Feature Analyst from Visual Learning Systems Provides Real-World and Classroom Solutions for San Diego State University

MISSOULA, Montana – (SDSU) faculty and students
are taking advantage of the benefits of Visual Learning Systems’ automated
feature extraction software over a wide spectrum of research and classroom
applications. The SDSU Geography Department purchased a departmental
license of the Feature Analyst™ extension for ArcGIS® in Spring 2002. Since
that time, Feature Analyst has been incorporated into the curriculum of
remote sensing and GIS courses and into advanced research projects.

“Feature Analyst is a powerful leading-edge tool we are using for an
abundance of feature extraction and image classification applications,” says
SDSU Professor Doug Stow. “Our students have found Feature Analyst both
easy to learn and use.

Most of the students become proficient in extracting
objects quite quickly and soon move into developing their own customized
extraction models.”

SDSU is one of nine universities across the United States chosen by NASA as
an Affiliated Research Center, or ARC university. The Department of
Geography at SDSU is a leader in the fields of remote sensing and geographic
information systems research. Researchers are continuously seeking
cutting-edge technology to address the challenges of extracting geospatial
information from imagery.

Feature Analyst’s impressive combination of
accuracy, speed, and ease of use is enabling SDSU researchers to tackle
complex mapping problems such as the extraction of footpaths to help our
Nation’s Border Patrol. “Based on what I am seeing, I anticipate that many
agencies will be adopting Feature Analyst as a basic adjunct to their GIS
operations,” states SDSU NASA ARC Program Coordinator John Kaiser.

Feature Analyst technology, in partnership with leading academic
institutions like SDSU, is changing the way many mapping tasks are performed
and leading the way into the future of GIS and image processing. “Our
students are using Feature Analyst for extracting roads, trails, habitat
disturbance, mapping pervious versus impervious surfaces, different
vegetation classes, and even counting people on our local beaches.” adds
Kaiser. “We are pleased with the addition of Change Detection to Feature
Analyst. This is of particular importance to nature resource managers at
local, regional, and state levels.”

The unmatched power of Feature Analyst, such as its unique ability to
incorporate spatial association, naturally lends itself to advanced feature
extraction in research labs; however, it may be its ease-of-use that has
made the product popular with academic and research organizations worldwide.
“We have designed the Feature Analyst to be easy to learn and provided an
excellent tutorial from which course material can be developed,” said Senior
Software Engineer Ian Carlson. “Many of our clients have said, ‘it’s so
easy, how can it be that powerful,’ and to me, that’s the highest
compliment.” Evaluation copies of Feature Analyst are available @ http://www.featureanalyst.com

Visual Learning Systems Inc

Box 8226

Missoula MT 59807

406.829.1384

http://www.featureanalyst.com

[email protected]