Image processing software

Image data processing software

The importance of good algorithms...

from http://www.emrsdtc.com/trans_embed.htm

Another important factor which is crucial to the effective use of processing within sensor systems is to have a good understanding of processing requirements and the likely availability of processing capability. The well-known Moore's Law, expressing the growth in available computing capacity, currently shows no signs of reaching its limits, but it is less well understood that whilst the growth in processing power per unit volume continues unabated, the growth in processing power per unit of power consumption is modest, indeed, very modest. This fact has major implications for many military sensor applications, as most military platforms are severely constrained in availability of power and cooling. This means that processing cannot be regarded as an inexhaustible resource for future systems, and this places a premium on developing processing algorithms and software implementations which are highly efficient.

It is arguable indeed that the greatest barrier to progress in the collection of data for military intelligence is neither the inadequacy of sensor technology, nor the shortage of processing power to crunch the numbers, but, rather, the lack of understanding about what to do with the data. Military intelligence is neither sensor-limited nor processor power limited, but it is algorithm limited.

This is perhaps best illustrated by the failure so far to capitalise on the richest, most extensive source of free data that exists most of the time in most places - the data that most informs human and animal systems. Computer vision is the key to machine intelligence. It is very difficult and remains an infant technology, but there have been significant advances in both 3D generic vision for structure analysis, and scene interpretation in terms of 3D model-based processes, which are promising real capabilities in autonomy.

As military thinking turns increasingly towards the use of autonomous platforms, the development of computer vision is becoming a matter of urgency.

The above is true, in our opinion, for both military and civilian Unmanned Aircraft systems.

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Autostitch™ :: a new dimension in automatic image stitching

from http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

Autostitch™ is the world's first fully automatic 2D image stitcher. Capable of stitching full view panoramas without any user input whatsoever, Autostitch is a breakthrough technology for panoramic photography, VR and visualisation applications. This is the first solution to stitch any panorama completely automatically, whether 1D (horizontal) or 2D (horizontal and vertical).

Autostitch is built using cutting edge research from the AI lab at UBC, but it's incredibly simple to use! Just select a set of photos, and Autostitch does the rest: digital photos in, panoramas out. Try the free demo (for Windows):

25 of 57 images aligned...

all 57 images aligned...

the final result.

Download the FREE demo version

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Google Maps

- from http://www.aaaasoft.com/gmid/

Google Maps Images Downloader is a cute tool that help you to get small tile satellite images from Google Maps. All downloaded small images are saved on the disk. You can view downloaded maps by Satellite Viewer Or you can combine them into a big BMP map. It supports proxy server. And you can easily get the longitude and latitude of each downloaded small tile image.

Note: The downloaded images are only for your personal purpose, non-commercial use.

Screenshot of downloading images - from http://www.aaaasoft.com/gmid/

Screenshot of combining images - from http://www.aaaasoft.com/gmid/

Screenshot of Satellite Map viewer - from http://www.aaaasoft.com/gmid/

Notes

Thanks to Josh Levine for pointing out this software to us.
This software has not, as far as we understand it, been developed by Google Inc, but rather by www.aaaasoft.com

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Microsoft Photosynth

- from http://labs.live.com/photosynth/

The Photosynth Technology Preview is a taste of the newest - and, we hope, most exciting - way to view photos on a computer. Our software takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and then displays the photos in a reconstructed three-dimensional space, showing you how each one relates to the next.

In our collections, you can access gigabytes of photos in seconds, view a scene from nearly any angle, find similar photos with a single click, and zoom in to make the smallest detail as big as your monitor.

Photosynth is a collaboration between Microsoft and the University of Washington based on the groundbreaking research of Noah Snavely (UW), Steve Seitz (UW), and Richard Szeliski (Microsoft Research).

Photosynth is an amazing new technology from Microsoft Live Labs that will change forever the way you think about digital photos.

Our software takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed three-dimensional space.

With Photosynth you can:

Walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle.
Seamlessly zoom in or out of a photo whether it's megapixels or gigapixels in size.
See where pictures were taken in relation to one another.
Find similar photos to the one you're currently viewing.
Send a collection - or a particular view of one - to a friend.

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