MAPPS 2012 Geospatial Products and Services Excellence Awards 2012

Awards Entry Form Please include a copy of this document with the project/product submission

Entry Information Submission Number: 1722644 Name of Firm: Visual Intelligence Address: 510 Bering Drive Suite 310 Houston, TX 77057 USA Primary Contact: Robert Peeples Primary Contact Phone Number: 713.917-8300 Primary Contact Email: robert.peeples@visualintell.com Project Manager: Joe McCoy Project Manager Email: joe.mccoy@visualintell.com

About the Project Project Name: Iris One STKA Category: G. Technology Innovation Geographic Location of Project: Houston, Texas Scheduled Date of Completion: 12/30/2011 Actual Date of Completion: 12/30/2011 Affirmed: I agree that this project follows the completion date criteria Budgeted Fee: 3.2 Million Actual Fee: 3.2 Million Yes: I accept the competition rules. Yes: I am aware that a client/owner letter must be submitted as part of the bound submission for Categories A-F, due August 31, 2012. The letter must include the permission to publicize project’s details with respect to its complexity, innovative application of technology or techniques, and value to the geospatial profession and the public.

INTRODUCTION Founded in 1997 and based in Houston, Texas, Visual Intelligence LP (VI) has developed three generations of mapping and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) imaging sensor systems. VI employs a formidable technical team comprised of digital sensor specialists, software and system engineers, and certified photogrammetrists (CP), all of whom are uniquely qualified and understand the growing needs and requirements of the advanced sensor technology community. In 2007, VI transitioned from a service provider to a product-based company to focus on discriminating and next generation digital collection systems for the marketplace. In the four years that followed, VI focused its research and development (R&D) resources to develop a multipurpose, digital airborne sensor family with ultra-high collection capacities based on an open system architecture design called the iOne Sensor Tool Kit Architecture, or STKA™. The R&D effort yielded several granted patents, two of the most relevant being the Arched Retinal Camera Array, or ARCA™, system and the Co-mounting/Co-registration, or CoCo. These patents collectively provide the iOne STKA platform that supports multi-sensor fusion and virtual frame image generation derived from multiple camera modules and lenses. COMPLEXITY Requirements The extraordinary challenges and requirements of the iOne STKA were to design a modular, LEGO-like image sensor fusion architecture that could be quickly adapted to accommodate any remote sensing system, regardless of the number or type of sensors and components (e.g.LIDAR, RADAR, IMU, GPS, etc.). High-precision automated camera and lens sub-pixel calibration components were required to create seamless Orthophoto maps. The fundamental requirements were to design an architecture that provided scalability and modularity to meet specific user requirements and extend the lifecycle of digital camera systems. Improved reliability was also an important goal to minimize downtime of camera systems in the field. The iOne STKA, comprised of sensor technology building blocks (e.g. metric camera modules, lenses, ARCA mounts, photogrammetric software et.), had to provide the capability to rapidly prototype and configure customized systems for specific vertical markets. Finally, it had to improve price and performance parameters without compromising image quality standards. Unique Criteria The creation of a single virtual frame from the multiple modular cameras through series of calibration and sensor modeling was a monumental achievement realized in the development of the iOne STKA. The highly precise virtual frame can be imported into a variety of third party software processing tools while conforming to open systems architecture protocols. The project also created a co-mounted/co-registered component of the iOne STKA that allows all sensors to be fused into a single image. The CoCo patent provided the framework that calibrates all sensors simultaneously to sub-pixel resolutions. Since every lens has a different distortion profile, even within the same batch, each had to be metrically calibrated independently in order to achieve design goals. The demand for very wide field-of-view sensor coverage was addressed by using the iOne STKA to expand the number and placement of the ARCA array’s camera systems, and the ability to

collect highly accurate geo-spatial data from a wide range of altitudes was realized in the process. Radiometric correction tools that support a wide range of camera configurations and flight times was also addressed and successfully developed. Ingenuity Ingenuity at all levels led to the successful design and fabrication of the ARCA hardware and firmware components. Advanced algorithm and mathematics skills were required to meet the radiometric and geometric accuracies required of the iOne STKA. Subject expertise in photogrammetric engineering was critical to the development of the virtual frame and its application to the desired image products. The field-of-view coverage was expanded by progressively increasing the focal length of each more laterally oriented camera sensor. Tools were developed to efficiently calibrate any digital camera to metric quality. The rotation of the digital cameras provided the option of more depth to the frame for increased stereo base-to-height ratios. The rapid prototyping methods developed provided the ability to test new configurations with different cameras, optics and form factors. Project Management The project management challenges were complex in that a significant percentage of the R&D required iterative testing, flight operations, and photogrammetric evaluation of complex data sets. It also required coordination with several third party firms and consulting resources, all of which provided critical information with task dependencies that affected the project schedule. INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENT New Technologies True sensor fusion was realized via the concept of a virtual software camera where the software overcomes many of the limitations of camera hardware. The ability to co-mount and co-register multiple sensor types provided the data fusion capability in a single collection pass and the patented ARCA technology allowed for easy reconfiguring of cameras into various different sensors. Existing Technologies LIDAR, IMU, and camera systems were fused together by use of the co-mounted/co-registered technique. The need for ground control markers was eliminated by the ARCA design, which registered each pixel to its correct lat/long location. The precision achieved from calibration flights was extended to the sub-pixel level by the use of the co-mounted/co-registered sensor fusion technology. The fact that the outer part of a flight path contained the greatest positional error was addressed by the two-up/two-down flight pattern patent, which doubles the precision in this region. It is now possible that the outer oblique portion of a flight line swath may be the most accurate. Traditional photogrammetric evaluation techniques were utilized to assess the accuracy and overall quality of digital data sets provided by the iOne STKA. Automated DEM generation software was used to evaluate X,Y and Z positional accuracies. Additional techniques such as bundle adjustment, aerial triangulation, self-calibration, and point cloud matching were used to evaluate industry-standard accuracies of the derived mapping products.

