From corlett@aisws3. Mon May 6 10:51:10 1996 Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!maui.cc.odu.edu!news.larc.nasa.gov!lerc.nasa.gov!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.mathworks.com!zombie.ncsc.mil!admaix.sunydutchess.edu!ub!newserve!news.cc.geneseo.edu!news From: Neil Corlett Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis,sci.data.formats,sci.environment,sci.geo.eos,sci.geo.earthquakes,sci.geo.fluids,sci.geo.hydrology,sci.geo.meteorology,sci.geo.oceanography,sci.geo.petroleum,sci.geo.rivers+lakes,sci.image.processing Subject: Participation in "ISIS" Experimental Image Data Server Date: Fri, 03 May 1996 14:53:11 +0200 Organization: AIS.SAI.DG-JRC Lines: 234 Message-ID: <318A01B7.7F80@jrc.it> Reply-To: corlett@aisws3. NNTP-Posting-Host: aispc31.jrc.it Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0b3 (Win95; I) To: neil.corlett@jrc.it Xref: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu comp.infosystems.gis:42021 sci.data.formats:1472 sci.environment:87279 sci.geo.eos:1354 sci.geo.earthquakes:6204 sci.geo.fluids:3026 sci.geo.hydrology:4280 sci.geo.meteorology:24738 sci.geo.oceanography:4044 sci.geo.petroleum:5934 sci.geo.rivers+lakes:476 sci.image.processing:21037 Dear Colleagues, We are making this announcement on the Internet in order to get some early feedback on the image data server our Consortium is in the early stages of building. If you want to make comments, or are interested in participating in our evaluations, please read on... contact information is at the bottom of this message. Please send your input directly to us via email. Apologies for the size of the cross-posting but we are trying to cover a good cross-section of the EO and related communities. Thanks! ISIS EXPERIMENTAL IMAGE DATA SERVER =================================== General Description =================== The ISIS (Interactive Satellite Image Server) Project is a consortium of major European Satellite Remote Sensing Data suppliers, Software companies and Users. The goal of the consortium is to build a demonstration networked Satellite Image Data server system that will use wide-area data communication networks to provide users with: * user-friendly, interactive access to images; * the ability to retrieve image scenes tailored to the users needs. The combination will allow users to obtain data more cost effectively, and in a more timely fashion than at present. The consortium will build three systems over the lifetime of the project: * a World Wide Web server (third quarter 1996) * two releases of the prototype (early 1997 and late 1997) During the third quarter of this year, we will release a World Wide Web server that illustrates some of our early ideas. It will not have the full function of the prototype servers but will serve as a public demonstration of the concepts. It will contain some sample image sets that are already in the public domain. The ISIS prototypes will differ from the WWW server by using a full networked client/server architecture. We are currently in a specification phase for our first prototype, due early 1997. In order to tailor the development to real-world issues, we would like to receive early feedback from organisations on our intentions. Opportunities ============= Organisations with specific projects who would like to be involved in the evaluation of the prototypes ('97-'98) are encouraged to respond. The contact addresses are at the end of this message. To use the full prototypes will require registration. In the meantime, we would be interested in receiving *your* input on the following topics: - user interface; current catalogue browse systems are quite limited in scope, e.g. search on sensor, platform, acquisition date, and region of interest. There is often a simple map interface where the user can draw a polygonal region. From the returns the user can select quick looks and then (possibly) order scenes. We would be interested to learn what features users would like to see in a next generation interface. For example, as available data sets grow in number, size and complexity what improvements need to be made? If the EO industry is to address less technical users, how can ISIS improve the interfaces to the data sets? - thematic searches; ISIS will support thematic searches. It will be possible to look for, say, images containing forestry/crop/urban cover in a region of interest. We would like user views of exactly what kinds of query and themes will be useful for particular applications. - images returned only over region of interest; The system will have the capability to return part scenes (see the description of IDSC below) cropped to a defined region of interest. We would like to receive comments on the usefulness of this type of data to users. Project Aims ============ The aims of the prototype ISIS (Interactive Satellite Image Server) system are to *demonstrate* the following technologies: 1. Intelligent Data Selection and Compression (IDSC) * Extended searches of image databases. ISIS will allow users to make queries based on "themes", rather than the simple time frame and latitude longitude regions used now. A theme might be vegetation index, urban areas, sea temperature etc.; * Ability to define polygonal regions of interest (ROI) and multiple time frames in a search; * Data compression of image browse products based on a ROI. The intention is to selectively crop and compress browse products to reduce the volume of data that has to be transferred to the user; * Reduction and compression of the image data products returned to the user. Only the data in the ROI will be transferred with its complete pixel information. The rest will be simplified and highly compressed. The system will have the capability of reducing the data further by band selection and fusion. 