March 8, 2001

BOZEMAN, Montana ­ - Huge data files can clog the memory of a computer and slow the functioning of software to a crawl. Visual Learning Systems of Missoula, Montana, a software start-up, is evaluating a data compression technology patented by the U.S. Navy that promises to greatly speed up the transmission and display of data, especially the satellite imagery the company utilizes with its software.

Visual Learning Systems (VLS) has signed an agreement with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), Newport, Rhode Island, to test the Navy's patented data compression technology. TechLink of Bozeman, Montana, a technology transfer and commercialization organization serving the Northwest region, and the NUWC Office of Technology Transfer facilitated the agreement between the federal lab and the private company.

Visual Learning Systems will test the efficiency of the Navy's data compression technology with its trademarked Feature Analyst software. Feature Analyst dramatically speeds up the process of identifying natural and manmade features in satellite images, which are huge data files. The software can identify features such as roads, buildings, waterways and vegetation at a rate that reduces labor by a factor of 50 to 200 over traditional methods that rely on human operators to identify such features by sight. However, the satellite images that Feature Analyst examines and the results of the feature identification process often create unmanageably large data files, which can cause the process to slow down.

The Navy's data compression technology can be programmed to reduce file size by specified amounts. VLS will use the technology to reduce the size of its data files by about 10 to 20 times their original size. The company hopes the technique will speed up Feature Analyst's action by compressing its data files to a more manageable size without loss of vital information contained in the imagery.

VLS recently opened new offices in Missoula. The company has won small business innovation research awards from NASA and the Department of Defense totaling more than $800,000 to develop and commercialize Feature Analyst, which will be publicly available on November 1, 2001.

TechLink is located at Montana State University in Bozeman and is funded by the Department of Defense and NASA to link companies in Montana and the surrounding region with federal laboratories for joint research and technology transfer. Its overriding purpose is to contribute to the success of both technology-based companies and key resource-based industries in the state and region.

Contacts: 
Will Swearingen 
MSU TechLink
(406) 994-7704
wds@montana.edu

Stuart Blundell
VLS
(406) 443-0766
sblundell@intgeo.com

Theresa Baus
NUWC
(401) 832-8728
bausta@npt.nuwc.navy.mil

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