Date: 24 Apr 92 10:34:08-PST
From: Vision-List moderator Phil Kahn <Vision-List-Request@ADS.COM>
Errors-to: Vision-List-Errors@ADS.COM
Reply-to: Vision-List@ADS.COM
Subject: VISION-LIST digest 11.16
To: Vision-List@ADS.COM

VISION-LIST Digest    Fri Apr 24 10:34:08 PDT 92     Volume 11 : Issue 16

 - Send submissions to Vision-List@ADS.COM
 - Vision List Digest available via COMP.AI.VISION newsgroup
 - If you don't have access to COMP.AI.VISION, request list 
   membership to Vision-List-Request@ADS.COM
 - Access Vision List Archives via anonymous ftp to FTP.ADS.COM

Today's Topics:

 Colour Vision Papers
 Survey of imaging devices
 Information Request
 CEDAR CDROM 1: Handwritten words and characters 300ppi gray and binary
 Re: RFD for New IMAGE PROCESSING newsgroup
 Symposium on Physics-Based Vision at CVPR'92
 Summary (part 1/2) Image Processing Software (long)
 Summary (part 2/2) Image Processing Software (long)
 Conference AISB'93 (long)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1992 20:15:56 GMT
From: paul@monet.uwaterloo.ca (Paul Sommers)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Subject: Colour Vision Papers

Hello,

I'm interested in finding references to the use of colour in machine
vision applications.  I'm particularily interested in the use of
colour spaces other than RGB and the use of colour vision systems in
gaging applications.  I want to find work that has been done in
measuring colour objects to sub-pixel accuracy.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Paul Sommers
Systems Design Engineering
University of Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
paul@monet.uwaterloo.ca

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1992 17:52:16 GMT
From: stephen@inmos.co.uk (Stephen Collyer)
Organization: INMOS Limited, Bristol, UK.
Subject: Survey of imaging devices

I am trying to make a survey of currently available image processing
chips. I am aware that a few companies make 2D convolvers, for example,
(Inmos being one of them) but I have not seen many other devices that
are specifically aimed at the i/p market. I am particularly interested
in devices for real time (or high speed i.e. a few frames a second) :
- 1 or 2D convolution
- histogramming
- morphological operations

However, if you know of devices for other i/p operations I havent listed
that would be very useful too.

I am mainly interested in devices for grey-scale processing but info
on colour processing devices (do any exist ?) would also be of interest.

I am NOT interested in information on general purpose DSPs or micros
unless they have some very definite bias toward i/p in some way and I
am also NOT interested in i/p boards (e.g. a la Data Translation,
Matrox etc) or JPEG/MPEG devices.

I will post a summary of responses.

Thanks in advance,
Steve Collyer (stephen@inmos.co.uk)

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1992 10:57 GMT
From: 75015803@dcu.ie
Subject: Information Request
 
Information request on morphological applications and techniques:
 
I am dealing with the manipulation of large structuring elements in the 
'Tailor suit' problem - that is the placing of randomly sized shapes inside 
a bounded region also of random shape and size - and I would welcome 
replies to the following requests:
(1)    References to any techniques (preferably software based) that deal 
       with the fast implementations of morphological operations using 
       large structuring elements.
(2)    References to any recent implementations of the 'Tailor suit' problem, 
       specifically those that deal with the placement of more than two 
       random shapes.
If there is sufficient interest in this request, I will summarize and post 
the replies I receive.
 
Thanking you in advance,
Paul Whelan
Advanced Vision Systems Group
Dublin City University
Glasnevin, Dublin 9.
IRELAND.
 
EMAIL:  whelanp@dcu.ie
Phone:  353-1-7045489
Fax:    353-1-7045508

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 23 Apr 92 12:52:04 EDT
From: hull@cs.Buffalo.EDU (Jon Hull)
Subject: CEDAR CDROM 1: Handwritten words and characters 300ppi gray and binary

               The Center Of Excellence for
         Document Analysis and Recognition (CEDAR)
          State University of New York at Buffalo

               announces the availability of

                       CEDAR CDROM 1:
 USPS Office of Advanced Technology Database of Handwritten
Cities, States, ZIP Codes, Digits, and Alphabetic Characters


     CEDAR is pleased to  announce  the  availability  of  a
CDROM database that contains handwritten words and ZIP Codes
in high resolution grayscale (300  ppi  8-bit)  as  well  as
binary handwritten digits and alphabetic characters (300 ppi
1-bit).  This database is intended to encourage research  in
off-line  handwriting  recognition  by  providing  access to
handwriting samples  digitized  from  envelopes in a working
post office.

     Specifications of the database include:
     +    300 ppi 8-bit grayscale handwritten words (cities,
          states, ZIP Codes)
          o    5632 city words
          o    4938 state words
          o    9454 ZIP Codes
     +    300 ppi binary handwritten characters and digits:
          o    27,837 mixed alphas  and  numerics  segmented
               from address blocks
          o    21,179 digits segmented from ZIP Codes
     +    every image supplied with  a  manually  determined
          truth value
     +    all data digitized on an Eikonix EC850 CCD scanner
     +    extracted from live mail in a  working  U.S.  Post
          Office
     +    simulates a "real" recognition environment:
          o    unrestricted for author
          o    unrestricted for writing style
          o    unrestricted for writing implement (pen, pen-
               cil, ...)
          o    authors had no knowledge their  samples  were
               to be used
     +    divided into explicit training and test sets  (90%
          training and 10% testing)
     +    performance comparison between researchers  possi-
          ble on the same data sets.
     +    word images in the test  set  supplied  with  dic-
          tionaries  of  postal  words that simulate partial
          recognition of the corresponding ZIP Code.
     +    digit images included in test  set  that  simulate
          automatic ZIP Code segmentation.  Results on these
          data can be projected to overall ZIP Code recogni-
          tion performance.
     +    image format documentation and software included
     Suitable for  automated  handwritten  word  recognition
research, the database can be used for:
     o    algorithm development
     o    system training and testing

     The database is a  valuable  tool  for  developing  the
range  of techniques needed for high performance handwritten
word  recognition  including  preprocessing,   segmentation,
feature extraction, and classification.  The system require-
ments are a 5.25" CD-ROM drive with software  to  read  ISO-
9660 format.

     For any further information, including how to order the
database, please contact:

                     Jonathan J. Hull
                 Associate Director, CEDAR
                      226 Bell Hall
          State University of New York at Buffalo
                     Buffalo, NY 14260

                    716-636-3195 (voice)
                     716-636-3966 (fax)
                hull@cs.buffalo.edu (email)

Please note: email contact is preferred and is most efficient

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1992 01:54:26 GMT
From: cmcl2!mcclb0.med.nyu.edu!huff@uunet.UU.NET (Edward J. Huff)
Organization: NYU Chemistry Dept
Subject: Re: RFD for New IMAGE PROCESSING newsgroup

[ I am posting this RFD since it relates to the Vision List. Because image 
  processing and vision are contained within the charter of the Vision
  List, I do not support this RFD and I hope you do not as well. Though
  there are distinguishing characteristics of IP and vision, there is a 
  significant overlap of interests that the Vision List will continue
  to distribute and support.
        The published charter of the Vision List:
  "The list is intended to embrace discussion on a wide range of vision
   topics, including physiological theory, computer vision, machine
   vision and image processing algorithms, vision techniques to support
   robot navigation and spatial representation, artificial intelligence
   and neural network techniques applied to vision, industrial
   applications, robotic eyes, implemented systems, ideas, profound
   thoughts; anything related to vision and its automation is fair game. 

			phil...		]


I am crossposting this notice to all of the groups I know of where 
image processing discussions take place, in response to a suggestion
by kudu@enel.ucalgary.ca (Gopi Kuduvalli).  

Interested people should be advised that an official RFD for
this newsgroup has not been issued.  The charter and name for
the group are under discussion on a mailing list.  After the
people on the list agree on a charter, the official RFD will be
submitted, and the 30 day discussion will begin.

If you would like to influence the wording of the original RFD,
then subscribe to the mailing list and post your opinions.

This list was set up by stanley@skyking.OCE.ORST.EDU (John Stanley).

