A groundbreaking partnership between Maxar Intelligence and Ecopia AI has resulted in the launch of Vivid Features, a new mapping product that transforms satellite imagery into highly detailed 2D and 3D maps. This innovative technology leverages Maxar’s extensive satellite imagery archive and Ecopia’s cutting-edge artificial intelligence software to automatically identify and delineate buildings, roads, vegetation, water bodies, and other key features.
Unlike traditional raster images, vector maps utilize geometric shapes – points, lines, and polygons – to represent geographical data. This approach offers superior precision and simpler updates. “Mapmakers are stuck with laborious processes to update vector maps that reflect the ground truth, a process that takes days and misses critical developments,” Maxar stated in a September 17th press release. “Maxar and Ecopia’s new Vivid Features product changes that completely by delivering precisely aligned vector maps that mapping systems and AI models can trust. Vivid Features maintains 3-meter accuracy across time, so when your AI flags a new building or road, you know it’s there.”
Ecopia AI, established in 2013, specializes in employing artificial intelligence to extract features from high-resolution satellite imagery, creating what they term a “digital twin of the Earth.” Their machine learning models efficiently identify and outline various geographical features with minimal manual intervention. The integration of these algorithms with Maxar’s global satellite archive enables the automatic generation of vector maps that dynamically adapt to real-world changes.
“Vivid Features, powered by Ecopia, solves one of the most persistent challenges in digital mapping — the time-consuming process of producing consistent vector map data of every place on Earth,” explained Peter Wilczynski, Maxar’s chief product officer. “Together, we’ve created a product that eliminates the thousands of hours customers typically spend manually creating and aligning vectors, providing a dynamic basemap suite that maintains fidelity as the world changes.”
The applications of Vivid Features are vast and span numerous sectors. Government agencies can utilize the precise geospatial data for emergency planning, disaster response, and infrastructure management. Commercial entities can leverage it for risk modeling in insurance, telecom network planning, and population growth tracking. For military applications, the vector maps provide a robust foundation for geospatial intelligence, supporting mission planning and decision-making.
“Gaining an up-to-date, three-dimensional understanding of our planet and how it is changing is one of the most complex challenges our customers face,” noted Jon Lipinski, Ecopia’s president and co-founder. “While millions of square kilometers of satellite images are captured each day, many organizations struggle to develop corresponding 3D vector maps and keep them current to reflect real-world change. This partnership with Maxar will enable unprecedented access to up-to-date 3D vector maps across the globe.”
Maxar, headquartered in Westminster, Colorado, operates a substantial fleet of high-resolution imaging satellites, supplying imagery to both commercial clients and the U.S. government. Ecopia AI, based in Toronto, has established itself as a leader in applying AI and machine learning to geospatial challenges, boasting collaborations with major industry players.