3D Visualization of Real Terrain Using an XML Schema Definition of the Digital Terrain Elevation Data Specification and Extensible 3D (X3D)

Name:  James D. Neushul
Service/Organization:  United States Marine Corps
Rank/Title:   Captain, 0602 Communications Officer
Country:  United States
Curriculum:  Computer Science

Description

Purpose:   Three dimensional views of terrain data is an invaluable tools for planning, command and control, and operations. Current tools are expensive, cumbersome, and require specialized training to use. This projects demonstrates how current specifications can be represented in an XML defined, machine readable format so that Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED) can be manipulated by standard software to be viewed on demand, in a format that is web deliverable, extensible, and that can be integrated into a broad range of training, planning, and command and control applications.

1. Approach:  

All military products and processes are well defined by concise specifications. Currently, developers use these specifications to build data access functionality into the software code of military applications. This results in software that is specialized, non-extensible, and proprietary in nature. My approach in the representation of DTED data using X3D has been to apply the key XML concept of separation of data from presentation. This approach is at the center of a thesis that proposes a standardized procedure for the development of military software in general.

The proposed procedure involves three basic steps. First, represent the data that us the subject of a specification, or of any defined military process, in an XML Schema. Second, create XML data templates that are compliant with this schema, but that focus on the computing tasks at hand. Finally, use mainstream software procedures to manipulate these data structures in order to obtain desired data representations.

This process allows full control by military and technical professionals in the role of data ownership, and provides a well defined data structure for software developers to use in the representations of this data. This project exemplifies a functionality that allows anyone with a web browser to view three dimensional representations of actual terrain without the need for expensive software, or specialized training.

2. Plan of Action:  

• 02/07/01:  Provide on demand access to a DTED data record using a Java application interface.

• 02/10/31:  Allow on demand access to an unlimited set of DTED records residing on a storage server using a web deliverable client-server application framework.

• 02/12/01:  Allow seamless browsing of DTED data using an X3D/VRML aware Internet browser.

Maintainer: Curt Blais (clblais@nps.navy.mil)
Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for this page is http://www.MovesInstitute.org/xmsf/iitsec2002/demos/neushul/description.html
(9 October 2002) (official disclaimer)