Send subscription requests to image-proc-request@oce.orst.edu,
messages to the list to image-proc@oce.orst.edu.

The discussion in this mailing list will be archived for anonymous ftp
on RUBY.oce.orst.edu, in the directory pub/IMAGEPROC.

Edward J. Huff   huff@mcclb0.med.nyu.edu   (212)998-8465
Keck Laboratory for Biomolecular Imaging
NYU Chemistry Deptartment, 31 Washington Place, New York NY 10003

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 21 Apr 92 17:11:39 -0400
Subject: Symposium on Physics-Based Vision at CVPR'92
From: Steven_Shafer@IUS5.IUS.CS.CMU.EDU

SYMPOSIUM ON PHYSICS-BASED VISION

	Invitation to the SYMPOSIUM ON PHYSICS-BASED VISION
	To be held in conjunction with CVPR-92, June 18-19, 1992
	At the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Organized by:	Steve Shafer, Carnegie Mellon University, chairman
		Glenn Healey, University of California at Irvine
		Larry Wolff, The Johns Hopkins University

Stay one day after CVPR-92 and you can attend this unique workshop to
review the accomplishments and progress in the important area of
physics-based machine vision.

Speakers: A selected group of fourteen leading researchers will present
	their views:  David Forsyth, Brian Funt, Glenn Healey, Katsu
	Ikeuchi, Gudrun Klinker, Shree Nayar, Alex Pentland, Steve
	Shafer, Murali Subbarao, Konstantinos Tarabinis, Brian Wandell,
	Reg Willson, Larry Wolff, and Bob Woodham.

Format:	The speakers will give "keynote-style" presentations with their
	answers to these questions:  What was the state of the art in
	this area before you started your work?  What have you and
	others accomplished?  What are the "solved" problems?  What
	remains to be done?

Readings: There will be no proceedings or new papers.  Instead, the
	organizers have assembled an archival collection of 90 key
	papers covering all aspects of physics-based machine vision,
	which will be published in a three-volume hard-bound set by
	Jones and Bartlett Publishers.  This set will retail for about
	$150, but at the Symposium, all attendees will receive a copy
	for a deeply discounted price that is included in the
	registration fee.  We will ship the book set to you if you
	request it (on the registration form for the symposium).

Time and Place: The Symposium will begin on the evening of Thursday,
	June 18, 1992, after the last session of CVPR-92 and in the
	same conference facility, with a session on Color.  Starting
	Friday morning, June 19, will be two sessions on Radiometry
	and Camera Modeling.  The Symposium will end by 2:00 pm on
	Friday afternoon.  Exact times are yet to be determined.

The registration fee is $160, including the readings.  Hotel,
travel, etc. should be arranged in conjunction with your arrangements
for CVPR-92 itself.

For more information about the Symposium, contact Steve Shafer at
sas@cs.cmu.edu.  To request travel or registration information or a
brochure for CVPR'92, call the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, Division of Conferences and Institutes, at 217-333-2883.

SPONSORED BY THE ROBOTICS INSTITUTE OF CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY

REGISTRATION FORM:
	Print this, fill it out, and either FAX it to 217-333-9561
	(24 hrs every day) or mail it to:
		University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
		Accounting Business Office
		Room 162 Administration Building
		506 S. Wright Street
		Urbana IL 61801 USA

	ID Information:  UFAS Account # 1-3-62802-0660
			 REV: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition

	Last Name:
	First Name and Middle Initial:
	Title:
	Organization:
	Address for Mailing:
	Telephones:	Business:
			Home:
			FAX:
	Internet E-mail Address:

	Registration fee is $160, which includes a 3-volume set of
	readings.  Indicate one payment method; funds are payable to
	"University of Illinois":
	() Check enclosed (on US bank)
	() Money Order enclosed (on US bank)
	() Purchase Order enclosed (from US organization)
	() Charge credit card:	() VISA 	        () Master Card
				() American Express     () Discover
		Card Number:
		Expiration Date:
		Signature of Card Holder:

	() Check here for us to ship the three volumes of readings to
	your mailing address.  Otherwise, you can pick them up at the
	symposium itself.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1992 15:08:22 GMT
From: Timothy.Allen@dartmouth.edu (Timothy Allen)
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Subject: Summary (part 1/2) Image Processing Software (long)

SUMMARY OF IMAGE PROCESSING SOFTWARE, PART 1 of 2

Part 1 contains information about applications for (1) Macintosh
computers, (2) PC computers, (3) GRASS, and (4) Khoros.

Part 2 contains information about (5) other image processing 
packages for UNIX systems.
 

About two weeks ago, I posted the following query to several UseNet 
newsgroups and listserv mailing lists:

"I am interested in learning about what Image Processing software 
packages people are using for the analysis of multi-band data sets, 
such as Landsat Imagery. What are the major software packages in use? 
What are the capabilities of each package -- e.g. rectification, 
classification, PC and IHS transformations, filtering, contrast 
enhancement, overlays? Is the software designed specifically for 
remote-sensing images, medical images, or more generally for any kind 
of multi-band images? What are the hardware requirements? Any special 
requirements for display systems?"

"I am particularly interested in any software for Macintosh 
platforms, but would like to hear about packages that people are 
using on PCs and UNIX workstations as well. I am familiar with 
Terra-Mar's "MicroImage" software, and have heard of "ERDAS" but know 
nothing about it. I am also familiar with some single-band image 
processing software such as the excellent public-domain "NIH Image" 
program for the Macintosh."


Below is a summary of information that I have gathered so far.  I 
apologize for any mistakes or misquotes resulting from my butchering 
(I mean my editing) of the responses I received.  I welcome 
comments, corrections and further contributions to this list.

Tim Allen                                    tim.allen@dartmouth.edu 
Earth Science Department, Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755 

*****************************************
1 - Macintosh Software

NIH Image 
This is an excellent image processing application that is 
in the public domain.  The application, documentation and source code 
are available for anonymous ftp from alw.nih.gov.  I've used NIH 
Image to analyze scanned photographs of rock outcrops, among other 
things.

*****************************************

from
ALW.NIH.GOV (128.231.128.251) in the It has painting and manipulation
tools, a macro language, tools for measuring distances and angles, and
for
counting things. It can record sequences to be played back as a movie.
You
can invoke user-defined convolution matrix filters, such as Gaussian.
It
has a pretty powerful import capability, that lets you import raw data
in
tab-delimited ASCII, or as bytes or 2-byte quantities. The author uses
this
to read in MRI data from a proprietary system. It also does histograms
and
even 3-D plots. It is limited to 8-bits/pixel, though the 8 bits map
into a
color lookup table, as is standard on the Mac for 8-bit color. It runs
on
any Mac that has a color screen and a FPU (or you need a FPU emulator,
but
I imagine it is pretty slow)."

Frank Hoffman <hoffmann@URZDFN.KARTOGRAPHIE.TU-DRESDEN.DBP.DE> wrote: 
"We are using IMAGE from NIH (developed by Wayne Rasband) on a MAC 
machine. It works fine for manipulating not only the tomographic head 
examples but also for airphoto manipulating. I managed also a DEM 
example scanned from a "DEM-photo" with 0-255 discrete altitude 
values arranged in a TIFF-matrix. I have no idea if there is a 
possibility for multi-band images, students took the manual with 
them, so I cannot answer at this moment."

(NIH Image does not support mult-band images.)

*****************************************

NCSA Image 
This is a similar program, but I didn't find it as useful 
as NIH Image.  NCSA provides a whole suite of public-domain 
visualization tools for the Macintosh, primarily aimed (I think) at 
researchers wanting to visualize results from numerical modelling 
calculations.  These applications, documentation, and source code are 
available for anonymous ftp from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu.  

Commercial versions of the NCSA programs have been developed by 
Spyglass.

Greg Radke <TNF70@isuevax.iastate.edu> wrote: "They make a series of 
products called Transform, View, Dicer, Format. Transforms allows 
data manipulation and charting configuration, while View only allows 
you to "view" and edit the "view characteristics" Dicer is allows you 
to slice through true 3-d data and see the contours, etc."  

