ERDAS IMAGINE
Encyclopedia
ERDAS IMAGINE is a remote sensing application
with raster graphics editor
capabilities designed by ERDAS for geospatial
applications. The latest version is 2010, version 10.1. ERDAS IMAGINE is aimed primarily at geospatial raster data processing and allows the user to prepare, display and enhance digital images for mapping use in GIS or in CADD software. It is a toolbox allowing the user to perform numerous operations on an image and generate an answer to specific geographical questions.
By manipulating imagery data values and positions, it is possible to see features that would not normally be visible and to locate geo-positions of features that would otherwise be graphical. The level of brightness, or reflectance of light from the surfaces in the image can be helpful with vegetation analysis, prospecting for minerals etc. Other usage examples include linear feature extraction, generation of processing work flows ("spatial models" in ERDAS IMAGINE), import/export of data for a wide variety of formats, ortho-rectification, mosaicking of imagery, stereo and automatic feature extraction of map data from imagery.
imagery into land cover
/ land use
maps, map deforestation, and assist in locating oil reserves under the product name ERDAS. These older ERDAS applications were rewritten from FORTRAN to C and C++ and exist today within the ERDAS IMAGINE Suite which has grown to support most optical and radar mapping satellites, airborne mapping cameras and digital sensors used for mapping.
microcomputers based on the 8-bit Z80 CPU running the CDOS operating system.
The system was built into a desk and was configured with one color monitor (256 x 256 resolution), one B&W monitor, two 8" floppy drives (one for software and one for data). Later other options were added, such as a large digitizing tablet, and a hard drive (hard drives usually did not exist on computers this size). The hard drive was a CDC model about the size of a small washing machine. It had 80 MB fixed disks and a very large 16 MB removable platter. When the hard disk was installed, ERDAS engineers had to cut out the back of the computer furniture to make room for the cables.
In ERDAS 7.2 (Jan 1983) the first PC version of ERDAS software was licensed to the University of South Carolina Department of Geography. The release of versions ERDAS 7.0 - 7.5 marked a period of wide acceptance of remote sensing technology among US federal and state agencies as well as research universities needing to monitor natural resource changes.
A link between ESRI
ARC/INFO and ERDAS 7.3 was introduced in 1988. The "ERDAS-ARC/INFO Live Link" allowed the mapping community to use technology from both companies to deliver high quality image display and image processing with powerful GIS capability. This relationship between ESRI and ERDAS, Inc. remained strong at a high management level and in various product offerings into 2007. This strong relationship began very early, as the ERDAS founders Lawrie Jordan and Bruce Rado and ESRI founder Jack Dangermond
all attended the Harvard Graduate School of Design
.
The final version of the ERDAS product line was ERDAS 7.5. ERDAS 7.5 was completed as the new product, ERDAS IMAGINE was being developed. All the capabilities of ERDAS 7.5 were merged into ERDAS IMAGINE.
The relationship between the ERDAS and ARC/INFO products began with the "ERDAS-ARC/INFO Live Link" and was expanded in ERDAS IMAGINE 8.2 (Feb 1993), when ERDAS released the IMAGINE Vector Module. This add-on was fully developed by ERDAS, but licensed the Arc Coverage data format from ESRI.
The vector module is one of the most popular modules within the ERDAS IMAGINE product suite through the 9.3 release (Sept 2008).
The processing of radar data in ERDAS IMAGINE began with the development of the Radar Module, first released in Nov. 1992. The capabilities have been upgraded many times since with the original tools now named "Radar Interpreter."
