Do you like satellite images and would love to view them all the time? We have something for you!
Behold the DisplayWall!
Create awesome slideshows with your favorite satellite imagery and display them on a big screen!
The DisplayWall is a web application build on top of Sentinel Hub services for showing satellite images of locations that you save as pins in EO Browser. It is perfect for, but not limited to, touch displays mounted on walls. One of DisplayWall’s most important features is its dynamics — images are refreshed as soon as new ones become available — unless you adjust your configuration differently. To create your list of preferable locations and visualizations all you need is EO Browser, where you can access more than 7 PB of satellite data, both historic and the latest acquisitions, increasing at a rate of about 300 TB every month.
The following guidelines will help you set the slideshow with your favorite scenes.
How does it work?
The DisplayWall is powered by Sentinel Hub services which provide seamless and instant access to the complete archive of Sentinel-1, 2, 3 and 5P, ESA’s archive of Landsat 5, 7 and 8, global coverage of Landsat 8, Envisat, Meris, Proba-V and MODIS products. All the data is refreshed and up-to-date as soon as new scenes are available. Users can configure different scenes and set various visualization options of any location in the world.
The data is served through EO Browser, a free web application, which enables users to pin their area of interest with a visualization of their choice. These pins are used by the DisplayWall for the creation of a slideshow.
Let’s create one together!
Create your List of Scenes and Preferable Visualizations
First you need to find nice images of interesting places in EO Browser and save them as pins. To do so, you will need an EO Browser account. If you don’t have one yet, you can create one here, for free.
After logging in, follow the steps in the user guide to create your list of images. Go to your area of interest, choose from which satellites you want to receive the data, select criteria such as time range and cloud coverage, and hit the “Search” button. Pick the most appropriate result and “Visualize” it.
Once the satellite image is shown you can then play with the visualization options, either choosing a predefined composition or creating custom rendering of your own. When you are satisfied with the image and you would like to include it in your slideshow, simply pin it to your items.
You can pin as many images you want to show in the slideshow and add new ones to your favorites at any time.
Sentinel Hub’s ability to provide access to the most recent imagery enables the DisplayWall to create a dynamic slideshow by automatically showing the latest available image matching the set filters. If you would like to include a specific image from the archive with an older date, you can do that by simply adding “- STATIC” to the end of the pin’s name in EO Browser.
An Easy Start
If you would like to skip the steps above for now and go straight to the DisplayWall, we have prepared a list of nice scenes with different visualizations which can be used in your first slideshow.
Download our JSON file with saved pins, go to the “Pins” tab in EO Browser and use the “Import pins” option to upload them to your account. After the import you should be able to rename, reorder and remove them as well as add some of your own. See the EO Browser user guide for details.
To configure your slideshow in the DisplayWall, keep on with the following steps.
Configure Your own Slideshow
After your pins are ready, go to the DisplayWall and log in with your EO Browser account. It will take you to the configuration screen where you can configure different settings for the slideshow.
You will be able to adjust the slide duration, maximum cloud coverage, and minimum image coverage — the percentage of the image which must have data.
Use the preview setting to show or hide a preview of each displayed image in a carousel, either horizontally or vertically. If you choose to show the previews, you will be able to click or press on the previews once the slideshow will be active and the chosen image will be shown. To randomly display the images, enable the random order.
Interactive Mode
Some additional features are included in an interactive mode with a possibility to select different visualizations (the same as in EO Browser) and create time-lapses of the chosen area.
You can enter the interactive mode when you are at the configuration screen or when the slideshow is active. It can be reached by clicking on (or touching) the right side of the screen (see the demonstration below).
The interactive mode enables you to go to your area of interest with a help of a search option, and choose among the latest imagery. If the physical keyboard is not available, you can press on the keyboard button which pulls up on-screen keyboard. Once the location is selected you can choose among the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 imagery. Sentinel-3 and Sentinel-5P will be added soon.
After you select the most appropriate image the map window will be shown including the controls such as:
- zoom in/out — in case the screen doesn’t support a multi-touch option
- pan option — in case the screen doesn’t support a touch pan
- go back option — leading you back to the mission selection screen
Use the “go back” button on the left to return to the previous screen. If you have started the interactive mode within the slideshow mode, the application will return to the slideshow after 60 seconds of inactivity.
Visualization Options
When the interactive map is displayed, you can select various visualization options such as true color, false color, NDVI, moisture index and SWIR for the Sentinel-2 imagery, and VV linear gamma0, VH — linear gamma0, VV decibel gamma0 and VH decibel gamma 0 for the Sentinel-1 imagery.
Enabling Time-Lapses
Once you have your desired location displayed within the interactive mode, you will be able to display time-lapses of the chosen area showing images from the last 6 months. To see how the selected area has changed through time, press/click on the map and hold for 3 seconds. The Time Window will be shown, giving you the possibilities to pause/play the time-lapse and jump between the dates.
To create your own slideshow register for the EO Browser account and try out the DisplayWall.
Do note that DisplayWall is currently tied to public EO Browser’s services. In the future this will move to users’ Sentinel Hub services and their subscriptions. To ensure it remains running you should contact us or monitor our Twitter account for the updates. If you have any questions or suggestions, write to us at support@sentinel-hub.com or use our Forum with a dedicated topic.