Spyglass, Inc.
701 Devonshire Drive 
Champaign, IL  61820 
(217) 355-6000 
fax: 217 355 8925

*****************************************

Some Gray-Scale and Color photo-retouching and image processing 
software that might be useful for scientific image processing 
applications (from an article in MacUser, October 1990). Can anyone 
comment on these?

Enhance (gray-scale) 
MicroFrontier 
7650 Hickman Road 
Des Moines, IA  50322 
515-270-8109

ImageStudio (gray-scale) 
Letraset USA 
40 Eisenhower Drive 
Paramus, NJ 07653 
201-845-6100

PhotoPress (gray-scale) 
Blue Solutions 
3039 Marigold Place 
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 
805-492-9973

Digital Darkroom (gray-scale) 
Silicon Beach Software 
9770 Carroll Ctr. Rd., Suite J 
San Diego, CA  92126 
619-695-6956

PhotoMac (color) 
Data Translation, Inc. 
100 Locke Dr. 
Marlboro, MA 01752 
508-481-3700

Adobe PhotoShop (color) 
Adobe Systems, Inc. 
1585 Charlestown Road 
PO Box 7900 
Mountain View, CA  94039-7900 
415-961-4400

Color Studio (color) 
Letraset USA 
40 Eisenhower Drive 
Paramus, NJ 07653 
201-845-6100

*****************************************

The following comments on Image Processing Applications come from the 
"Consortium for Laboratory & Industrial Applications of the 
Macintosh, Product Directory Fall 1991", and the "Apple 
Engineering/Scientific Solutions Guide - Winter 1989/90". (reprinted
here without permission).  Again, can anyone comment on these?

Dapple Systems 
355 W. Olive Ave, #100 
Sunnyvale, CA 94086 
408-733-3283 
"High resolution image analysis software provides processing tools to 
work with multiple images, enhance and edit, and measure a variety of 
global or feature parameters, and interpret the data."

Visualization Workbench 
Paragon Imagine 
171 Lincoln St. 
Lowell, MA 01852 
508-441-2112 
"An electronic imaging software system that performs interactive 
image analysis and scientific 2D and 3D plotting."

PixelTools 
Perceptics 
725 Pellissippi Parkway 
Knoxville, TN 37933 
615-966-9200 
"Complete family of PixelTools (hardware accelerator and applications 
software) for scientific image processing and analysis.  Video-rate 
capture, display, processing, and analysis of high-resolution 
monochromatic and color images.  Includes C source code."

IPLab 
Signal Analytics Corp. 
374 Maple Ave. 
E Vienna, VA  22180 
703-281-3277 
FAX 703-281-2509 
"Menu-driven image processing software that supports 24-bit color or 
pseudocolor/grayscale image display and manipulation."

TCL-Image 
Perceptics Corporation 
725 Pellissippi Parkway 
Knoxville, TN 37933 
615-966-9200 
"Software package for scientific, quantitative image processing and 
analysis. It provides a complete language for the capture, 
enhancement, and extraction of quantitative information from gray-
scale images. TCL_Image has over 200 functions for image processing, 
and contains the other elements needed in a full programming language 
for algorithm development -- variables and control structures.  It is 
easily extensible through "script" (or indirect command) files.  
These script files are simply text files that contain TCL-Image 
commands.  They are executed as normal commands and include the 
ability to pass parameters.  The direct capture of video images is 
supported via popular frame grabber boards.  TCL-Image comes with the 
I-View utility that provides conversion between common image file 
types, such as PICT2 and TIFF."

Ultimage 
GTFS, Inc. 
2455 Bennett Valley Road #100C 
Santa Rosa, CA 95494 
707-579-1733 
"Scientific image processing and analysis software.  The program 
loads images with a minimum resolution of 64 by 64, a pixel depth of 
8, 16, or 32 bits, and one image plane.  Standard input and output 
formats include PICT, TIFF, SATIE, and AIPD.  Other formats can be 
imported.  Image enhancement features include lookup table 
transformations, spatial linear and non-linear filters, frequency 
filtering, arithmetic and logic operations, and geometric 
transformations, among others.  Morphological transformations include 
erosion, dilation, opening, closing, hole removal, object separation, 
and extraction of skeletons, among others.  Quantitative analysis 
provides for objects' detection, measurement, and morphological 
distribution.  Measures include area, perimeter, center of gravity, 
moment of inertia, orientation, length of relevant chords, and shape 
factors and equivalence.  Measures are saved in ASCII format.  The 
program also provides for macro scripting and integration of custom 
modules."

Image Analyst 
Automatix, Inc. 
775 Middlesex Turnpike 
Billerica, MA 01821 
508-667-7900 
"An image processing product for users who need to extract 
quantitative data from video images.  Image Analyst lets users 
configure sophisticated image processing and measurement routines 
without the necessity of knowing a programming language.  It is 
designed for such tasks at computing number and size of cells in 
images projected by video cameras attached to microscopes, or 
enhancing and measuring distances in radiographs.  Image Analyst 
provides users with an array of field-proven video analysis 
techniques that enable them to easily assemble a sequence of 
instructions to enhance feature appearance; count objects; determine 
density, shape, size, position, or movement; perform object feature 
extraction; and conduct textural analysis automatically.  Image 
Analyst works with either a framegrabber board and any standard video 
camera, or a disk-stored image."

*****************************************

Dimple 
Process Software Solutions, 
PO Box 2110, 
Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. 2500. 
Phone 61 42 261757  Fax 61 42 264190.

Julie Blake <julie_blake@muwayf.unimelb.edu.au> wrote:  "It is 
compatible with system 6.05 and system 7.0 , requires Mac LC or II 
series with 256 colours, with a recommended min of 6Mb of ram. It has 
the capability of reading Erdas files."

"Functions include; image enhancement, 3D and contour plots, image 
statistics, supervised and unsupervised classification, PCA and other 
image transformations. There is also a means (Image Operation 
Language or IOL) by which you can write your own transformations. 
There is no image rectification, however Dimple is compatable with 
MAPII."

"The latest version is 1.4 and it is in the beta stage of testing. 
Dimple was initially developed as a teaching tool and it is very good 
for this purpose."

Joe Miles <Joe.Miles@anu.edu.au> wrote: "Dimple runs on a colour 
Macintosh.  It is a product still in its development phase.. i.e. it 
doesn't have all the inbuilt features of [other packages], but is 
coming along nicely.  It has its own inbuilt language for writing 
"programs" for processing an image, defining convolution filters etc. 
Dimple is a full mac application with pull down menus etc... It is 
unprotected software."

"A presentation on Dimple was made by Brett Powley (one of the 
developers) at the Apple PUCC conference in Vancouver 1990."

[Julie sent me a demo version of Dimple and it is very good.]

*****************************************

From: keeshu@paramount.nikhefk.nikhef.nl (Kees Huyser)

If you can get a hold of one of the old Macintosh Developer CDs, you 
might want to look at the Satellite Image Workshop program. It comes 
with a number of satellite pictures (raw data) and does all sorts of 
image enhancing on it. You'll need at least a Mac II with co-
processor; a 256 color display and a large harddisk. The program 
doesn't run under system 7.x.ATE1 V1

In the documentation the contact address is given as:  Liz Smith, Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory, MS 300-323, 4800 Oak Grove Dr,.Pasadena, CA   
91109  (818) 354-6980

*****************************************

From: "James F. Palmer" <zooey%suvm.acs.syr.edu>

Among the Mac GIS systems, MAP II distributed by John Wiley has 
integrated image analysis.


*****************************************
2 - PC Software 
*****************************************

The remote sensing lab here at Dartmouth currently uses Terra-Mar's 
MicroImage, on 486 PCs with some fancy display hardware.

Terra-Mar Resource Information Services, Inc.
 1937 Landings Drive 
Mountain View, CA  94043 
415-964-6900   FAX 415-964-5430

*****************************************
Eric Schmidt <schmidt@sunset.larc.nasa.gov> wrote:

"ERDAS will do all of the things you want:  rectification, 
classification, transformations (canned & user-defined), overlays, 
filters, contrast enhancement, etc. ... I was using it on my thesis & 
then changed the topic a bit & that work became secondary."

