Innovative Solution to Video Enhancement

Video observation systems have become common fixtures in our everyday lives. Cameras mounted obscurely on walls, ceilings, and even traffic lights capture the average person on videotape eight times a day. Businesses such as banks, gas stations, convenience stores, retail stores, and office buildings use video systems for business and patron safety. Recognizing the numerous benefits and applications of high-quality surveillance systems, Intergraph Government Solutions, of Huntsville, Alabama, employed a technology originally developed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center for use in enhanced satellite imaging in the development of its Video Analyst™ System. The Video Analyst System offers broadcast-quality analysis features on Intel-based hardware.

Scientists at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center used the satellite imaging technology, known to NASA as Video Image Stabilization and Registration (VISAR), to assist FBI agents analyze video footage of the deadly 1996 Olympic Summer Games bombing in Atlanta, Georgia. NASA scientists successfully used VISAR to enhance nighttime videotapes made with hand-held camcorders, revealing important details about the bomb and explosion.
Intergraph's Video Analyst System is a simple, effective, and affordable tool for video enhancement and analysis. It combines high-end broadcast-quality systems with an easy-to-learn, user-friendly interface. Currently, the Video Analyst System is available for use with Microsoft,® Windows® 2000, and Adobe.®

The Video Analyst System presents many benefits, including support of full resolution digital video, frame-by-frame analysis, and the ability to store analog video in digital format. Up to 12 hours of digital video can be stored and maintained for reliable footage analysis. The system also includes state-of-the-art features such as stabilization, image enhancement, and convolution to help improve the visibility of subjects in the video without altering underlying footage.
Adding to the appeal of this innovative technology is its price/performance value. The coupling of the system's highly technical workstation abilities with the cost-effective Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system provides an unparalleled graphics-intensive video analysis. Even a novice operator can quickly learn to operate the system, eliminating the need for costly video specialist training.

Adaptable to many uses, Intergraph's Video Analyst System is used in many industries. The system meets the stringent demands of the law enforcement industry, where it is used in areas such as surveillance, crime scene footage, sting operations, and dash-mounted video cameras. Military applications include use in security, video feed from aircraft, target identification and confirmation, weapons deployment, damage assessment, surveillance and reconnaissance, training, and mission debriefing. The Video Analyst also adds significant value to the sophisticated surveillance systems used in the intelligence field. With features such as enhancement, image tracking, and the ability to accept sonar data, the system greatly enhances the use of satellite or aerial video.

Government facilities are not the only ones benefiting from this high-tech system. The affordable, easy-to-use characteristics of this technology allow commercial industry to benefit from Intergraph's system as well. Many private businesses use the system to record, monitor, and protect their places of business.

From satellite imaging to catching criminals, the collaborative efforts of NASA and Intergraph Government Solutions have brought another NASA technology down to Earth.