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Letter from the President

Things are still moving at a rapid pace here at Overwatch Systems.   In April we acquired Visual Learning Systems (VLS), the premier supplier in the emerging market for automated feature extraction solutions for geographic information systems (GIS).  The Company’s innovative software applications provide automated tools for extracting features of interest with the highest measure of speed and accuracy.  The VLS solutions fill a critical need in the marketplace.  These tools provide a key bridging technology between the raster-based world of imaging and the vector-based world of maps.  We are all excited to have our friends at VLS join the Overwatch team. 

The RemoteView Breakfast Workshops have been hugely popular.  In March, we hosted a Breakfast Workshop on Precision Positioning and photogrammetry.  The series continued this month with a workshop on Data Management which included information on the Image Catalog and on GeoLINK.

We’ve been fortunate to meet with many of you in the past few months, both at your facilities, and at conferences and shows.  Thanks to those who stopped by our booths at DGI in London, DoDIIS in Dallas, and at NGA Tech Days in Washington DC.  It’s always good to get together with you in person.  We are still out visiting.  If you would like a visit and haven’t been contacted yet, feel free to give us a call.  You can also meet with us at the 26th ESRI International User Conference, and GeoINT 2006.

We have a lot of information in this edition of the ViewPoint regarding the Overwatch strategy.  As you read through it, you’ll see how we are bringing it all together to add more value to your existing products.  If you have any question or would like more information, please give us a call.  Let’s keep in touch.

 

Kirk Brown
President
Overwatch Systems

 

Overwatch Systems – Bringing it all Together

Combining all sources of intelligence into a single integrated picture is the future of intelligence analysis. The ideal tool allows all known intelligence to be arrayed onto a single picture, and provide the ability to “click on” elements of interest to drill down to better understand potential threats.  The best way to share multi-source intelligence is to base all information on a “geospatial framework”.  This aligns with Overwatch System’s strategy to acquire leading companies in the geospatial intelligence marketplace, and integrate their world-class technology into a single foundation.  Through acquisition and internal development, Overwatch is creating an integrated framework and product set that includes Geospatial Analysis (RemoteView and ELT™), 2D/3D Mapping (InterSCOPE™), and Feature Extraction (Feature Analyst and LIDAR Analyst) to address the multi-source intelligence challenge.

3D Feature and Elevation Collection
Historically, the biggest impediment to 3D scene visualization was the intensive labor effort required to build the 3D models.  Weeks and months were needed to accurately build 3D models of major metropolitan areas.  Overwatch Systems has removed that impediment with VLS Feature Analyst and LIDAR Analyst.  Tasks that used to take weeks and months to perform can now be completed in only days.  Features such as building footprints, building heights, roads, airports, trees, and other objects are automatically collected.  Soon, a new link to RemoteView will allow analysts to edit and publish these features in any geospatial database.  This data will then be available for planning, presentations and studies.  Digital Elevation Models can also be built from stereo imagery and from LIDAR data.

3D GeoSpatial Analysis
Both the new RemoteView 3D viewer and Interscope can automatically display and modify threat domes representing blast or chemical contamination areas.  Evacuation routes can be developed based on any number of catastrophic scenarios and ensuing variables.  Line-of-sight solutions can be created from every possible angle, with all of the results clearly delineated on the model.  Shadow studies can be performed to evaluate lighting conditions in any location for any given time of day or month.  Using these tools, analysts and field agents can build and edit their own models or use models built at intelligence and command centers for interactive mission planning, mission rehearsal, and rescue and recovery operations.

Multi-Intelligence Integration
Interscope’s flexible framework supports the visualization and fusion of multiple forms of intelligence, including Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), Human Intelligence (HUMINT), Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT), and Image Intelligence (IMINT). These products now provide and integrated product suite to manage, visualize and analyze geospatial data, intelligence reports, and video feeds. 