ERDAS, Inc. 
2801 Buford Highway Suite 300 
Atlanta, GA 30329 
404-248-9000 FAX   404-248-9400

*****************************************
From: NOVAK@Portland.Bitnet

I have been getting up to speed on a program called RSVGA available 
from Eidetic Digital Image Ltd. in British Columbia.  Its for IBM 
pc's or clones, cheap (about $400) and does all the stuff Erdas does 
but is not as fast or as powerful, though I have had only limited 
experience with Erdas.  I have used RSVGA with 6 of 7 Landsat bands 
and it is a good starter program except for the obtuse manual.

*****************************************
From: Joe.Miles@anu.edu.au

Microbrian Runs on an MS dos platform and uses a 32 bit graphics card 
(Vista), or an about to be released version will support a number of 
super VGA cards.  Its a full blown remote sensed data processing 
system.. It is menu driven (character based screen), but is does not 
use a windowed user interface. Its is hardware protected with a 
dongle. Mbrian = micro Barrier reef Image Anaysis System. It was 
developed by CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial 
Organization) and is marketed/ supported by MPA Australia (51 Lusher 
Road, Croydon, Victoria tel + 61 3 724 4488     fax  +61 3 724 4455) 
Contact them for pricing .. there are educational and commercial 
prices, but be prepared to set aside $A10k for the first educational 
licence.  Subsequent ones come cheaper (they need to!) It has 
installed sites worldwide.  It is widely used here at ANU.

*****************************************
From: rutgers!versatc.versatec.com!rwhite (Raymond White x????)

You might want to try ovip1.zip available using anonymous FTP access 
to msdos.archive.umich.edu

*****************************************
PC Vista was announced in the 1989 August edition of PASP. Vista is
available via anonymous ftp from lowell.edu. Email to vista@lowell.edu
for
more details. Total size less than 20Mbytes.

Also received this info from Berkeley: The latest version of PC-Vista,
version 1.7, includes not only the source code and help files, but also
a
complete set of executable programs and a number of sample FITS images.
If
you do wish to use the source code, you will need Microsoft C, version
5.0
or later; other compilers may work, but will require substantial
modifications. Be sure to read the files PCVISTA.DOC and README.DOC
before
you do anything else. 

To receive the documentation and nine double-density (360K) floppies
(or
three quad-density 3-1/2 inch floppies (1.44M) with everything on them,
just send a request for PC-Vista, together with your name and a US-Mail
address, to 

  Office of Technology Licensing
  2150 Shattuck Ave., Suite 510
  Berkeley, Ca. 94704

Include a check (Traveller's Checks are fine) or purchase order for
$150.00
in U.S. dollars, if your address is inside the continental U.S., or
$165.00
otherwise, made out to Regents of the University of California to cover
duplication and mailing costs. Please don't send any detailed questions
about the code to the Campus Software Office -- they are merely
distributors, not support staff. If you have further questions about
PC-Vista, send E-mail to: richmond@bkyast.berkeley.edu, or US-Mail to
Michael Richmond, Astronomy Department, Campbell Hall, Berkeley, CA
94720

*****************************************

Mirage is image processing software written by Jim Gunn at the
Astrophysics
dept at Princeton. It will run on a PC among other platforms. It is a
Forth
based system - i.e. a Forth language with many image processing
displaying
functions built in. 

*****************************************

Check the latest posting on sci.astro.hubble (last one before
2/16/92).  It
mentions a MicroSoft Windows-based program for viewing FITS format
images on
PCs with SuperVGA cards.  The mention implies that the program is still
under
development. 

*****************************************

JAVA
The software package (JAVA) that we are using is put out by Jandel
Scientific. 
Jandel Scientific, 65 Koch Road, Corte Madera, CA 94925, (415)
924-8640,
(800) 874-1888.

*****************************************

Richard Berry's CCD imaging book for Willamon-Bell contains (optional?)
disks with image manipulating software. Source code is included. 

*****************************************
3 - GRASS 

Several people mentioned the "public-domain" Geographic Resource 
Analysis Support System (GRASS) of the US Army Construction 
Engineering Research Lab (CERL). Many may think of GRASS as a 
Geographic Information System rather than an Image Processing 
package, although it is reported to have significant image processing 
capabilities.  I've pieced together the following information from 
some news announcements from Rob Knauerhase 
<rob@amber.cecer.army.mil> of CERL-OGI:

CERL's Office of Grass Integration (OGI) maintains an ftp server:

moon.cecer.army.mil (129.229.1.16)

Connections are only allowed during off- peak hours (weekends and 
weekdays before 8:00 A.M. and after 5:00 P.M. Central Standard time).  
Mail regarding this site should be addressed to ftp-
admin@moon.cecer.army.mil.

This location will be the new "canonical" source for GRASS software, 
as well as bug fixes, contributed sources, documentation, and other 
files. This FTP server also supports dynamic compression and 
uncompression and "tar" archiving of files.  A feature attraction of 
the server is John Parks' GRASS tutorial.  Because the manual is 
still in beta-test stage, John requests that people only acquire it 
if they are willing to review it and mail him comments/corrections.  
The OGI is not currently maintaining this document, so all 
correspondence about it should be directed to grassx@tang.uark.edu

Listserv mailing lists:

grassu-list@amber.cecer.army.mil (for GRASS users; application-level 
questions, support concerns, miscellaneous questions, etc)
Send subscribe commands to grassu-request@amber.cecer.army.mi.

grassp-list@amber.cecer.army.mil (for GRASS programmers; system-level 
questions and tips, tricks, and techniques of design and 
implementation of GRASS applications) 
Send subscribe commands to grassp-request@amber.cecer.army.mi.

Both lists are maintained by the Office of Grass Integration (subset 
of the Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Lab 
in Champaign, IL). The OGI is providing the lists as a service to the 
community; while OGI and CERL employees will participate in the 
lists, we can make no claim as to content or veracity of messages 
that pass through the list.  If you have questions, problems, or 
comments, send E-mail to lists-owner@amber.cecer.army.mil and a human 
will respond.

                       -- Comments --

Elizabeth Cheney <echeney@grits.valdosta.peachnet.edu> wrote:  "I use 
GRASS because it's public domain and can be obtained through the 
internet for free.  GRASS runs in Unix and is written in C.  The 
source code can be obtained through an anonymous ftp from the Office 
of Grass Integration.  You then compile the source code for your 
machine, using scripts provided with GRASS.  I would recommend GRASS 
for someone who already has a workstation and is on a limited budget.  
GRASS is not very user-friendly, compared to Macintosh software."

<merlin%neuro.usc.edu@usc.edu> wrote: "first review of overview 
documentation -- looks usefull -- has some pixel resampling functions 
not in other packages plus good general purpose image enhancement 
routines (fft)."

Ken Sullivan <kj@Solbourne.COM> wrote: "The company, person you 
should contact is Kelly Maurice at Vexcel Corp. in Boulder, CO.  This 
gentleman has used the GRASS software and developed multi-spectral 
(238 bands ??) volumetric rendering, full color, on Suns and 
Stardents. It was a really effective interface.  Vexcel Corp. 
currently has a contract to map part of Venus and convert the 
Magellan radar data into contour maps. You can call them at (303) 
444-0094 or email care of greg@vexcel.com 192.92.90.68  I believe :-)  
(I used to be their chief gopher)"

James F. Palmer <zooey%suvm.acs.syr.edu> wrote:  "If you are willing 
to run A/UX you could install GRASS [on a Macintosh] which has 
significant image analysis and import capabilities for satellite 
data."

gwdokokl!ahrea%UOKMAX.ECN.UOKNOR.EDU wrote:  "GRASS is public-domain, 
and can run on a high-end PC under UNIX. It is raster-based, has some 
image-processing capability, and can display vector data (but 
analysis must be done in the raster environment). I have used GRASS 
V.3 on a SUN workstation and found it easy to use. It is best, of 
course, for data that are well represented in raster (grid-cell) 
form."

