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Leica Geosystems (formerly known as
Wild Heerbrugg The Wild (Heerbrugg) company (pronounced "vilt") was founded in 1921 in Switzerland. The company manufactured optical instruments, such as surveying instruments, microscopes and instruments for photogrammetry among others. The company chang ...
or just Wild) based in eastern
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
produces products and systems for
surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the land, terrestrial Plane (mathematics), two-dimensional or Three-dimensional space#In Euclidean geometry, three-dimensional positions of Point (geom ...
and geographical measurement (
geomatics Geomatics is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as the "discipline concerned with the collection, distribution, storage, analysis, processing, presentation of geographic data or geographic information". Under another definition, it ...
). Its products employ a variety of technologies including
GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...
satellite navigation and
laser rangefinder A laser rangefinder, also known as a laser telemeter or laser distance meter, is a rangefinder that uses a laser beam to determine the distance to an object. The most common form of laser rangefinder operates on the time of flight principle by ...
s to enable users to model existing structures, terrains in computer based systems to high accuracies, often under 1 cm.


History

The brand Leica, better known for Leica Cameras, was formed on 2 April 1990 after the merger of several companies. In 2005, the company was acquired by
Hexagon AB Hexagon AB is a multinational industrial technology company. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden,and publicly traded on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange, the company since 2000 has had a particular focus on measuring technology and geospatial tools a ...
. Leica was listed on the Swiss stock exchange until the 7 August 2006 which saw the cancellation of all publicly held registered shares in Leica Geosystems Holdings Ltd and delisting of all listed registered shares of a par value of CHF 50. Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging is a Strategic Member in the
Open Geospatial Consortium The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an international voluntary consensus standards organization that develops and maintains international standards for geospatial content and location-based services, sensor web, Internet of Things, Geographi ...
since 2008. Strategic Membership is the highest level of membership in the OGC. Strategic Members provide significant resources to support OGC objectives in the form of funding for program initiatives and staff resources inserted into the OGC process. Heinrich Wild (1877–1951) of
Glarus Glarus (; ; ; ; ) is the capital of the canton of Glarus in Switzerland. Since 1 January 2011, the municipality of Glarus incorporates the former municipalities of Ennenda, Netstal and Riedern.surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. These points are usually on the ...
. In 1908, having invented a military rangefinder and convinced
Zeiss Zeiss or Zeiß may refer to: People *Carl Zeiss (1816–1888), German optician and entrepreneur *Emil Zeiß (1833–1910), German Protestant minister and painter * Juan Pablo Zeiss (born 1989), Argentine rugby union player * Mary Zeiss Sta ...
to manufacture it, Wild moved to the city of
Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...
and became head of the new Zeiss branch responsible for surveying instruments, GEO. Wild returned to Switzerland after the First World War. On 26 April 1921, with Colonel Jacob Schmidheiny of Balgach and geologist Robert Helbling of Flums and with the help of Swiss financiers, he founded WILD Heerbrugg in Heerbrugg in the
Alpine Rhine Valley The Alpine Rhine Valley () is a glacial alpine valley, formed by the Alpine Rhine ( ), the part of the Rhine between the confluence of the Anterior Rhine and Posterior Rhine at Reichenau and Lake Constance. It covers three countries, with se ...
. In the early 1930s, having recognized that he was not cut out to be a factory manager, Wild moved to
Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
, severed his connections with the firm in Heerbrugg, and designed instruments for
Kern & Co Kern or KERN may refer to: People * Kern (surname), includes a list of people with the name * Kern (soldier), a light infantry unit in Medieval Irish armies Places * Kern, Alaska, a ghost town in Alaska * Kern, Austria, see Sankt Marienkir ...
in Aarau. His old firm became Wild Heerbrugg in 1937. It merged with the optical firm of
Ernst Leitz Ernst Leitz GmbH was a German corporation based in Wetzlar, a German centre for optics as well as an important location for the precision engineering industry. History Carl Kellner, mechanic and self-taught mathematician, published his treat ...
of
Wetzlar Wetzlar () is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany. It is the twelfth largest city in Hesse with currently 55,371 inhabitants at the beginning of 2019 (including second homes). As an important cultural, industrial and commercial center, the un ...
in 1987, acquired a majority interest in Kern in 1988, was renamed Wild Leitz AG in 1989, and became part of the Leica holding company in 1990. Starting in 1996, the company was divided gradually into smaller units. Thus in 1996, Leica Camera AG was founded, followed in October 1997 by Leica Geosystems AG, and on 1 April 1998 by
Leica Microsystems Leica Microsystems GmbH is a German microscope manufacturing company. It is a manufacturer of optical microscopes, equipment for the preparation of microscopic specimens and related products. There are ten plants in eight countries with distri ...
AG. These three companies are independent public companies. Leica Geosystems produces, in continuation of Wild Heerbrugg, the geodetic instruments and is the global market leader in this section. The main customers of Leica Geosystems are surveyors, manufacturers and
GIS A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data. Much of this often happens within a spatial database; however, this is not ...
companies. In 2000 Leica Geosystems purchased Cyra Technologies, maker of the Cyrax laser 3D scanner line. In April 2001, Leica Geosystems acquired ERDAS, Inc., a
remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring inform ...
software firm, and LH Systems, a photogrammetric software firm (see
IMAGINE Photogrammetry IMAGINE Photogrammetry (formerly Leica Photogrammetry Suite – LPS) is a software application for performing photogrammetric operations on imagery and extracting information from imagery. IMAGINE Photogrammetry is significant because it is a le ...
). These two companies were merged into software company, ERDAS, Inc. ERDAS purchased Acquis, ER Mapper and IONIC in 2007. This expanded further ERDAS in the remote sensing market, let them enter the enterprise topological GIS market, and expanded their footprint in the image web serving and image enterprise market. The Swedish company
Hexagon AB Hexagon AB is a multinational industrial technology company. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden,and publicly traded on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange, the company since 2000 has had a particular focus on measuring technology and geospatial tools a ...
purchased Leica Geosystems in late 2005. In October 2010, Intergraph was acquired by Hexagon AB. As part of the Hexagon acquisition, Hexagon moved ERDAS from under Leica Geosystems to Intergraph, and Z/I Imaging airborne imaging sensors from under Intergraph to Leica Geosystems. In September 2011, Leica Geosystems Mining announced an exclusive industry partnership with
Locata Corporation Locata Corporation is a privately held technology company headquartered in Canberra, Australia, with a fully owned subsidiary in Las Vegas, Nevada. Locata has invented a local positioning system that can either replace or augment Global Positioni ...
to provide the mining industry with the world’s only high precision radio positioning system that is not reliant on GPS.


References

{{Authority control Manufacturing companies of Switzerland Companies based in the canton of St. Gallen Leica Camera Geographic data and information equipment companies