ITT VIS, Esri Take Image Processing into ArcGIS 10 #esriuc

ITT VIS is making a set of image processing tools available to be accessed natively within ArcGIS 10. The ITT VIS "toolbox" will deliver new ENVI tools for desktop and server, execute basic image processing functionality within Esri environment and deliver to users a single seamless workflow.The two companies have been working together for the last few years on a tighter integration of their product suites and this year have taken a major milestone toward that effort.

Last year I reported on the data exchange between ENVI EX and ArcGIS but this year’s effort between the two companies, through the magic of Python, makes the product integration much tighter. Richard Cooke, president of ITT VIS, mentioned during the press briefing that the Python interface for ArcGIS10 allows ITT VIS to use their own IDL language and publish any imagery service. The toolbox will be shipping in October with ENVI 4.8. ENVI EX will include tools specifically for GIS users including: Change detection; classification; feature extraction

In other news from ITT VIS, ENVI EX will include tools specifically for GIS users including change detection, classification and feature extraction. ENVI for ArcGIS Server allows image processing analysis within the server environment.

Cooke believes that we are moving away from applications with processing for just shapes and size but utilizing more multispectral data and other imagery types such as LiDAR, the integration of multispectral data with LiDAR data and more use of hyperspectral and synthetic aperture radar (SAR).

The reality of this relationship is that ESRI is the dominant GIS player. Image processing has always been a niche market. Drawing more GIS professionals into image processing is a good thing, not just because of raster-vector integration but because it exposures additional analysis capabilities that would have had to be performed by an entirely separate software solution. The question for most geospatial users looking for such a solution is whether they buy a GIS system with smoother integration with raster data or buy an image processing system that can handle vector data. It seems like this problem is being solved by two major solution providers without the headaches that come with data translation between the two types of geospatial domains.