The recent GML Relay (http://www.gdmc.nl/relay/), held at the headquarters of Topografische Dienst (TDN) in Emmen, the Netherlands, was a test of the ability of various organisations to read, modify and write GML (Geography Markup Language).

Laser-Scan took part in the relay along with several of its partners: Intergraph, Oracle and Snowflake Software.

Laser-Scan used Snowflake Software's Go Loader product to quickly read the GML data (provided by TDN) into an Oracle9i database, then used the Radius Topology Configuration Manager to structure it. The structuring process built and checked the spatial relationships in the data - the shared boundaries between properties, roads meeting at unique junctions, adjacency between buildings and roads.

Radius Topology was the only application in the GML Relay to detect a logical inconsistency in the supplied data.

The interoperable nature of Radius Topology was demonstrated perfectly when Laser-Scan showed the anomaly in one GIS application (MapInfo Professional) and then edited it in another (Intergraph GeoMedia Professional). The modified data was then exported using GeoMedia and reloaded into the database via GO Loader - all the original data was visible as well as the new modifications. Laser-Scan was the only participant to successfully demonstrate this complete "round trip".

Laser-Scan has developed an online demonstration to show exactly how the GML Relay works: http://www.laser-scan.com/demos/index.htm.

In the late 1990s Laser-Scan pioneered the use of XML (Extensible Markup Language) to encode structured geospatial information in its Spatial Object Transfer Format (SOTF) research contract with NIMA. The results of this research have materially contributed to the emergence and evolution of GML.

Laser-Scan is currently working on a number of Open GIS Consortium (OGC) projects, including GML-3. Laser-Scan's Dr. Paul Watson has responsibility for the topology topic in the GML-3 Working Group and is a contributor to the "OpenGIS Features for XML, SQL and IDL Implementation Specification: GAIA: Geoinformation Access Interchange and API" submission in response to RFP12.