*****************************************
4 - Khoros 

Many people mentioned Khoros, a powerful and extensive image 
processing and visualization software development environment from 
the University of New Mexico. I've pieced together the following 
information from the various news announcements and FAQs that people 
sent me:

Khoros components include a visual programming language, code 
generators for extending the visual language and adding new 
application packages to the system, an interactive user interface 
editor, an interactive image display package, an extensive library of 
image processing, numerical analysis and signal processing routines, 
and 2D/3D plotting packages:

*  X Windows Applications:
Animate - Interactive Image Sequence Display Tool
Cantata - Extensible Visual Programming Language
Concert - A system for distributed X user interfaces (groupware)
Editimage - Interactive Image Display & Manipulation Program
Xprism2 and Xprism3 - Comprehensive 2D and 3D Plotting Packages
Viewimage - A basic interactive program for surface rendering
Warpimage - An interactive program for registering and warping images

*  Data Processing Algorithms:
Khoros contains over 260 programs, in the following categories: 
arithmetic, classification, color conversion, data conversion, file 
format conversion, feature extraction, frequency filtering, matrix 
algebra (LINPACK and EISPACK), spatial filtering, morphology 
filtering, geometric manipulation, histogram manipulation, 
statistics, signal generation, linear operations, segmentation, 
spectral estimation, sub-region, and transforms. Khoros supports the 
following file formats: TIFF, pbm, BIG, DEM, DLG, ELAS, FITS, MATLAB, 
Sun raster, TGA, and xbm.

*  User Interface Tools
Preview  - Graphical User Interface Display Tool
Composer - Interactive Graphical User Interface Editor
Conductor - Code Generation Tool for a Graphical User Interface
Ghostwriter - Code Generation Tool for a Command Line User Interface
Source Configuration & Management - Tools to install and maintain a 
distributed source tree.

To run Khoros, you must have a UNIX platform running the X11R3, 
X11R4, X11R5, or OpenWindows servers. The Khoros system consists of 
~450,000 lines of C code;  you will need a maximum of 120 Megabytes 
of storage for source, documentation and binaries.  To compile 
Khoros, the system requires X11R4 (patch levels 1-18) or X11R5 client 
software from MIT and an additional 50 Megabytes of storage.

The Khoros user community has ported Khoros to various other 
platforms such as the Convex, the Sequent, Data General Aviion, 
MacII, and 386/486 machines. At this time, these platforms are not 
directly supported by the Khoros Group.

Khoros is available via anonymous ftp at no charge (from 
pprg.eece.unm.edu, 129.24.24.10, in the /pub/khoros directory), or a 
tape and printed documentation can be ordered for $250.00.  

Support is provided via both a user's group mailing-list:  
khoros@chama.eece.unm.edu  (send subscription requests to khoros-
request@chama.eece.unm.edu); and a USENET Newsgroup:  comp.soft-
sys.khoros  

For more information, send e-mail to khoros-
request@chama.eece.unm.edu.  All communication to the Khoros group 
should be via e-mail.  

*****************************************
5 - Other Image Processing Software for UNIX systems
*****************************************

apE 
WIT 
LaboImage 
Global Imaging Software 
IDL (IDL/PV-WAVE and IDL/SIPS)
SPAM
IMDISP 
IRAF 
AIPS 
HIPS 
RAND-CAGIS 
MicroStation Imager 
DISIMP
PCI 
BRL-CAD 

Further Information on these packages can be found in part 2 of this
post.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1992 15:15:28 GMT
From: Timothy.Allen@dartmouth.edu (Timothy Allen)
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Subject: Summary (part 2/2) Image Processing Software (long)

SUMMARY OF IMAGE PROCESSING SOFTWARE, PART 2 of 2

Part 1 contains information about applications for (1) Macintosh
computers, (2) PC computers, (3) GRASS, and (4) Khoros.

Part 2 contains information about (5) other image processing 
packages for UNIX systems.
 

About two weeks ago, I posted the following query to several UseNet 
newsgroups and listserv mailing lists:

"I am interested in learning about what Image Processing software 
packages people are using for the analysis of multi-band data sets, 
such as Landsat Imagery. What are the major software packages in use? 
What are the capabilities of each package -- e.g. rectification, 
classification, PC and IHS transformations, filtering, contrast 
enhancement, overlays? Is the software designed specifically for 
remote-sensing images, medical images, or more generally for any kind 
of multi-band images? What are the hardware requirements? Any special 
requirements for display systems?"

"I am particularly interested in any software for Macintosh 
platforms, but would like to hear about packages that people are 
using on PCs and UNIX workstations as well. I am familiar with 
Terra-Mar's "MicroImage" software, and have heard of "ERDAS" but know 
nothing about it. I am also familiar with some single-band image 
processing software such as the excellent public-domain "NIH Image" 
program for the Macintosh."


Below is a summary of information that I have gathered so far.  I 
apologize for any mistakes or misquotes resulting from my butchering 
(I mean my editing) of the responses I received.  I welcome 
comments, corrections and further contributions to this list.

Tim Allen                                    tim.allen@dartmouth.edu 
Earth Science Department, Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755 

****************************************************
5 - Other Image Processing Software for UNIX systems
****************************************************

apE 
WIT 
LaboImage 
Global Imaging Software 
IDL (IDL/PV-WAVE and IDL/SIPS)
SPAM 
IMDISP
IRAF 
AIPS 
HIPS 
RAND-CAGIS 
MicroStation Imager 
DISIMP
PCI 
BRL-CAD 

****************************************************
From: "(Arnold Bloemer)" <bloemer@helios.tnt.uni-hannover.dbp.de>

apE - a huge visulization package with visual programming interface, 
in former times public domain, now free for universities (as I know). 
For information on availability of apE 2.x check at apE.osgp.osc.edu 
(128.146.18.18).

**now apparently available from:

TaraVisual Corporation 
929 Harrison Ave. 
Columbus, Ohio 43215 
1-(800)-458-8731   (614) 291-2912   FAX (614) 291-2867

****************************************************
From: "(Arnold Bloemer)" <bloemer@helios.tnt.uni-hannover.dbp.de>

WIT - commercial image processing package with a visual programming 
interface, a product of Logical Vision. Provided for use on the 
Catalyst CDware program as trial software; demo version on Sun CDware 
4.

Special hardware:	12 Mb. of memory and color monitor suggested 
Special software:	OpenWindows or X Window system

Logical Vision 
6882 Rupert St. 
Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V5S 2Z6 
Tel: 604-435-2587   Fax: 604-299-8263

****************************************************
[forwarded by bloemer@tnt.uni-hannover.dbp.de <Arnold Bloemer>]

LaboImage:  COMPUTER VISION GROUP, Computing Science Center, 
University of Geneva

We are distributing (free) LaboImage, an image analysis software that 
we have developed during the past 3 years. It is used for teaching 
and research. It has a menu-driven interface, an extensive set of 
image processing/analysis capabilities (filterings, transforms, 
segmentation, binary and grey-level morphology, etc.), some special 
purpose tools (particles counting, 1D gel analysis, etc.). It is 
written in C. It currently runs under SunView; a Motif-X11 
implementation is planned. Interested people should contact:

Prof. Thierry Pun, Computer Vision Group 
Computing Science Center, U-Geneva 12, rue du Lac, CH-1207 Geneva 
SWITZERLAND  
Phone : +41(22) 787 65 82; fax: +41(22) 735 39 05 
E-mail: pun@cui.unige.ch [or pun@cgeuge51.bitnet]

****************************************************
From: snow@netcom.com (Tim Szeliga)

We use Global Imaging Software to process AVHRR data, from the dish 
to the final display. Select a chunk of five band data from a pass, 
automatic navigation, calibrate it to Albedo and Temp, convert that 
to byte, register it to predesigned window, all relatively 
automatically and carefree.

It has no classification routines to speak of, but it isn't that 
difficult to write your own with their programmer's module.

Very small operation: one designs, one codes, one sells. Been around 
for a number of years, sold to Weather Service and Navy.  Runs on 
HP9000 with HP-UX.  Supports 24-bit display.

****************************************************
From: Eric Schmidt <schmidt@sunset.larc.nasa.gov>

The IDL/PV-WAVE software package is what I currently use (the best 
available)...I/O is very simple (a major plus!!) & most of my 
programming is very short & sweet.  Numerous output formats are 
available.  there are certainly some minuses & it does require 
"programming".  I use the command line version, though the "point & 
click" version is available...I have some acquaintances who use it on 
the Mac (I think via Mac-X).  Basically, there are a lot of built-in 
functions, though some manipulation is required.  IDL/PV-WAVE is able 
to work with any type of imagery. IDL runs on a unix system.

