hamer, mentored by Nigel Tzeng

A student-teacher interaction system would introduce a way for teachers to effectively use NASA World Wind in the classroom. While the name of the project indicates the main focus, the system can also be used for other scenarios such as conferences, collaboration and even games. This means the client module should be able to be both a receiver and a transmitter, and have varying modes depending on the kind of scenario the host module needs.