 

 

Overwatch Systems Purchases
ALL-SOURCE IMAGING Systems

 

MORRISTOWN, N.J., USA, 5 July 2006 – Overwatch Systems today announced that it has acquired All-Source Imaging Systems, Inc. (ASIS) of Northhampton, MA. The purchase became effective on June 24, 2006.

Founded in 1998, ASIS is the leading manufacturer of cost-effective and easy-to-use solutions that allow image analysts to fully integrate film-based imagery archives into today’s softcopy production environment using an automated process.  The ASIS-developed Zoom 500 Digital series of products can quickly transform a traditional light table stereoscope into a full multi-source digital image exploitation system.  The ASIS ZoomDigital™ and FilmDeskPro™ software products can complete the transformation of a stereoscope into a completely self-contained multi-source image analyst workstation, fully capable of exploiting maps, digital imagery and GIS data.   ASIS software products and integration services provide full-featured, PC-based, multi-source imagery production systems that can pull from a variety of hard and softcopy sources in order to create and disseminate intelligence products. 

ASIS is a strategic extension of the current Overwatch Systems product offerings. Overwatch Systems consists of the combined resources of six companies – Austin Info Systems, Sensor Systems, ITSpatial, Paragon Imaging, Visual Learning Systems and Federal IT – to provide a suite of integrated geospatial and intelligence fusion software tools for the defense/intelligence community.  This toolset, known as the Overwatch Intelligence Center (OIC), focuses on providing situational awareness by enabling analysts to generate relevant, actionable intelligence faster and more effectively for the warfighter, first responder and decision maker. The OIC will contribute to transforming the Intelligence Community with low-cost collaboration tools.  The addition of ASIS to the OIC family will enhance analysts’ productivity by streamlining access to film-based archives of geospatial information.     

The senior management of ASIS has chosen to use a portion of its transaction proceeds to invest back into Overwatch Systems and will continue to manage the company. ASIS will report to Kirk Brown, President of Overwatch Geospatial Operations, formerly Sensor Systems, based in Sterling, Va. 
“All-Source Imaging Systems fills a strategic void in today’s workflow environment.  Historically, it has been cost prohibitive to digitize large archives of film-based imagery.  Without a cost-effective solution, there was a real danger this rich source of information would never make it into a softcopy environment and become irrevocably lost.   With ASIS products and services we can offer this capability on an as-needed basis, which saves our customers money.  ASIS products and services are a natural fit with Overwatch Geospatial Operations, extending the integration of both our RemoteView and ELT product series to hardcopy now as well as softcopy,” said Brown. “We are excited to welcome ASIS to the Overwatch team.  ASIS has many important and established customers not only in the US Defense and Intelligence Communities, but across Europe and Asia as well.  We look forward to serving the warfighters, first-responders and decision makers in all of these areas with products and services to increase their productivity.”

Phil Wood, the principal shareholder of ASIS said at the time of the closing, “We’re very pleased to become part of the Overwatch team.  We are excited to play a strategic role in extending the reach of Overwatch solutions beyond the softcopy sources of NTM and other sources serving the warfighter into the world of automated capture of hardcopy film.”

 

FEATURE ANALYST -VLS

In collaboration with the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), Native Communities
Development Corporation (NCDC) analyzed forest landscapes for chimpanzee habitat assessment in Gombe National Park, Tanzania.  NCDC employed a dynamic mapping system that utilized Visual Learning Systems' Feature Analyst software, to identify features of interest from satellite imagery.

The first remote sensing applications for chimpanzee research began in 2002, and JGI has continued to acquire and analyze IKONOS and QuickBird images.
NCDC has thus far utilized Feature Analyst to assist in the identification and assessment of vegetative features, oil palm, cassava, and other timber; as well as man-made features such as roads and buildings.

"We expect that conservation efforts worldwide will see incredible benefits from the use of image data and Feature Analyst for wildlife habitat monitoring," said Stuart Blundell, chief operating officer of VLS.  "The accuracy and consistency of the mapping speak for themselves."