****************************************************
From: alan@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Alan S. Mazer)

This is all in the context of Unix workstations but with that 
disclaimer...

Back in 1985 JPL developed something called SPAM (Spectral Analysis 
Manager) which got a fair amount of use at the time.  That was 
designed for Airborne Imaging Spectrometer imagery (byte data, <= 256 
pixels across by <= 512 lines by <= 256 bands); a modified version 
has since been developed for AVIRIS (Airborne VIsual and InfraRed 
Imaging Spectrometer) which uses much larger images.  What I hear, 
though, is that a lot of people are using IDL with a package called 
SIPS. This was developed at the University of Colorado (Boulder) by 
some people working for Alex Goetz (pronounced getz).  You might try 
contacting them if you already have IDL or would be willing to buy 
it.  It's a few thousand dollars (American) I expect for IDL and the 
other should be free.  Those are the general purpose packages I've 
heard of, besides what TerraMar has.

Spam does none of these things (rectification, classification, PC and 
IHS transformations, filtering, contrast enhancement, overlays).  
Actually, it does limited filtering and contrast enhancement 
(stretching).  I'm not sure about IDL/SIPS although I suspect IDL 
does a _lot_ more.  Spam is aimed at spectral identification and 
clustering.  SIPS _was_ written for AVIRIS imagery.  I'm not sure how 
general purpose it is.  You would have to contact Goetz or one of his 
people and ask.  I have another piece of software (PCW) that does PC 
and Walsh transformations with pseudocoloring and clustering and 
limited image modification (you can compute an image using selected 
components).  I've used it on 70 megabyte AVIRIS images without 
problems, but for the best speed you need an external DSP card.  It 
will work without it, but large images take quite a while (50-70 
times as long) to process.  That's a freebie if you want it.

The original Spam uses X or SunView to display.  The AVIRIS version 
may require VICAR, an executive based on TAE, and may also require a 
frame buffer.  I can refer you to people if you're interested.  PCW 
requires X for display.

****************************************************

IMDISP Written at JPL and other NASA sites. It is available by FTP from
ames.arc.nasa.gov (128.102.18.3) in directory /pub/SPACE/SOFTWARE. Use
it
for simple display, enhancing, smoothing and so on. It is designed for
FITS
and VICAR/PDS images (the latter being NASA's planetary image format -
try
it out on images from the same site in the pub/SPACE/VICAR directory).
It
will also display TIFF files from any scanner, as long as you know the
size
of the image (lines and samples).

****************************************************
From: rph63406@cs.fit.edu (Jose Suarez /ADVISOR Rafert)

The granddaddy of them all is IRAF (available from noao.edu or 
iraf.noao.edu), but it requires Unix, a lot of disk space, and a hell 
of a lot of patience. It's got extensive programming and I/O 
capabilities, and lots of packages have already been written for 
number-crunching within it. 

My favorite is IDL (Interactive Data Language) from Research Systems, 
Inc. (Oh, IRAF stands for Image Reduction and Analysis Facility.) IDL 
is in my opinion, much better and infinitely easier. Its programming 
language is very strong and easy -- very Pascal-like. It handles the 
number-crunching very well, also.

If you have A/UX, you can run IRAF. If you have money, you can run 
IDL (the Mac version isn't out yet, though -- I've only used it on 
Suns and VAX/VMS -- but it's coming.)

Personally, I like doing the number-crunching with IDL on the VAX (or 
Math- ematica, Igor, or even Excel on the Mac if it's not too hairy), 
then bringing it over to NIH Image for the imaging part. I have yet 
to encounter any situation which that combination couldn't handle, 
and the speed and ease of use (compared to IRAF) was incredible. 

By the way, it's mostly astronomical image processing which I've been 
doing. This means image enhancement, cleaning up bad lines/pixels, 
and some other traditional image processing routines. Then, for 
example, taking a graph of intensity versus position along a line I 
choose with the mouse, then doing a curve fit to that line (which I 
might do like in KaleidaGraph.)

****************************************************

IRAF is free you can ftp it from noao.edu and complement it with STSDAS
from
stsci.edu. It is available via anonymous ftp from noao.edu.  Email to
iraf@noao.edu for more details.  Apparently this is one of the _de
facto_
standards in the astronomical image community.

****************************************************
From: merlin%neuro.usc.edu@usc.edu (merlin)

IRAF -- contact iraf@noao.edu -- image reduction and analysis 
facility of the national optical astronomy observatory, kitt peak AZ 
-- software distributed by anonymous ftp from tucana.noao.edu -- also 
get a copy of saoimage for display under X windows -- extremely 
usefull package -- very flexible/extendable  -- tons (literally 3 
linear feet) of documentation for the general user, skilled user, and 
programmer

AIPS -- contact aipsmail@nrao.edu -- astronomical image processing 
system of the national radio astroinomy observatory, charlottesville 
VA -- software distributed by 9 track tape last time I ordered it -- 
I did not find this package very usefull -- tons of dense 
documentation -- very old code -- I heard in one of our astronomy 
laboratories the package may be rewritten completely in the near 
future -- major funding available.

****************************************************
From: msl@cns.nyu.edu (Michael Landy)

I co-wrote and sell a general-purpose package for image processing 
which has been used for basically all the usual image processing 
applications (robotics, medical, satellite, engineering, oil 
exploration, etc.).  It is called HIPS, and deals with sequences of 
multiband images in the same way it deals with single images.  It has 
been growing since we first wrote it, both by additions from us as 
well as a huge user-contributed library. Here is a description of the 
software:

     HIPS  is  a  set  of  image  processing  modules  which together  
provide  a  powerful  suite  of  tools  for  those interested in 
research,  system  development  and  teaching. Originally  developed  
at  New  York  University,  HIPS  now represents one of the most 
extensive and flexible vision and image  processing environments 
currently available.  It runs under the UNIX operating system.  It is 
modular  and  flexi- ble, provides automatic documentation of its 
actions, and is almost entirely independent of special equipment.   
It  han- dles  sequences  of  images  (movies)  in precisely the same 
manner as single frames.  Programs and subroutines have been 
developed  for simple   image   transformations,  filtering, 
convolution,  Fourier  and other  transform processing, edge 
detection  and line  drawing   manipulation,  digital  image 
compression and transmission  methods, noise generation, and image   
statistics   computation.   Over   150   such  image transformation 
programs  have  been developed.  As a result, almost any  image 
processing  task  can be performed quickly and conveniently.  
Additionally, HIPS allows users to easily integrate  their  own  
custom  routines.   New users  become effective using HIPS on their 
first day.

     HIPS features images that are  self-documenting.   Each image  
stored  in  the  system  contains  a  history  of the transformations 
that have been applied to that image.   HIPS includes  a  small  set 
of subroutines which primarily deals with a standardized  image  
sequence  header,  and  a  large library  of  image  transformation 
tools in the form of UNIX ``filters''.  It comes complete with  
source  code,  on-line manual pages, and on-line documentation.  HIPS 
is now in use on a variety of computers including Vax and  Microvax,  
Sun, Apollo,  Masscomp,  NCR Tower, Iris, IBM AT, etc.  For image 
display and input, drivers are supplied for the Grinnell and Adage  
(Ikonas) image processors, and the Sun-2, Sun-3, Sun- 4, and Sun-386i 
consoles.  We also  supply  user-contributed drivers  for  a  number  
of  other framestores and windowing packages (Sun gfx, Sun console, 
Matrox VIP-1024, ITI IP-512, Lexidata,  Macintosh II, X windowing 
system, and Iris).  The Hipsaddon package includes an interface  for  
the  CRS-4000. It  is  a  simple matter to interface HIPS with other 
frame- stores, and we can put interested users in touch with  users 
who  have interfaced HIPS with the Arlunya and Datacube Max- Video.  
HIPS can be easily adapted for other  image  display devices because 
98% of HIPS is machine independent.

