| Technotes
Enabling Unbounded Imagery Archive for the New Millenium
Smart tools vital to the age-of-information overload
By Alysa Sakkas and Miriam Buzi As we enter the new millennium, sources of high-resolution Earth imagery are expanding while sophisticated software tools for their analysis proliferate. Opportunities will abound to obtain and generate better imagery and fine-tuned information about our world. Concurrently, users will be challenged to manage, efficiently and reliably, these ever-increasing quantities of valuable and complex digital assets.
A new tool on the market, Lockheed Martin's Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª, addresses the need for cost-effective management of expanding digital stores, streamlined production work flow, and the extraction of information from detailed, layered imagery. The Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª Product Range
The Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª is not just a software product. It is an end-to-end hardware and software data management solution tailored to the user's environment. Smart software tools developed by Lockheed Martin are integrated in Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª with hardware and software tools from pre-qualified vendors. And the list of qualified hardware and software products is continually growing.
Several baseline configurations of Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª provide a starting point for customization. The configuration team then carefully tailors each solution to the customer's needs for imagery ingest rate, storage, retrieval speed, workstation configurations, analysis tools, and existing hardware investments.
Benefiting from over a decade of operational experience handling imagery world-wide, Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª was designed for production environments where rapid retrieval, automated processing, and dissemination to distributed concurrent users is essential for viable operation. A flexible open architecture allows Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª to integrate new or specialized products into either of its functional components: SmartArchiverª and SmartAnalystª. SmartArchiverª speeds imagery to end users
SmartArchiverª provides total life cycle control and rapid access to digital assets, whether raw data or value-added products created from that data. Its functions include: input in any format from a variety of media (CD, tape, scanner, electronic feed); work flow and asset management, including statistical tracking of operations; automated imagery processing and data push to users; automated migration of files between on-line cache, near-line jukebox, and off-line shelf storage-transparently to users; and multi-level security for access control.
SmartArchiverª configurations range from a small system providing 20GB of centralized on-line cache to an enterprise level system suited for large production environments of 100 or more full-time users, and an archive in excess of 5,000 terabytes. "Since each Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª installation is custom tailored, customers pay only for the data capacity and throughput they need," notes Bob Schreiner, chief system architect. SmartAnalystª smoothly converts imagery data into information
SmartAnalystª, run on NT or UNIX platforms, is the user's portal into Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª for spatial or textual queries, analyses, and the creation of value-added products. With open, published interfaces (APIs), its software suite integrates unique Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª software with leading commercial analysis tools including those from ESRI, ERDAS, PCI Geomatics, and Sensor Systems for GIS applications.
The SmartAnalystª offers two classes of workstations. The high-end workstation is a dual-monitor workstation offering the highest performance imaging capability on the market. Computationally intense image processing algorithms capitalize on the processing power back at the SmartArchiverª server. The result is incredibly smooth image navigation and high-resolution image presentation that is simply not feasible using workstations alone. SmartAnalystª's capability for smooth navigation can be further enhanced by the PiBoxª, a product developed by Lockheed Martin and BG Systems, Inc., that replaces the mouse with a precision joystick control box.
Where lesser levels of detail or quality are required, Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª uses standard commercial workstations for performing geospatial information analyses, supporting work flow and system management functions, and accessing standard commercially available image analysis capability.
Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª scales and fits within the customer's total environment as a part of their end-to-end imagery architecture. Inputs can be electronically connected to external data systems such as satellite ground stations for direct receipt of imagery data from Ikonos, RADARSAT, Landsat, and SPOT satellites. Distribution to multiple sites is achieved through the Intranet or Internet links. Achieving an unbounded archive
A growing archive places an obvious strain on both existing physical storage components and company pocketbooks. The Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª approach to storing vast amounts of data in a cost-effective manner is to incorporate removable media such as tape, with on-line cache in a three-tiered data management hierarchy: on-line RAID cache for new and most frequently used data, as well as reduced resolution browse images, providing the fastest access time; near-line digital tape or other media jukebox for less frequently used data and for storing and transferring products between on-line and off-line storage; and off-line shelf storage to inexpensively archive massive amounts of least frequently used data on digital tape or other media.
Its unique integration and management of the off-line storage allows Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª to track over 8 million separate files of unbounded total capacity. Using metadata, information about the digital files, Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª searches all data files, including those on shelves. The operator is automatically alerted that a requested tape at a specific shelf location is to be loaded. From the requester's perspective, the only difference between accessing shelved files and those in cache is that the retrieval time is in minutes versus seconds. Not just a storage and retrieval archive
"We affectionately call Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª our 'archive with an attitude,' to remind ourselves that data storage and retrieval isn't all we're after," says Lyle Wilkinson, chief systems engineer for the product line. "We also have a goal of providing smart tools capable of converting those large amounts of data into nuggets of useable information more quickly than is humanly possible."
