Analyst User Documentation
Welcome to the Analyst User Documentation for gIQ.
Updated: February 3, 2024
Updated By: Shaun Campbell
1. Introduction
gIQ enables analysis of multiple different types within the product. For the analyst user the key area is the workspace. This is a thematic collection of a dataset of the users choosing. It is therefore essential that the workspace permission is enabled for an analysis user.
The entire philosphy of the product is to democratise the geospatial analysis to enable all industries and individuals to gain insights out of the pixels which have been delivered to the organisation they are a part of. This includes the use of a marketplace to enable the space based industries to market and sell their applications.
2. The Workspace
The workspace is central to the analysts role. It enables them to organise the layers into one thematic area for ease of use. This is so that any analysis is contained within the workspace for ease of re-discovery and ensuring other areas of the product remain free from analtical work.
Creation of the workspace
The workspace has a creation wizard. Opening the wizard allows the user to go through all of the necessary steps to creating a workspace, including workspace privacy options. Next you can select the files, which can be added through a filter option - which allows the dynamic adding of files when new files are ingested to the system - and simple searching for files already in the system.
Optionally you can add a thumbnail for the workspace, which may make it easier to find the workspace in the list.
# gIQ | Creating a Workspace
1. Click on workspace
2. Click on create new workspace…
3. Give your workspace a name.
In this example we will use AUH Airport
4. Click on Workspace Privacy
gIQ gives the creator of a workspace the option to add privacy settings to their workspace. Private means only to the workspace creator. Public means anyone who as access to the organisation can see the workspace. Group allows the creator to set a certain number of individuals for the workspace.
5. Click on Next
6. We give the user the ability to set dynamic filters.
This allows the system to search for new files which can meet the set criteria, which will be automatically added to the workspace.
7. Click on Next
We will skip the dynamic filters for now.
8. Next is what we call the static list.
This is a list of file which will always be in the workspace. There are filter options to help you find the right files.
9. Select the files you want to add to the workspace
10. There is an option to preview
11. This opens the map and shows a footprint of the file.
12. Click on Close
13. Once you have all of the files in the workspace, you can hit save.
14. This opens your workspace
Some new options become available. We will explain these in other manuals in this series.
15. More options
The generic tools
The workspace tools are expanding rapidly. At the time of writing the tools available include change detection, historical imagery slider, comparisons, coregistration, vector tool sets and measurements. Band mathematics, resampling and SAR processing also exist in the workspace.
- Historical Image Slider. This tool works as a method of visualising changes over time. This will work on the raster files which are in the workspace, even if the rasters are in different geographical locations.
You can export an image as a jpg or png, and automatically process the playback of the file.
# gIQ | The Image Slider
1. Check your data has an acquisition date
Only data with an acquisition date will be displayed in the historical timeline feature. If you need to enter the acquisition date ensure that you refresh the page after doing so.
2. Click on history
3. The historical slider appears
Each dot along the slider is representative of the position of the different rasters in time.
4. We have some additional options
5. This allows a user to see the date on the slider
We can also adjust a playback speed
6. We can use the skip buttons to move forward or backwards in time
7. See how the date and time now appears in the timeline
8. We can also play the historical imagery
9. We can do a screenshot
10. With options to download
Gif is a feature which is coming
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Slider. The slider acts as another comparison tool. It allows a user to select two images and then visualise the changes through a slider option. This is a manual slider, and it works best if there are two raster files of the same location.
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Transparency. A third visualisation option is to allow for the transparency of a layer. To do this a user would enable two layers, then selecting whichever is on top and going to the raster adjustment to change the alpha value. This enables the user to see the data from the layer underneath.
This is most effective when used with different data types, such as SAR or Thermal on Multispectral imagery.
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Coregistration. Coregistration refers to the process of aligning two or more images of the same geographic area so that corresponding features or points in the images coincide spatially. Coregistration is a crucial step in the analysis of satellite imagery, especially when dealing with multiple images from different sensors, platforms, or acquisition times. It is enabled through the tool on the product then selecting the two files you would like to coregister.
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Change Detection. The tools allow for optical change detection and SAR change detection. Both work slightly differently.
For optical change detection the user must select the tool then select the relevant files for the change detection. The output will detect changes in the following objects:
The output for the optical change detection is a vector file.
For SAR change detection we offer Multitemporal Coherent Change Detection and Amplitude Change Detection. Both types have similar requirements in terms of the files, other the MTC requiring SLC files with significant similarities, and the ACD requiring GRD with significant similarities. The target layer is the most recent file in this case. The output for the change detection file will be a new raster file.
Ensure that the most recently acquired image is the target layer!
- Vector processing tools. We offer the ability to conduct various vector processing algorithms. The most common processing tools of differencing, intersection and union are available for use.
These tools work on vector files. The ability to stream data into the product is on the roadmap, but a cut of the streaming data will be required to ensure that the tools work correctly, as per the industry standard.
# gIQ | Union tool
1. Here we have two polygon vector files enabled.
We want to union the green and the blue layer.
2. Click on Union Vector Layers
3. Select your vector files.
In this example we are using the files called first and second.
4. In the popup you can see the files
5. You can change the Target and Reference layers
A simple drag and drop utility allows this. However, this is not so critical for this process.
6. You can change the name of the output file.
By default, it will be simply union.
7. Click on Apply
8. The new vector file will appear in the workspace.
This is a virtual layer, meaning it is temporary. This is so you can check the processing before commiting it to the database.
9. Here we see the results of the union process.
# Make the file permanent
The virtual file is only viewable in the workspace. To make this available outside the workspace it needs saving to the database.