2. Interactive Client * The ISIS client software will provide support for thematic searches, ROI selection, spatial and temporal searches. It will allow a user to view browse products and select the images to be returned. The software will be designed to allow a user to have a high level of interaction with an ISIS server; * A World Wide Web version will be provided; * The ISIS client software may be customisable for individual applications. 3. Support of multiple image data types. * The consortium hope to implement support for the following types of image data products: . SPOT . Landsat . NOAA AVHRR . ERS SAR . GIS-ready data * It will be possible to build support for additional image products into the ISIS prototype servers. 4. Processing on Demand * ISIS will allow application-specific image processing software to be built into the server. In many applications the processed product is smaller than the image data used to generate it. This will reduce the amount of data that has to be transported across a network to the user. 5. Parallel Computing * The full scale ISIS prototype server will utilise a Video on Demand (VOD) parallel computer system as the IDSC system will place heavy loads on computer equipment. * The ISIS prototype servers will also run on standard UNIX equipment. Many organisations will not be able to afford the cost of a VOD system. 6. High Performance Networking * ISIS will be demonstrated running over existing European wide area network infrastructure. We hope to operate the prototype using a mix of bandwidths, including basic rate ISDN (64-128Kbps). The system will use the Internet Protocol (IP) to give flexible choice of private and public (Internet) network access to users. During the evaluation phases, the partners will make demonstration image data sets and software available to registered evaluators. The majority of the data will be historic, and cover a standard set of European locations (both land and marine). We hope to allow registered evaluators to place their data in the system to give the tests more relevance. ISIS Consortium =============== The ISIS Consortium is composed of the following organisations: MATRA CAP Systemes (F) : Co-ordinator Dasa Dornier (D) : Partner Advanced Computer Systems (I) : Partner JRC/SAI (EU) : Partner ESA-ESRIN : Partner ITC (NL) : Partner VITEC (F) : Partner SPOT Image (F) : Partner CSA (IRL) : Associated Partner RS Consult (DK) : Associated Partner CRAY Systems (UK) : Associated Partner Cap Gemini Italy (I) : Associated Partner ISIS is funded under the High Performance Networking and Computing segment of the ESPRIT Research and Technology Development (RTD) programme of DG III. On-line information about ESPRIT can be found on the WWW at these locations * http://www2.cordis.lu/esprit/home.html * http://www.newcastle.research.ec.org/ ISIS is registered as ESPRIT Project 20255. Relationship to other Programs ============================== ISIS is not an initiative of the Centre for Earth Observation (CEO), but is actively co-operating with it. The ISIS system is focused on improving the delivery of Remote Sensing data to user organisations by utilising wide area network links, data compression and improved search techniques. Contacts ======== If you wish to comment on ISIS, provide feedback, or if you require information on taking part in the '97/'98 prototype evaluations then please contact us by any of the following means: Email: neil.corlett@jrc.it or corinne.hinlopen@jrc.it Fax: +39 332 789074 Post: Corinne Hinlopen TP440 AIS Unit I-21020 Ispra (VA) Italy Thanks for your time, Neil Corlett Corinne Hinlopen ..................................... Agricultural Information Systems Unit Space Applications Institute DG Joint Research Center European Commission From neil.corlett@jrc.it Mon May 6 10:51:28 1996 Path: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!maui.cc.odu.edu!news.larc.nasa.gov!lerc.nasa.gov!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.mathworks.com!zombie.ncsc.mil!admaix.sunydutchess.edu!ub!newserve!news.cc.geneseo.edu!news From: Neil Corlett Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis,sci.data.formats,sci.environment,sci.geo.eos,sci.geo.earthquakes,sci.geo.fluids,sci.geo.hydrology,sci.geo.meteorology,sci.geo.oceanography,sci.geo.petroleum,sci.geo.rivers+lakes,sci.image.processing Subject: Re: Participation in "ISIS" Experimental Image Data Server Date: Fri, 03 May 1996 15:01:10 +0200 Organization: AIS.SAI.DG-JRC Lines: 11 Message-ID: <318A0396.2A26@jrc.it> Reply-To: neil.corlett@jrc.it NNTP-Posting-Host: aispc31.jrc.it Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0b3 (Win95; I) Xref: solitaire.cv.nrao.edu comp.infosystems.gis:42022 sci.data.formats:1473 sci.environment:87280 sci.geo.eos:1355 sci.geo.earthquakes:6205 sci.geo.fluids:3027 sci.geo.hydrology:4281 sci.geo.meteorology:24739 sci.geo.oceanography:4045 sci.geo.petroleum:5935 sci.geo.rivers+lakes:477 sci.image.processing:21038 Hi again, Returns to my last posting by email will break. During an upgrade of our mail service, my reply addresses got broken... messages to 'corlett@aisws3.' will not get very far! My correct address is 'neil.corlett@jrc.it' Cheers, Neil Corlett