Besides computational speed and accuracy, there are other areas where computers inherently out-perform humans. Consistent and strict observance of security policy is a good example. Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª provides multi-level controlled access protection, identification and authentication functionality, and the ability to audit security events through a centralized logging system. The security data base records security events, including generation of hard copy output, user log-in/log-out, attempts to access privileged data, creation of products, and the dissemination of image files.
Computers also have the edge when it comes to continual status monitoring of large quantity of items. Tracking of all data, whether in on-line cache, in the jukebox, or on a shelf, facilitates automatic notification of tapes that need to be cleaned, re-tensioned, or regenerated based on age or high use, to ensure the preservation of valuable data. User profiles speed data to individuals based on their interests
Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª uses knowledge of user product orders to schedule and load the on-line cache so that data will be ready when the user needs it. Users can specify "Profiles" detailing the type of data they need and what automatic notification, processing, or dissemination the system should execute when new data of that type arrives. Profiles enable the system to know the user's data needs and proactively "push" the data to the user with minimum delay.
A second mechanism, "Groups" is used to augment organization of work flow activities in terms of organizations, teams, or tasks. Through the use of Groups, Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª manages messages used for work flow, profile match, and event logging. With Groups, users can create data items to store related information such as details about a particular task or product generation. Analysts can place information into a Group folder to solve a problem or generate a product. Search capabilities with the geospatial imagery user in mind
A user performing a search in Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª can specify search parameters in text, or can identify the geographic search area on a map. The query and order interface supports both textual and graphical queries. A user can specify a variety of parameters such as dates, data type, geographic coordinates, data quality, and ground sample distance (GSD).
Alternately, a user can use a graphical display of a map and draw a polygon bounding the area of interest for the query. With diverse options, a user could query for other analysts in the system that are requesting, say, panchromatic imagery with the same GSD or geographic area region of interest. The results can be in the form of a textual listing or a graphical display of area "footprints" overlaid on a map.
Because migration between the data stores is transparent to the user, it may be difficult to gain an appreciation for the fact that the Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª data migration scheme has evolved from over 10 years of operational experience preceded by 8 years of algorithm development. In the early years of product development, the design team solved challenges such as why a data migration scheme could work flawlessly for one customer while causing excessive migrations for another. Coming up with a workable solution to suit the needs of varied users with a wide range of operational parameters meant devising tailorable data migration criteria. These years of experience have been insightfully boiled down to a few system parameters that are tuned to suit each Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª installation. Into the Future
Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª incorporates traits that will prove important to the survival of the archive of the future. The system can take in and manage files containing data in any user-defined format. An open architecture with published APIs (application program interfaces) permits integration of value-added third party software including potential future applications. Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª supports a variety of government and industry standards, and foreign languages are supported via the Unicode character sets. The user-friendly Web-based interface screens can be customized through standard HTML pages. Bruce Hollinger, director of GIS and Archive Products at Lockheed Martin notes that, "Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª represents a real success at shedding the reputation we had of providing only complex and costly one-of-a-kind government systems by providing this truly commercial offering that enables smooth multi-vendor integration and readily achievable growth paths."
Anyone who stores, retrieves, analyzes, or disseminates large, complex data sets can benefit from the automated work flow, unlimited archive management capability, data set analysis, and "push" or "pull" dissemination capabilities of Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª. By working with system integrators, value added resellers, and service providers in other markets, Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª can be tailored for their customers. GIS industry sectors that will take advantage of Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª capabilities include the petrochemical, utilities, disaster recovery, and environmental monitoring.
Lockheed Martin continues to invest in the development and incorporation of software tools into the Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª. Users can look forward to the availability of: automated image change detection; feature recognition; enhanced "auto-discovery" and push of data matching user interest profiles; real-time modification of user profiles, based upon actual user workstation transactions; content-based automated retrieval/automated multispectral and hyperspectral "data cube" analyses; and enhanced collaborative work capability amongst remote users across various types of networks.
Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª is much more than storage and retrieval archive. It is a work flow and asset manager providing smart tools to ensure speedy access to valuable imagery and analyses-now and for years to come. About the Author:
Alysa Sakkas and Miriam Buzi support Product Development and Marketing for Lockheed Martin's Intelligent Library System (ILS)ª, in Sunnyvale, California. Back |