10. Click on the menu for the virtual file
11. Click on save…
- Band Mathematics. Band mathematics is an essential tool for building various visualisations and obtaining a huge amount of insights from multipectral files. Open the calculator and this gives a variety of different options for creating new indicies from different raster files.
At this stage this tool is limited to a single raster file. Multi-raster file calculations is on the roadmap.
- Measurements. We have several measurement tools available within the product. These work as 2D measurements at this stage, with 3D measurements on the roadmap.
We offer the following toolsets: Line measurement, area measurement, radius, bearing from north and angle between two points.
The Layer and Sensor Specific Tools
There are some layer specific tools available within the product. For example, the SAR processing tools are currently enabled by selecting 'tools' from the right hand panel. This enables the user to start using some of the more complex parameters in order to process a SAR image. We are providing speckle reduction and other tools as one easy workflow within the product to make the processing easy to use.
There is also an option for resampling. This gives a few options to enable up and down sampling of an image.
It is important to note that these tools will generate a new raster file withut overwriting the original.
3. Stories
There is no point doing analysis if that analysis can not be communicated with the entities that require it.
The method for communicating insights created in gIQ is the story feature.
The story feature allows a user to create a walk through of the created insights, while maintaining the basic functionality of the product. This means that the consumer of the story can change the orientation of the view and zoom in and out. This allows them to be fully immersed in the insights, making the communication more effective.
Here is the guide to create stories in gIQ:
1. Ensure you are in a workspace
All stories are done inside workspaces. In this example we will use the "AUH Change Detection" workspace.
2. Click on Story
This is the final tab in the workspace
3. Overview
There is no limit on how many stories a workspace can have
4. Create a new story
To create a new story, hit the plus button
5. Click on edit
6. Naming the story
Give your story a title. Ensure that the status of Story name has been updated is showing.
Next, click on add story point.
7. The page types
There are three different story points available.
8. Standard AOI
First we will look at standard AOI
9. Adding details
As soon as you select the story point type, the editor will open. Here you give the point title and the description.
Make sure you save your story point!
10. Page two
We will repeat the steps for a new page, but with more complexity
11. Page Two
We will do another standard AOI
12. Adding Layers
At any point during the building of a story you can add layers to it. Just visualise any layers you wish to add. In this case we will add a simple vector layer.
13. Check Show vector features legend
Without this feature selected another user may not see the visualisation of the vector layer that an analyst has carefully selected. Ensure this is selected.
14. Adding an image
You can also add a jpeg or png to each story point. To do this click on Add Image and navigate to the desired image from your C drive.
15. Optionally, give the image a description.
# Adding a comparison story point
16. Click on Add Story Point
17. Click on comparison slider
18. Add the details
You must also select the two images you wish to use to populate the comparison slider. This will enable to consumer of the story to interact with the story.
# Historical Image Player
Now we can add the historical image player in the story
19. Click on Add Story Point
20. Click on historical imagery…
This will select all raster layers which has an acquisition date to play in this particular story point. If a raster layer does not have a acquisition date it will not be part of this story point.
Also, be aware that if the data is in different locations, then the player will jump to the layer.
21. Check Autoplay historical slideshow
This is optional, and will automatically play the data in the historical time feature
22. Click on Save Story Point
Ensure you are saving the story points after each story point.
# Playing the story
23. Click on presentation mode
24. This opens the player mode
25. Click on > Next
After each story point you can click next. Note that this story is showing the consumer that there are 4 pages to this story.
26. The complex story point
As you can see, the image we put into the story shows in the decription.
Image is copy write of Airbus.
27. Vector appearance
If you selected to show the legend, the legend drop down will be underneath the layer.
28. Showing the legend
Clicking on the drop down shows the legend which was used for the vector file.
This only shows if the "Show Vector Features Legend" is selected.
29. The comparison
Going to the next page in this story, the comparison slider shows the changes between two layers.
30. Historical Imagery Slider
Here is how the historical imagery slider shows in the product.
# Upcoming Features
It is not yet possible to push this story outside of the workspace. The next logical steps for this feature is to be able to print out the standard AOIs as a pdf document, and to be able to push the story onto the marketplace.
Stay tuned for this feature to be developed further soon!
4. Vectors
The creation, managing and visualisation of vector files is a important aspect of the analyst user. The two guides below give examples on how to use vectors in gIQ.
# gIQ
1. Ensure you are in a workspace
If you are not, please consult the workspace guides to learn how to create a workspace.
2. Click on add
3. Click on Vector Layer
In this example we will select a vector layer. Drawing layers are covered in other guides.
4. Give your layer a name
In this example we will call it Aircraft.
5. Click on add attribute
6. Attributes
As soon as you have clicked on add attribute a new line appears. It gives you the options of property name, default value and the type.
Property name is the name of the attribute column.
Default value is optional, and useful if there is a standard number or string you expect.
Type allows you to tell the system is the value input is a string or a number.
7. Properties
As you can see here, you can add many different attributes.
8. Click on Save
9. Add features
Now you can start creating your vector file. A vector layer in gIQ can have point, line and polygons simultaneously.
10. For this example we will use points
11. Click on the location of the feature
12. Adding the properties to the feature
As soon as you have placed your feature the feature details appears in the right hand panel. Add the desired features then hit save.
# Editing the vector file
If you have forgotten an attribute, or even delete an attribute, gIQ offers the ability to do that easily. However, it is slightly hidden.
13. Click on Features…
With the correct layer selected from the left hand panel, click on features.
14. Click on Open Features Table
15. Click on Manage Attribute
16. Add an attribute
From here we can add the attributes you need.
17. New attribute
Add the property name and type, then hit save.
18. Add the new properties.
When you place a new point the new property will appear. However, if you are aiming to add the value for a feature you have created just before you added the new attribute you may need to refresh the page first.
