[PLUG] [promotion] introduction to Opticks - US military software now in open source (open source software in GIS and remote sensing)

[Pratik Anand]

This is an introductory mail about Opticks which can be helpful to the
people working in the field of GIS, remote sensing as well as image
processing. Please share it to the related mailing lists.

Introduction:
Opticks is one of the best remote sensing application, supporting multiple
imagary and video formats including SAR, multi-spectral, hyperspectral and
other remote sensing data. And above all, it is totally free to use and
develop.

Background:
Opticks has an interesting history. It started as a collaborative effort of
Ball Aerospace Corp. and *US Department of Defense*, and was later
open-sourced in 2007.
Over the time it has developed a large developer community. (refer:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-9832218-16.html)


Here are some highlights from the home page at http://opticks.org :

·  Free and open source

·  Supports the following file formats: NITF 2.0/2.1, GeoTIFF, ENVI,
ASPAM/PAR, CGM, DTED, Generic RAW, ESRI Shapefile, HDF5, AVI, MPEG,
JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP

·  Zoom, pan, rotate spatially large datasets

·  Quickly layer GIS features, annotations, results, and other information
over your data to provide context

·  Many image display controls such as colormap, histogram, transparency,
etc.

·  Support for datasets larger than four gigabytes

·  Analysts can quickly combine steps using graphical wizards

·  Support for processing data in its native interleave of BIP, BSQ or BIL

.   Python scripting is also supported

·  Get extensions to drop in new capability.

.  Active community at mailing list and IRC. Also presence at
Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/opticksproject>and
Twitter <http://twitter.com/opticksproject> .

. Real world use in academia: Nate Jennings , professor at American River
College uses Opticks as part of its GIS course (http://jenningsplanet.com/).


There are many other points in the Feature Tour at:
http://opticks.org/confluence/display/opticks/Feature+Tour+-+Your+Data




It can be used by academia for courses related to GIS and remote sensing
and even image processing.
The extensions add great deal of functionality to Opticks. I have myself
created various image processing filters for Opticks as part of my GSoC
project<http://opticks.org/confluence/display/opticksExt/Photography+processing+tools>.
For any one interested in these field should definitely give a try to
Opticks

Pratik Anand
GSoC 2011 developer for
Opticks<http://google-melange.appspot.com/gsoc/project/google/gsoc2011/pratikone/2001>




-- 
Pratik Anand

website:http://www.pratikanand.com
Twitter: twitter.com/pratikone
Facebook:facebook.com/pratikone
IRC nick: pratikone