’s Map Algebra
concepts. GISMO was upgraded in 1992 with the release of ERDAS IMAGINE 8.0 to the Spatial Modeler scripting language. Model Maker, a graphic flow chart model building enhancement to Spatial Modeler was introduced in 1993. In 2004 ESRI
copied the graphic flow chart model building environment idea and released an ArcGIS
version named Model Builder.
packages. It was upgraded to "IMAGINE Digital Ortho" in ERDAS IMAGINE 8.0.1 release. IMAGINE Digital Ortho was upgraded to the "IMAGINE OrthoMAX" in 8.0.2. The release of OrthoMAX was a move from a GIS and Remote Sensing user focus to a Photogrammetry user focus. This changed the IMAGINE photogrammetry offerings into more of a production realm, where the remote sensing products had moved years before. In version 8.3.1 (Jan 1998) OrthoMAX was upgraded into the OrthoBASE product. Along with the release of OrthoBASE single frame resection was added to the core IMAGINE product. This allowed the GIS community to ortho-correct imagery as needed on a non-production level. In 2003, OrthoBASE was renamed to Leica Photogrammetry Suite
and is known by its acronym LPS today.
Remote sensing application
A remote sensing application is a software application that processes remote sensing data. Remote sensing applications are similar to graphics software, but they enable generating geographic information from satellite and airborne sensor data. Remote sensing applications read specialized file...
with raster graphics editor
Raster graphics editor
A raster graphics editor is a computer program that allows users to paint and edit pictures interactively on the computer screen and save them in one of many popular “bitmap” or “raster” formats such as JPEG, PNG, GIF and TIFF....
capabilities designed by ERDAS for geospatial
Geospatial
Geospatial analysis is an approach to applying statistical analysis and other informational techniques to geographically based data. Such analysis employs spatial software and analytical methods with terrestrial or geographic datasets, including geographic information systems and...
applications. The latest version is 2010, version 10.1. ERDAS IMAGINE is aimed primarily at geospatial raster data processing and allows the user to prepare, display and enhance digital images for mapping use in GIS or in CADD software. It is a toolbox allowing the user to perform numerous operations on an image and generate an answer to specific geographical questions.
By manipulating imagery data values and positions, it is possible to see features that would not normally be visible and to locate geo-positions of features that would otherwise be graphical. The level of brightness, or reflectance of light from the surfaces in the image can be helpful with vegetation analysis, prospecting for minerals etc. Other usage examples include linear feature extraction, generation of processing work flows ("spatial models" in ERDAS IMAGINE), import/export of data for a wide variety of formats, ortho-rectification, mosaicking of imagery, stereo and automatic feature extraction of map data from imagery.
Product history
Prior to the ERDAS IMAGINE Suite, ERDAS, Inc. developed various products to process satellite imagery from AVHRR, Landsat MSS, Landsat TM and SPOTSpot Image
Spot Image, a public limited company created in 1982 by the French Space Agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales , the IGN, and Space Manufacturers is a subsidiary of EADS Astrium...
imagery into land cover
Land Cover
Land cover is the physical material at the surface of the earth. Land covers include grass, asphalt, trees, bare ground, water, etc. There are two primary methods for capturing information on land cover: field survey and analysis of remotely sensed imagery....
/ land use
Land use
Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover...
maps, map deforestation, and assist in locating oil reserves under the product name ERDAS. These older ERDAS applications were rewritten from FORTRAN to C and C++ and exist today within the ERDAS IMAGINE Suite which has grown to support most optical and radar mapping satellites, airborne mapping cameras and digital sensors used for mapping.
ERDAS 4
The first version of ERDAS was launched in 1978 on CromemcoCromemco
Cromemco was a Mountain View, California microcomputer company known for its high-end Z80-based S-100 bus computers in the early days of the home computer revolution. The Cromemco Dazzler was the first color graphics card available for personal computers....
microcomputers based on the 8-bit Z80 CPU running the CDOS operating system.
The system was built into a desk and was configured with one color monitor (256 x 256 resolution), one B&W monitor, two 8" floppy drives (one for software and one for data). Later other options were added, such as a large digitizing tablet, and a hard drive (hard drives usually did not exist on computers this size). The hard drive was a CDC model about the size of a small washing machine. It had 80 MB fixed disks and a very large 16 MB removable platter. When the hard disk was installed, ERDAS engineers had to cut out the back of the computer furniture to make room for the cables.
