Colorado Springs, Colo. - July 9, 2008—John Copple, CEO of Sanborn, today announced that the company’s St. Louis office will test a commercial, off-the-shelf state-of-the-art mobile mapping system known as Landmark™ for three months beginning in July. Sanborn will use the system, which can be tailored for use in a wide range of mapping applications, for asset collection and LIDAR imaging to map highways, bridges, college campuses and cities. At the end of the trial period, Sanborn will provide feedback, including recommendations for new project applications, to Landmark’s manufacturer, Ontario, Canada-based Applanix, with whom Sanborn has a longstanding relationship.

Public works, transportation, public safety and other entities use mobile mapping to acquire and characterize information vital to infrastructure management. The systems are most commonly used for LIDAR imaging, urban asset collection, trackside inventory for rail applications, sign database construction and pavement condition assessments, right of way data collection, pole and transformer inventory and property assessment for taxation records.

Introduced in January, Landmark is designed to increase user productivity. The system integrates hardware and software in a comprehensive bundle that includes LIDAR technology with an Applanix-derived processing workflow, a digital camera, industrial computers, a multiplexer and proprietary real time operating, image processing, feature extraction and post-processing software. Landmark can be customized, modified as application needs grow, and easily moved between vehicles. Data can be exported into multiple formats.

Unique to Landmark is its POS LV positioning system, which increases the reliability of data capture even in adverse GPS conditions, eliminating the need for repeat data acquisition.
Sanborn will use the system’s LIDAR sensors, which blend imagery and point cloud data to provide automatic feature extraction, to collect high-resolution data of assets, pavement, bridges and other points of interest. (LIDAR, or light detection and ranging, is a technology that uses laser beams fired from airplanes to gather digital elevation model data.)

In addition, Sanborn will use the Landmark system to combine airborne and ground products for a variety of situational awareness and mapping/visualization applications, which gives the user the ability to view street level imagery and an overhead view of the precise location of an area of interest. “From the air we get the planimetric images and LIDAR,” explains Jim Peterson, a vice President with Sanborn. “From the ground we get the oblique to completely vertical view of images and LIDAR.” After capturing the imagery, the system performs semi-automatic feature extraction, such as highway sineage, and then creates a database of the inventory which is geospatially referenced.

Sanborn plans to use the system on two specific projects: to scan a bridge and tunnel below the city of St. Louis, Missouri, and to capture trolley system assets for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

“Sanborn regards mobile mapping as an integral component of its future growth strategy,” said Peterson. “We have chosen to work with Applanix to develop custom solutions using its Landmark system, which meets all our requirements. Applanix has a wealth of experience applying mobile LIDAR and photogrammetry expertise in a number of applications, which makes them an ideal partner.”

“Partnering with Sanborn and adapting our solutions to their operations highlights the differentiation and flexibility of the Landmark product, which is unique in the marketplace,” remarked Louis Nastro, Director of Land Products for Applanix. “We are pleased to have been chosen by Sanborn to develop a solution which will provide them the opportunity to launch new services and have the product capabilities grow as their business needs change.”

About Sanborn
With a rich tradition of mapping dating back to 1866, Sanborn provides comprehensive end-to-end geospatial solutions. Sanborn offers products and services that satisfy diverse and evolving customer needs for GIS software systems, application development, systems integration, and spatial analysis and modeling. Leveraging precision remote sensing techniques, Sanborn also supports a wide range of applications and users. Sanborn’s solutions are founded on a strong legacy of innovative geospatial data collection and processing capabilities. An internationally recognized company, Sanborn has multiple U.S. offices with customers worldwide. For more information, visit www.sanborn.com.

About Applanix
Applanix, a Trimble Company (NASDAQ: TRMB), develops, manufactures, sells and supports products and solutions for mobile mapping and positioning. Applanix’ Position and Orientation Systems (POS) are used in a variety of applications, including road profiling, GIS data acquisition, aerial surveying and mapping, railroad track maintenance and seafloor mapping. Established in 1991, Applanix strives to support customers around the world with exceptional service.

Contact:

Ms. Melinda Brown
Vice President, Corporate Marketing
Sanborn
(877) 368-9702
Email Contact

Mr. Scott Weatherall
Manager, Marketing Communications
Applanix Corporation
(905) 709-4600, ext. 486
Email Contact