Enhance!

 

AI, Satellite Images, Sci-Fi, and Magic

I remember watching Blade Runner as a kid—the original from 1982, when we were using DOS on 386 computers with CRT monitors. I was particularly fascinated by the scene where Harrison Ford mumbles instructions to a computer that seems to understand everything perfectly. What really baffled me was the "enhance" command. From a low-quality scan of a paper photo, the computer extracts absurdly detailed parts of the image through a series of panning, zooming, and "enhance" commands. I vividly thought, "It's impossible for the computer to retrieve information that isn’t there." This "enhance" trick defies the laws of information theory, thermodynamics, or whatever other principle there might be —it's just cinematic magic.

Fast forward to 2024. I recently stumbled upon a post about how AI models have been used to "enhance" low-resolution satellite images. This led me to the Satlas project at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. I was particularly excited by the "Super Resolution" model, which takes Sentinel-2 satellite images (those used in GeoFS) with a maximum resolution of 10 meters per pixel and refines them to 1 meter per pixel using some clever AI techniques.

Sentinel-2 (left) and Super Resolution (right)

Generative AI can be a tricky process; it may sometimes hallucinate or create strange artifacts. But, as Arthur C. Clarke put it, the results can be "indistinguishable from magic." The information doesn’t come from nowhere, though. The model was trained using temporal series data (Sentinel-2 images are updated regularly and cover many years) and freely available high-resolution images (such as NAIP).

Hallucinating AI

The resulting dataset was made available to GeoFS by the Allen Institute's "Super Resolution" team, led by Piper Wolters, whom I want to thank for helping to get this data ready for GeoFS. Her team, which includes Favyen Bastani and Ani Kembhavi, has published a paper about their research, which you can read here.

This new data will replace the aging, blurry Sentinel-2 images in GeoFS. While this is still an experimental phase and availability may change, you can currently enjoy GeoFS in "SR" Super Resolution, worldwide and for free. Just say: "Enhance!"

This post was enhanced by AI

FlightSimExpo 2024 - Las Vegas

 

A month has passed since FSExpo 2024 in Las Vegas and I just managed to get through the pictures and take some time to write about it. GeoFS 3.8 was just released and after the usual couple of weeks fixing last minute bugs and post release hiccups, I can finally take some time to sum up the great week spent in Nevada and beyond.

The last release includes some features that were previewed during the expo such as the new flight planning tool and replay feature. Flight planning is presented as a generic FMC that can be used in combination with the navigation map and the existing radio navigation stack. Routes can be created by clicking on map's navaids, searching or creating new fixes or importing ready made routes from external tools or earlier exports. The flight plan can then be flown in sequence with the autopilot in conjunction with the radio stack for DME info. For each waypoint a speed and altitude can be specified allowing VNAV profile to be defined for the whole route. Autopilot is now equipped with Mach speed hold. The improved flight recording feature is now displaying the flown path over the map with a colour gradient to indicate altitude and can record up to 10 hour flights. When in replay mode, it is possible to save recorded flights locally and load them up later on to be replayed or picked up again from any point.

GeoFS booth at FSExpo 2024 - Las Vegas

Attending FSExpo again was great as always. The crowd is getting bigger every year and enthusiasm is palpable through the whole weekend. It's always a pleasure to see good friends again, some of them having been there during the FSWeekEnd show in Holland earlier this year. This is becoming my recurring joke and an actual practical necessity but I do still carry the whole GeoFS booth in a 23Kg checked-in luggage all the way from Europe (you can see a time-lapse video of the booth setup below). My rolled up rear projection screens were still a hit this year with many attendees spending a few minutes understanding where the picture was coming from. The novelty for 2024 was the Raspberry Pi based "gaming rig", built purposefully to demonstrate GeoFS portability and accessibility when it comes to hardware and systems. We are talking about a 60$ computer here, running a Linux based OS and powering GeoFS, from within a Chromium web browser! All the RGB lights come extra and were specially added for Las Vegas ;) The Pi 5 can run GeoFS (in mobile settings) at a healthy 30 FPS with medium graphics. A console controller was plugged into it but it was great using the Yawman Arrow (see below) on this sort of setup.

Among the new encounters this year, it was particularly nice to talk to the Yawman (yawmanflight.com) team as I have been following their progress ever since they announced they disruptive controller concept. These guys are absolutely passionate about what they are doing and are making an amazing job at producing a fully American made controller (in itself a challenge) to push some innovation in a market where this form factor (console like) is challenging the dogma. GeoFS, as a web based simulator, can only applaud this sort of audacity! Thomas, Dwight and Jon were kind enough to give me a device to bring back home and test it thoroughly with my exotic Raspberry Pi contraption (pictured above) or with a more conventional PC based setup. Despite a few small issues here and there, the controller behaved rather well connected to a web browser, even on a Linux based Pi OS. They have plenty of ideas and innovation in their bag and I can't wait to see what will come next from them.

Feedback is always very positive at the show and it's nice to get to meet GeoFS pilots in real life (I even got to sign a GeoFS T-shirt!). Most people are interested in GeoFS ease of use and affordability: this is particularly true for kids with no previous flight sim experience and limited budget where GeoFS is increasingly recognized as a first step into the simming world. But I also got a few experienced simmers or seasoned pilots (and even an ex F-16 ace!) giving their opinion about the application, always putting forward their surprise at how easy it is to use GeoFS compared to their usual sim. Education sector representative are always interested in a software that can be instantly and effortlessly deployed across the classroom, the country or any scattered pool of users. Many school teachers keep showing strong interest in GeoFS and this is comforting the efforts toward using GeoFS as a teaching tool.

After a short ride down the strip I headed out for a quick check of GeoFS' scenery quality over Grand Canyon and Monument Valley before heading back home. Many thanks to the FSExpo team for organizing this great event and very much looking forward to next year in Providence at the Rhode Island Convention Center!