ERDAS 400
In 1980, ERDAS, Inc. developed the ERDAS 400. This early ERDAS system was a turnkey computerized forest-management system for the state of New York. The hardware needed to make this capability available at an affordable price did not exist at the time, therefore some circuit board and other hardware designs were created by ERDAS to deliver the product. Between 1980 and 1982 different versions of ERDAS 400 legacy were delivered to NASA, US Forest Service, US Environmental Protection Agency, the State of Illinois, and others.ERDAS 7.x
In November 1982 ERDAS 7.0 was released. This product was a movement from the more turnkey, custom design of the ERDAS 400 systems to a MS DOS IBM PC. These systems continued to be a command prompt system, but added a nested menu assisting customers through prompts needed to process the imagery into data used in a GIS.In ERDAS 7.2 (Jan 1983) the first PC version of ERDAS software was licensed to the University of South Carolina Department of Geography. The release of versions ERDAS 7.0 - 7.5 marked a period of wide acceptance of remote sensing technology among US federal and state agencies as well as research universities needing to monitor natural resource changes.
A link between ESRI
ESRI
Esri is a software development and services company providing Geographic Information System software and geodatabase management applications. The headquarters of Esri is in Redlands, California....
ARC/INFO and ERDAS 7.3 was introduced in 1988. The "ERDAS-ARC/INFO Live Link" allowed the mapping community to use technology from both companies to deliver high quality image display and image processing with powerful GIS capability. This relationship between ESRI and ERDAS, Inc. remained strong at a high management level and in various product offerings into 2007. This strong relationship began very early, as the ERDAS founders Lawrie Jordan and Bruce Rado and ESRI founder Jack Dangermond
Jack Dangermond
Jack Dangermond is an American business executive and environmental scientist. In 1969, he co-founded with his wife Laura the Environmental Systems Research Institute , a privately-held Geographic Information Systems software company...
all attended the Harvard Graduate School of Design
Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design is a graduate school at Harvard University offering degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design.-History:...
.
The final version of the ERDAS product line was ERDAS 7.5. ERDAS 7.5 was completed as the new product, ERDAS IMAGINE was being developed. All the capabilities of ERDAS 7.5 were merged into ERDAS IMAGINE.
ERDAS IMAGINE
ERDAS IMAGINE was demonstrated in October 1991 and released as ERDAS IMAGINE 8.0 in February 1992. It was released on a Sun Workstation using SunOS providing a Graphical User Interface to assist in visualizing imagery used in mapping, vector GIS data, creating maps, and so forth. Much of the ERDAS 7.5 product was provided for several years through intermediate product releases of ERDAS 8.01 & 8.02 until the ERDAS IMAGINE product replaced all the ERDAS 7.5 capability in 1994 with the release of ERDAS IMAGINE 8.1.The relationship between the ERDAS and ARC/INFO products began with the "ERDAS-ARC/INFO Live Link" and was expanded in ERDAS IMAGINE 8.2 (Feb 1993), when ERDAS released the IMAGINE Vector Module. This add-on was fully developed by ERDAS, but licensed the Arc Coverage data format from ESRI.
The vector module is one of the most popular modules within the ERDAS IMAGINE product suite through the 9.3 release (Sept 2008).
The processing of radar data in ERDAS IMAGINE began with the development of the Radar Module, first released in Nov. 1992. The capabilities have been upgraded many times since with the original tools now named "Radar Interpreter."
ERDAS IMAGINE Spatial Modeler
With the release of ERDAS 7.5 in 1990 ERDAS introduced a GIS MOdeling (GISMO) script language. Tools were made available to assist in the development of complex spatial models using Dana TomlinDana Tomlin
Dana Tomlin is an author, professor, and originator of map algebra. Tomlin's teaching and research focus on the development and application of geographic information systems . He is Founder and Co-Director of Penn’s , and author of . The Map Algebra language he created is embodied in most of...