     HIPS has proven itself a highly flexible  system,  both as  an  
interactive  research tool, and for more production- oriented tasks.  
It is both easy to use, and quickly adapted and extended to new uses.  
HIPS is supplied on magnetic tape in UNIX tar format (either reel-
to-reel or  Sun  cartridge), and comes with source code, libraries, a 
library of convolu- tion masks, and on-line documentation and manual 
pages.

HIPS  stands   for   the   Human   Information   Processing 
Laboratory's Image Processing System.

     HIPS has been described in Computer  Vision,  Graphics, and  
Image  Processing (Vol.  25, 1984, pp. 331-347), and in Behavior 
Research Methods,  Instrumentation,  and  Computers (Vol. 16, 1984, 
pp. 199-216).

Michael Landy
SharpImage Software
P.O. Box 373, Prince Street Station
New York, NY   10012-0007
Voice:  (212) 998-7857
Fax: (212) 995-4011 (c/o Michael Landy, New York University)
Email:  landy@nyu.edu

****************************************************
From: Robert Weissler <weissler%rondo@rand.org>

The RAND Corporation uses a package called RAND-CAGIS or simply CAGIS 
(Cartographic Analysis Geographic Information System) developed in-
house principally by Al Zobrist.  CAGIS is a modular GIS capable of 
raster, vector, and tabular data manipulation developed to support 
computer modeling and policy analysis research.  It uses a graphical 
user interface framework based on TAE Plus (Transportable 
Applications Executive, latest version 5.1) from Nasa-Goddard 
distributed by COSMIC.

CAGIS is organized as a toolkit for developing images and building 
applications around them.  It is used to prepare geographic data for 
computer models, facilitate smooth exchange of data between models, 
and perform supplementary calculations for these models. CAGIS 
includes a library of application programs for accessing and 
manipulating geographic databases, including DMA DTED and DFAD, World 
Database II, ETOPO5, SPOT and Landsat.  There are also other routines 
for image processing, converting formats, performing transformations, 
and providing analysis, as well as hooks to the Ingres relational 
database management system.  CAGIS can register geographic features 
to terrain and mosaic multiple image sources into a single image.

CAGIS has a unique compressed image format that all these routines 
can operate upon without uncompressing the image, saving roughly an 
order of magnitude disk space and considerable time over uncompressed 
images.  The compression technique allows the routines to index 
through the images in their compressed form to extract relevant 
portions quickly.

CAGIS runs on color Sun SPARCSTations (SPARC 2 GX recommended) 
running under SunOS 4.1.1, the X Window System and OpenWindows. It 
would probably benefit from running on a 2 GS where there is hardware 
support for Z and double buffering and hidden-line, hidden-surface 
removal.

We typically store our various geographic and other databases out on 
a juke box of eraseable opticals that can hold around 40 GB or more.

****************************************************
From: lloyds@csis.dit.csiro.au

DISIMP (Device Independent Software for Image Processing) is a 
powerful system providing both user friendliness and high 
functionality in interactive times.

DISIMP incorporates a rich library of image processing utilities and 
spatial data options. All functions can be easily accessed via the 
DISIMP executive. This menu is modular in design and groups image 
processes by their function. Such a logical structure means that 
complicated processes are simply a progression through a series of 
modules.

Processes include image rectification, classification (unsupervised 
and supervised), intensity transformations, three dimensional display 
and Principal Component Analysis. DISIMP also supports the more 
simple and effective enhancement techniques of filtering, band 
subtraction and ratioing.

Running on UNIX workstations, DISIMP is capable of processing the 
more computational intensive techniques in interactive processing 
times. DISIMP is available in both Runtime and Programmer's  
environments. Using the Programmers environment, utilities can be 
developed for specific applications programs.

Graphics are governed by an icon-based Display Panel which allows 
quick enhancments of a displayed image. Manipulations of Look Up 
Tables, colour stretches, changes to histograms, zooming and panning 
can be interactively driven through this control.

A range of geographic projections enables DISIMP to integrate data of 
image, graphic and textual types. Images can be rectified by a number 
of coordinate systems, providing the true geographic knowledge 
essential for ground truthing. Overlays of grids, text and vector 
data can be added to further enhance referenced imagery.

The system is a flexible package allowing users of various skill 
levels to determine their own working environment, including the 
amount of help required. DISIMP comes fully configured with no 
optional extras. The purchase price includes all functionality 
required for professional processing of remote sensed data.

For further information, please contact:

The Business Manager, CLOUGH Engineering Group Systems Division, 627 
Chapel Street, South Yarra, Australia 3141. Telephone:  +61 3 825 
5555       Fax:  +61 3 826 6463

Email:  clough@csis.dit.csiro.au

****************************************************
From: danw@ee.su.oz.au (Dan Wuescher)

I have just left a company called Intergraph (based in Huntsville  
Alabama) that sells a wide range of GIS software/hardware.  The 
product  I was working on was called Microstation Imager.  
Microstation is a base  graphics package that Imager sits on top of.  
Imager is basically an  image processing package with a heavy 
GIS/remote sensing flavor.  Some  of the capabilities that I can 
remember off the top of my head:

Basic geometry manipulations: flip, mirror, rotate, generalized 
affine.  Rectification: Affine, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th order models as 
well as a projective model (warp an image to a vector map or to 
another image).  RGB to IHS and IHS to RGB conversion.  Principal 
component analysis.  Classification: K-means and isodata.  Fourier 
Xforms: Forward, filtering and reverse.  Filters: High pass, low 
pass, edge enhancing, median, generic.  Complex Histogram/Contrast 
control.  Layer Controller: manages up to 64 images at a time -- user 
can extract single bands from a 3 band image or create color images 
by combining various individual bands, etc.

There's probably a lot more I'm forgetting.  This would probably be  
a pretty high end solution ($ wise) but if you need something high  
end I recommend it.  The package is designed for a remote sensing  
application (it can handle VERY LARGE images) and there is all kinds  
of other software available for GIS applications.  

At the time of my departure it only ran on  Intergraph Workstations 
(a Unix machine similar to a Sun) though there  were rumors (there 
are always rumors) that the software would be  ported to PC and 
possibly a Sun environment.

****************************************************
From:  Chris_F_Chiesa@cup.portal.com

  I'm a programmer first, graphic-arts programmer second, and remote- 
sensing integrator last, but I've encountered some software I can 
bring to your attention.  There's a copmpany called PCI, Inc., out of 
Richmond Hill (suburb of Toronto), Ontario, Canada, who makes an 
impressive array of software utilities for processing, manipulation, 
and use of remote sensing data in eight or ten different "industry 
standard" formats: LGSOWG, BSQ, LANDSAT, and a couple of others whose 
titles I forget.  The software is available in versions for MS-DOS, 
Unix workstations (among them HP, Sun, and IBM), and VMS, and quite 
possibly other platforms by now.  I use the VMS version.  

The "PCI software" consists of several classes/groups/packages of 
utilities, grouped by function but all operating on a common "PCI 
database" disk file.  The "Tape I/O" package is a set of utility 
programs which read from the various remote-sensing industry tape 
formats INTO, or write those formats out FROM, the "PCI database" 
file; this is the only package I use or know much about.  Other 
packages can display data from the PCI database to one or another of 
several PCI-supported third-party color displays, output numeric or 
bitmap representation of image data to an attached printer, e.g. an 
Epson-type dot-matrix graphics printer.  You might be more spe- 
cifically interested in the mathematical operations package: histo- 
gram and Fourier analysis, equalization, user-specified operations 
(e.g. "multiply channel 1 by 3, add channel 2, and store as channel 
5"), and God only knows what all else -- there's a LOT.  I don't have 
and don't use these, so can't say much about them; you only buy the 
packages your particular application/interest calls for. 

Each utility is controlled by from one to eight "parameters," read 
from a common "parameter file" which must be (in VMS anyway) in your 
"default directory."  (I found this annoying and patched the 
executable code to do it differently...)  Some utilities will share 
parameters and use the same parameter for a different purpose, so it 
can get a bit confusing setting up a series of operations.  The 
standard PCI environ- ment contains a scripting language very similar 
to IBM-PC BASIC, but which allows you to automate the process of 
setting up parameters for a common, complicated, lengthy or difficult 
series of utility execu- tions.  (In VMS I can also invoke utilities 
independently from a DCL command procedure.)  There's also an 
optional programming library which allows you to write compiled-
language programs which can interface with (read from/write to) the 
PCI data structures (database file, parameter file). My employers are 
too cheap to buy this official programming support, so I have had to 
scrounge a PCI manual and implement my OWN database/parameterfile 
reader/writer routines!