 

In addition to assisting JGI in its attempts to identify and restore areas that are important for chimpanzees, VLS' software is currently actively used within The Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited, and many other conservation and research-based organizations.

 

New Overwatch  SYSTEMS app: RV SCREENER 

Today’s tactical reconnaissance platforms such as the U2 and Global Hawk have the ability to image vast quantities of real estate using Synthetic Aperature Radar (SAR) sensors.  These all-weather sensors work night and day, acquiring gigabytes and terabytes of data with each mission.

In the image below, a Global Hawk SAR sensor is acquiring Wide Area Search (WAS) data – each image file is represented by the red rectangles.In order to meet the tactical imagery needs generated by these reconnaissance and surveillance platforms, Overwatch Systems will be releasing the new RemoteView Screener this summer. The RV Screener takes full resolution data (typically data files 10000 pixels x 1000 pixels), and creates screen-sized reduced resolution datasets (RRDS).  As each RRDS is created, it is displayed in a waterfall format by the screener.  The screening analyst can zoom into areas of interest in real time, and pause and resume the screening process.  Information such as latitude/longitude, layover, shadow angle, and time over target are always available.  When additional investigation is required, the analyst selects a chip region by drawing a bounding box around the area of interest.  RemoteView Screener then creates an image chip out of the original resolution data, mosaics the data from multiple files (if required), and makes the new file available for further study.   In the image below, the analyst has drawn a red box around a region of interest.  From there, the RemoteView Screener will get the original resolution data (in this case from the 4 files represented by the yellow lines) and create a mosaic in NITFS format for further processing.

Watch for more RemoteView Screener information on our website this summer.  Soon you will be using RemoteView to meet all of your tactical imaging needs.

 

 

Overwatch Systems Assists NGA with Security Operations at the Turin Winter Olympics

Overwatch Systems provided Intelligent 3D Mapping and geospatial analysis tools to deployed NGA support teams during the Winter Olympics in Turin.  Using a variety of different data types, Overwatch analysts built high fidelity photo realistic 3D models of each of the Olympic venues and other identified sites of interest. These models provided the basis for 3D analysis in the unique urban view provided by InterSCOPE, Overwatch Systems’ COTS 3D visualization and analysis environment.  NGA analysts, using preconfigured laptops, delivered geospatial analysis such as dynamic line of sight (LOS) and view-shed analysis throughout the Olympic events to US and international stakeholders.  Overwatch provided an intuitive easy to use view of the Alpine areas as well as the urban landscape of the city of Turin.  Analyst training was accomplished in less than half a day.

The Overwatch team worked directly with NGA to define the up front data requirements to meet mission objectives, specifying appropriate datasets from all the available source information. The overall geospatial production effort was an iterative process with NGA to continually refine areas of interest up until the event and to incorporate the latest data sets as they became available.
Many Olympic venues were not built at the time the overall project plan was developed by NGA and therefore had little or no source data available.  The Overwatch production team had to find alternative data sources for those sites to generate accurate 3D models.  Sources such as CAD files were used, as well as artist’s sketches, 3D renderings, handheld ground imagery, blueprints and LIDAR.  LIDAR Analyst was used in the production workflow to process raw LIDAR point cloud data into meaningful feature attribution, 3D models and facilities data.

One of the primary tasks for the Overwatch team was to produce “Intelligent 3D Maps” of the area. An Intelligent 3D Map is an interactive 3D model of a geographic area that can be used to support location based planning, analysis, operations, and training applications including:

• Security Event Planning and Monitoring
• Incident Management, Planning and Response
• Urban and Transportation Planning and Design
• Critical Infrastructure Protection
• Site Security Planning and Monitoring
• Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT)

Intelligent 3D Maps provide greater utility over traditional 3D models because they can be viewed while linked to external databases, live data feeds and decision support tools to provide a truly interactive 3D environment to support specific operational needs.