’s Map Algebra
Map algebra
Map algebra is a simple and an elegant set based algebra for manipulating geographic data, proposed by Dr. Dana Tomlin in the early 1980s.It is a set of primitive operations in a Geographic Information System which allows two or more raster layers of similar dimensions to produce a new raster...
concepts. GISMO was upgraded in 1992 with the release of ERDAS IMAGINE 8.0 to the Spatial Modeler scripting language. Model Maker, a graphic flow chart model building enhancement to Spatial Modeler was introduced in 1993. In 2004 ESRI
ESRI
Esri is a software development and services company providing Geographic Information System software and geodatabase management applications. The headquarters of Esri is in Redlands, California....
copied the graphic flow chart model building environment idea and released an ArcGIS
ArcGIS
ArcGIS is a suite consisting of a group of geographic information system software products produced by Esri.ArcGIS is a system for working with maps and geographic information...
version named Model Builder.
ERDAS IMAGINE Softcopy Photogrammetry
In Dec. 1991, "ERDAS Digital Ortho" was released in the mature ERDAS 7.5 product suite. Digital Ortho was one of the earliest commercial softcopy photogrammetryPhotogrammetry
Photogrammetry is the practice of determining the geometric properties of objects from photographic images. Photogrammetry is as old as modern photography and can be dated to the mid-nineteenth century....
packages. It was upgraded to "IMAGINE Digital Ortho" in ERDAS IMAGINE 8.0.1 release. IMAGINE Digital Ortho was upgraded to the "IMAGINE OrthoMAX" in 8.0.2. The release of OrthoMAX was a move from a GIS and Remote Sensing user focus to a Photogrammetry user focus. This changed the IMAGINE photogrammetry offerings into more of a production realm, where the remote sensing products had moved years before. In version 8.3.1 (Jan 1998) OrthoMAX was upgraded into the OrthoBASE product. Along with the release of OrthoBASE single frame resection was added to the core IMAGINE product. This allowed the GIS community to ortho-correct imagery as needed on a non-production level. In 2003, OrthoBASE was renamed to Leica Photogrammetry Suite
Leica Photogrammetry Suite
Leica Photogrammetry Suite is a software application for performing photogrammetric operations on imagery and extracting information from imagery...
and is known by its acronym LPS today.
See also
- Remote SensingRemote sensingRemote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon, without making physical contact with the object. In modern usage, the term generally refers to the use of aerial sensor technologies to detect and classify objects on Earth by means of propagated signals Remote sensing...
- Geographic Information SystemGeographic Information SystemA geographic information system, geographical information science, or geospatial information studies is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographically referenced data...
(GIS) - GIS in geospatial intelligenceGeographic information systems in geospatial intelligenceGeographic Information Systems new and constantly evolving role in geospatial intelligence and United States national security allows a user to efficiently manage, analyze, and produce geospatial data, to combine GEOINT with other forms of intelligence collection, and to perform highly developed...
- Land coverLand CoverLand cover is the physical material at the surface of the earth. Land covers include grass, asphalt, trees, bare ground, water, etc. There are two primary methods for capturing information on land cover: field survey and analysis of remotely sensed imagery....
- Leica Photogrammetry SuiteLeica Photogrammetry SuiteLeica Photogrammetry Suite is a software application for performing photogrammetric operations on imagery and extracting information from imagery...
- PhotogrammetryPhotogrammetryPhotogrammetry is the practice of determining the geometric properties of objects from photographic images. Photogrammetry is as old as modern photography and can be dated to the mid-nineteenth century....
- RadarRadarRadar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
- List of Earth observation satellites
- Multispectral
- Hyperspectral
- Imagery AnalysisImagery analysisImagery analysis is the extraction of useful information from bi-dimensional graphic formats, including screen shots. This includes color and black-and-white photographs, infra-red photographs and video, radar screens and synthetic aperture radar formats, ultrasound, EKG, EEG, MRI, echo...
- Comparison of GIS softwareComparison of GIS softwareThis is a comparison of notable GIS software. To be included on this list, the software must either have a linked existing article or include references to independent sources verifying notability.-License, source, & operating system support:-Map servers:...
- Comparison of raster graphics editorsComparison of raster graphics editors- List :- General information :Basic general information about the editors: creator/company, license etc.- Operating system support :The operating systems on which the editors can run natively , meaning which operating systems have which editors specifically coded for them - List :- General...