Satellite Imagery: DigitalGlobe, CosmixQ, and Others Launch SpaceNet Open Data Initiative
From the Launch Announcement:
DigitalGlobe [recently] announced the launch of SpaceNet, an online repository of satellite imagery and labeled training data that will advance the development of machine learning and deep learning algorithms that leverage remote sensing data. SpaceNet is a collaboration between DigitalGlobe, CosmiQ Works, and NVIDIA, and the imagery is now freely available as a public data set on Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS).
GPU-accelerated deep learning has led to huge breakthroughs in the field of computer vision. Most of this innovation has occurred through research enabled by ImageNet, a database of 14 million photographs labeled in over 20,000 categories. SpaceNet aims to facilitate similar advances in automating the detection and extraction of features in satellite imagery, fueled by the massive amount of information about our changing planet that DigitalGlobe collects every day, and that of emerging commercial satellite imagery providers.
SpaceNet will for the first time open access to a large corpus of curated, high-resolution satellite imagery to incubate algorithm development. SpaceNet will launch with an initial contribution of DigitalGlobe multi-spectral satellite imagery and 200,000 curated building footprints across the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This initial contribution will provide the necessary data to create new algorithms to automate the extraction of features like buildings in dense urban environments. Over time DigitalGlobe, CosmiQ Works, NVIDIA, and AWS anticipate making more than 60 million labeled satellite images accessible to the public via SpaceNet.
Direct to SpaceNet Open Data (via Amazon Web Services)
Filed under: Data Files, News, Open Access
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.