For this project, approximately 5000 square kilometers of 3D geospatial content was produced of the region for NGA.  In the urban corridors, over 60,000 building features were processed and generated from traditional data sources such as Elevation, Imagery and GIS vectors, as well as new sources including LIDAR. Sprinkled over the 3D Base map of the region, 22 Olympic venues were generated containing 123 high fidelity 3D feature models such as the Olympic stadium, Lingotto complex, Bardonecchia - mountain venue and Piazza Castelo.

In addition to support for InterSCOPE, the Overwatch Geospatial products and services team can publish entire Intelligent 3D Maps or high-resolution site models to popular visualization environments such as ESRI’s ArcGlobe, Google Earth, Microsoft Virtual Earth, and AGI’s Satellite Tool Kit.  The team specializes in the following areas:

• Production of Intelligent 3D Maps of dense urban areas
• Production of high-resolution 3D site models
• Geospatial data processing of:
• LIDAR
• GIS
• Imagery
• Spatial Data Integration

 

Over the years, the Overwatch Geospatial products and services team had supported many national security events.  For more information on Intelligent 3D MappingTM  visit http://itspatial.com/company.sec.

 

FEATURE ANALYST and NGA

The National Geospatial-intelligence Agency (NGA), of the U.S. Department of Defense, published the results of its Feature Analyst study in May 2003.

As part of its Automated Feature Extraction (AFE) evaluation program, NGA sent a team of analysts to Missoula, Mont., home of Visual Learning Systems, for a week-long comprehensive test of Feature Analyst.

“The extraction of land cover and drainage features was performed approximately five times faster with Feature Analyst than with a standard manual extraction system,” said Michael O’Brien, Program Manager for the Synergistic Targeting Auto-extraction Registration (STAR) Program at NGA1.

The NGA study concluded, “While the objective testing concentrated on relatively small scenes, a review of Feature Analyst’s performance over larger regions suggests that the potential time savings in a production setting could be as much as a factor of 100.”

O’Brien called the results, “impressive, demonstrating both good accuracy and substantial time savings compared to manual extraction methods.”

 

Visual Learning Systems’ Feature Analyst software can be used with any earth observation data, including LIDAR, Landsat, Ikonos, Quickbird, aerial photographs and more. All it needs are examples for learning.

 

 

Feature Analyst overcomes the time consuming nature of manual feature identification by using cutting-edge learning procedures that automatically classify features of interest.

 

Software features include automated feature classification, change detection, data fusion, and advanced clean-up techniques for finalization, such as the Convert to Point technique shown in the above illustration.

 

FEATURES

• Image and data fusion
• Small feature and wall-to-wall extraction capability
• Image processing tools
• Vector and raster conversion
• Advanced vector clean-up for lines, polygons and intersections
• Square-up features
• Convert to line with gap jumping
• Convert to point
• Smoothing algorithms for lines and polygons
• Complete tutorial and technical training
• Assisted and automated feature extraction (AFE)
• Multi-class and single-class feature collection with spatial context
• Change detection
• Batch processing
• Learning models
• Hierarchical learning for clutter removal
• Unsupervised classification
• LIDAR feature extraction tools for earth, trees and buildings
• Auto-attribution of 3D features using shape metrics

More Information

COOL FEATURE! 
REMOTEVIEW/GeoLINK SYMBOL REPORT

Looking for a quick and easy way to generate reports based on markers and symbols?  We’ve added a new Symbol Report tool that automatically generates reports and web pages with a single button click. 

In the image below, we’ve used the count tag function to mark 6 ships in a river.  (To use the count tag function, type a label in the count tag field.  Select items to be counted.  The count tag function will automatically update the count for the label.)

 

After you’ve marked all of the items, click on Tools/GeoLINK/Symbol Report.  RemoteView will automatically create a web page with the geolocation of each item, a chip of the item, and a text edit area for further description.

If you would like more information on GeoLINK, or would like for us to customize GeoLINK for your site, please call Jay Eward 703.437.7651 x610 jay.eward@overwatch.com.

 

 

Copyright 2006 Overwatch Systems     Editorial Comments to RESPONSE
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