Future Products The virtual software camera concept provides the ability to expand the capabilities of camera systems to exceed the specifications of hardware-only camera systems. High dynamic range techniques and advanced image pixel registration algorithms will provide increased pixel resolution over the physical capabilities of the hardware only. The co-mounted/co-registered innovation provides maximum image fusion precision that is the building block for future products. Visual Intelligence will continue to identify emerging markets that require very specific types of geospatial data and mission requirements. The iOne STKA provides the platform from which VI can rapidly reconfigure the components (camera, optics, ARCAs, processor boards, etc.) to meet the demands for future products. We plan to continue improving our highly adaptive processes that enable us to continue developing innovative camera systems with superior price performance capabilities. FUTURE VALUE Public Image A toolkit approach vs. a single-design camera reinforces the public's image of geospatial excellence and expectations that new geospatial systems be more flexible and move away from monolithic, single-purpose, stovepipe products to adaptive, multi-mission, multi-product needs that accommodate cloud and other application frameworks. By supporting public-friendly endeavors such as forestry, agriculture, city and resource planning, and pollution control, the iOne STKA has many opportunities to demonstrate its value-add potential to the public at large. In times of crisis and natural disasters, the iOne STKA has already been at the front lines flying several post-hurricane, public safety related projects in the Gulf Coast region of Texas. In the energy sector, the architecture is ideally suited to locate pipeline leaks and identify other infrastructure issues in which the public has an obvious vested interest. These right-of-way surveys enable engineers to precisely measure distances from high occupancy buildings and other public access spaces in order to design pipe wall thicknesses accordingly. Power line surveys mitigate weaknesses so that blackouts may be avoided. These uses of the iOne STKA result in significant improvements in public safety. Social and Economic Benefit The public has come to expect current high-resolution geospatial data that is used in news outlets (e.g., internet, TV, mobile devices) to communicate and convey high quality information. The iOne STKA provides the ability to generate and disseminate geospatial data very accurately and timely to feed these information outlets to the public. All told, the iOne STKA is an economical tool for geospatial data acquisition, which can benefit the public by the easy and routine accessibility to high quality geospatial data. The extraordinary increase in pixel resolution that the iOne STKA provides over existing hardware-limited systems provides a major improvement in the amount and type of information that may be economically mined from a dataset, thus providing social or economic benefit to the public. As a practical application example, making geospatial data economical can help achieve democracy of geospatial information, which can benefit the society by reducing the cost of decision-making. The iOne STKA enables data providers to collect data more efficiently providing lower cost per pixel capabilities to value-add solutions providers. Ground based ARCA systems could improve

security by improving image quality while taking up smaller spaces. The iOne STKA provides cheaper utility line inspection lowering the cost of line maintenance which may lower utility cost for the general public. Society benefits from having greater access to updated geo-spatial data for commercial and private applications. Public Health, Safety, and Welfare The iOne STKA is designed to allow sensor manufactures of all types to realize significant performance improvements in their systems and resulting high precision multi-spectral imagery. These performance improvements can lead directly to end user products that directly contribute to improved health, safety, or welfare for the public. These include needed intelligence for forestry and agriculture, pollution, land and water management, mineralogy, and other resource planning. Other immediate public welfare related benefits include systems capable of rapid reconfiguration in response to disasters, law enforcement, and National Security priorities. In fact, economical acquisition of aerial images can play a crucial role for disaster management, public safety, and policy making in general. This architecture can also lead to systems that can collect super wide pipeline, utility, or waterway corridors that are not normally collected due to expense of multiple flight lines or passes. This results in economic efficiencies in the way of less expensive utility line inspection thus lowering the cost of line maintenance that may in turn lower utility cost for the public. The Marketplace and Public Perception The marketplace is also demanding improved price and performance metrics as well as lower total cost of ownership digital camera solutions. The public will learn to expect fast and accurate 3-dimensional data at increased resolutions delivered to their mobile devices at a moment's notice. As such, the iOne STKA has great potential to redefine the marketplace or the public’s way of thinking by delivering meaningful and useful decision-making products through the various mission profiles already discussed and others. The architecture's innovative design can lower the cost of ownership, which can help create a renaissance of geospatial data and redefine the geospatial data marketplace by lowering the barrier for accessibility. The iOne STKA provides the industry's first unified, extendable architecture for all the different types of photogrammetry projects and mission profiles. Through its ability of rapid reconfiguration, operators now have, and the public now benefits from, endless customization and upgrades possibilities without having to purchase an entirely new sensor set. The Geospatial Profession The geo-spatial profession is continuously looking for performance improvements as the demands for timely geo-spatial data continue to grow for commercial, government, and military applications. Economics are forcing the geo-spatial community to maximize productivity and return of investments for capital expenditures. The iOne STKA provides the ability to scale a solution that meets the technical specifications while adhering to price constraints and maintaining the highest quality standards. Making geospatial data economical and accessible can create a new geospatial data market for consumer-product and produce more opportunity for geospatial profession.