Feature Analyst User Conference Defines Future of Automated Feature (AFE)

MISSOULA, Montana – Industry and government leaders gathered recently in
Missoula, Montana to praise the value of Feature Analyst for powering GIS
mapping efforts in Homeland Security, Defense and Intelligence, Forestry,
and other vital application areas.

Declaring in her keynote address that
Visual Learning Systems (VLS) technology helps to “protect Montana’s border”
, Montana Governor Judy Martz explained, “the State of Montana, like many
other state and local governments, has made large investments in GIS
software, computer hardware, and most importantly geographic data. Tools,
such as the VLS software Feature Analyst, can help government agencies
address this cost by lowering the labor hours required to produce and
maintain features such as road, buildings, and streams.”
During the two-day workshop on the state-of-the-art in Automated Feature
Extraction (AFE), papers were presented on many mapping topics such as
defense applications, 3-D feature collection from stereo imagery, building
and tree extractions from LIDAR, and forest management.

VLS CEO, Dr. David
Opitz summarized the importance of this event stating, “We’re looking at
this User Conference over the long term. This is a key part of our customer
relationship pipeline as we gain insight into new features, tools, and
workflows our clients need to support their goals. Ideally, this software
will be the choice for all GIS-based organizations using digital imagery.”
Conference sponsors included ESRI, Inc., BAE Systems, Leica Geosystems,
Digital Globe Inc., and Space Imaging, LLC. In follow-up conversations with
attendees, the vast majority (97%) indicated that they plan on attending the
Feature Analyst Users’ Conference in September 2005.

About VLS

Visual Learning Systems, Inc. (VLS) is a worldwide leader in feature
extraction and image understanding solutions supporting the geospatial
industry. The VLS flagship software product Feature Analyst is used
worldwide for GIS database management and mapping applications supporting
Defense and Intelligence, Local Government, Forestry, Agriculture,
Transportation, and Environmental projects.

Feature Analyst is noted for
its automation of feature extraction workflows, ease-of-use, accuracy, and
workflow enhancements for being extensions to ESRI’s ArcGIS suite, Leica
Geosystems’ ERDAS IMAGINE®, and BAE’s SOCET SET®. VLS was recently
recognized by ESRI, Inc. as the 2004 New Partner of the Year. VLS provides
professional and on-line training services, feature extraction services, and
customized programming. To find out more about Feature Analyst go to:
http://www.featureanalyst.com.