The PCI software is designed specifically for remote-sensing images, 
but requires such a level of operator expertise that, once you reach 
the level where you can handle r-s images, you can figure out ways to 
handle a few other thingds as well.  For instance, the Tape I/O 
package offers a utility for reading headerless multi-band (what 
Adobe PhotoShop on the Macintosh calls "raw") data from tape, in a 
number of different "interleave" orders. This turns out to be ideal 
for manipulating the graphic-arts industry's "CT2T" format, would 
probably (I haven't tried) handle Targa, and so on. Above all, 
however, you HAVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING or you can screw up to 
the Nth degree and have to start over.  It's worth noting that the 
PCI "database" file is designed to contain not only "raster" (image) 
data, but vectors (for overlaying map informa- tion entered via 
digitizing table), land-use, and all manner of other information (I 
observe that a remote-sensing image tape often contains all manner of 
information about the spectral bands, latitude/longitude /time/date 
etc. of the original satellite pass; all of this can go into the PCI 
"database").

I _believe_ that on workstations the built-in display is used.  On 
VAX systems OTHER than workstations PCI supports only a couple of 
specific third-party display systems (the name Gould/Deanza seems to 
come to mind).  One of MY personal workarounds was a display program 
which would display directly from a PCI "database" file to a Peritek 
VCT-Q (Q-bus 24-bit DirectColor) display subsystem.  PCI software 
COULD be "overkill" in your case; it seems designed for the very 
"high end" applications/users, i.e. those for whom a Mac/PC largely 
doesn't suffice (although as you know the gap is getting smaller all 
the time).  It's probably no coincidence that PCI is located in 
Canada, a country which does a LOT of its land/resource management 
via remote sensing; I believe the Canadian government uses PCI 
software for some of its work in these areas.

****************************************************

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------------------------------

Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1992 10:40:57 GMT
From: dmp@owl.cs.bham.ac.uk (Donald Peterson)
Organization: Cognitive Science, Birmingham, UK
Subject: Conference AISB'93

         AISB'93 CONFERENCE : ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS

    Theme: "Prospects for AI as the General Science of Intelligence"

                       29 March --  2 April 1993 
                        University of Birmingham

1.  Introduction
2.  Invited talks
3.  Topic areas for submitted papers
4.  Timetable for submitted papers
5.  Paper lengths and submission details
6.  Call for referees 
7.  Workshops and Tutorials
8.  LAGB Conference 
9.  Email, paper mail, phone and fax. 

1. INTRODUCTION

The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the
Simulation of Behaviour (one of the oldest AI societies) will hold its
ninth bi-annual conference on the dates above at the University of
Birmingham. The site is Manor House, a charming and convivial
residential hall close to the University. 

Tutorials and Workshops are planned for Monday 29th March and the
morning of Tuesday 30th March, and the main conference will start with
lunch on Tuesday 30th March and end on Friday 2nd April.

The Programme Chair is Aaron Sloman, and the Local Arrangements
Organiser is Donald Peterson, both assisted by Petra Hickey.

The conference will be "single track" as usual, with invited speakers
and submitted papers, plus a "poster session" to allow larger numbers to
report on their work, and the proceedings will be published. 

The conference will cover the usual topic areas for conferences on AI
and Cognitive Science. However, with the turn of the century
approaching, and with computer power no longer a major bottleneck in
most AI research (apart from connectionism) it seemed appropriate to
ask our invited speakers to look forwards rather than backwards, and
so the theme of the conference will be "Prospects for AI as the
general science of intelligence". Submitted papers exploring this are
also welcome, in addition to the normal technical papers. 


2. INVITED TALKS

So far the following have agreed to give invited talks:

Prof David Hogg (Leeds)
   "Prospects for computer vision"

Prof Allan Ramsay (Dublin)
   "Prospects for natural language processing by machine"

Prof Glyn Humphreys (Birmingham)
    "Prospects for connectionism - science and engineering". 

Prof Ian Sommerville (Lancaster)
    "Prospects for AI in systems design"

Titles are provisional.


3. TOPIC AREAS for SUBMITTED PAPERS

Papers are invited in any of the normal areas represented at AI and
Cognitive Science conferences, including:

AI in Design,
AI in software engineering
Teaching AI and Cognitive Science,
Analogical and other forms of Reasoning
Applications of AI,
Automated discovery,
Control of actions,
Creativity,
Distributed intelligence,
Expert Systems,
Intelligent interfaces
Intelligent tutoring systems,
Knowledge representation,
Learning,
Methodology,
Modelling affective processes,
Music,
Natural language,
Naive physics,
Philosophical foundations,
Planning,
Problem Solving,
Robotics,
Tools for AI,
Vision,

Papers on neural nets or genetic algorithms are welcomed, but should be
capable of being judged as contributing to one of the other topic areas.

Papers may either be full papers or descriptions of work to be presented
in a poster session.

4. TIMETABLE for SUBMITTED PAPERS

Submission deadline: 1st September 1992

Date for notification of acceptances: mid October 1992

Date for submission of camera ready final copy: mid December 1992

The conference proceedings will be published. Long papers and invited
papers will definitely be included. Selected poster summaries may be
included if there is space.

5. PAPER LENGTH and SUBMISSION DETAILS

Full papers:
    10 pages maximum, A4 or 8.5"x11", no smaller than 12 point print
    size Times Roman or similar preferred, in letter quality print.

Poster submissions
    5 pages summary

Excessively long papers will be rejected without being reviewed.

All submissions should include

    1. Full names and addresses of all authors
    2. Electronic mail address if available
    3. Topic area
    4. Label: "Long paper" or "Poster summary"
    5. Abstract no longer than 10 lines.
    6. Statement certifying that the paper is not being
       submitted elsewhere for publication.
    7. An undertaking that if the paper is accepted at least
       one of the authors will attend the conference.

THREE copies are required.


6. CALL for REFEREES

Anyone willing to act as a reviewer during September should write to the
Programme Chair, with a summary CV or indication of status and
experience, and preferred topic areas.


7. WORKSHOPS and TUTORIALS

The first day and a half of the Conference are allocated to workshops
and tutorials. These will be organised by Dr Hyacinth S. Nwana, and
anyone interested in giving a workshop or tutorial should contact her
at: 

Department of Computer Science, 
University of Keele, 
Staffs. 
ST5 5BG. 
U.K.

phone: +44 782 583413, or +44 782 621111(x 3413) 

email
    JANET: nwanahs@uk.ac.keele.cs  
    BITNET: nwanahs%cs.kl.ac.uk@ukacrl
    UUCP  : ...!ukc!kl-cs!nwanahs  
    other : nwanahs@cs.keele.ac.uk 


8. LAGB CONFERENCE.

Shortly before AISB'93, the Linguistics Association of Great Britain
(LAGB) will hold its Spring Meeting at the University of Birmingham
from 22-24th March, 1993. For more information, please contact Dr.
William Edmondson: postal address as below; phone +44-(0)21-414-4763;
email EDMONDSONWH@vax1.bham.ac.uk 


9. EMAIL, PAPER MAIL, PHONE and FAX. 

Email:
    * aisb93-prog@cs.bham.ac.uk 
      (for communications relating to submission of papers to the programme)
    * aisb93-delegates@cs.bham.ac.uk 
      (for information on accommodation, meals, programme etc. as it 
       becomes available --- enquirers will be placed on a mailing list)

Address:
    AISB'93 (prog) or AISB'93 (delegates), 
    School of Computer Science,
    The University of Birmingham,
    Edgbaston,
    Birmingham,
    B15 2TT, 
    U.K. 

Phone:
    +44-(0)21-414-3711

Fax:
    +44-(0)21-414-4281



Donald Peterson, April 1992. 

------------------------------

End of VISION-LIST digest 11.16
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