ERDAS 2011 Software Release

ERDAS announces its 2011 Software Release with new versions of ERDAS IMAGINE, LPS, ERDAS Extensions for ArcGIS 10, ERDAS APOLLO and other leading desktop and server products. To promote this significant release, ERDAS is also launching a world tour with customer events worldwide. The kick-off of the 11 World Tour takes place at the GEOINT Symposium, until 4th November 2010 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, LA, USA. At GEOINT, ERDAS team members will showcase the 2011 product portfolio with informative demos offered in Booth #729.

The ERDAS 2011 Software Release includes new imagery analysis workflows, the ability to localise ERDAS products for a global audience, integrated support for Microsoft Bing Maps base imagery and map data, distributed processing throughout the desktop offerings, updated versions of ERDAS Extensions for ArcGIS (supporting version 10), and a new product, ERDAS Engine. ERDAS Engine is a simple, cost-effective solution that boosts processing power for ERDAS IMAGINE and LPS, leveraging existing hardware resources for increased production needs or situations requiring faster throughput.

ERDAS IMAGINE 2011 integrates many solutions in one, incorporating geospatial image processing and analysis, remote sensing and GIS. ERDAS IMAGINE 2011 features new tools and an enhanced interface designed for quick and easy creation of presentation products for the defence and intelligence community. The streamlined imagery analysis workflows include improved text editing, inset views, new templates with elements that automatically update based on metadata from inserted imagery, the ability to geolink to Google Earth, and export to Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, or JPEG with a single click. ERDAS IMAGINE 2011 also introduces Hyperspherical Color Space (HCS) pan sharpening, developed specifically for DigitalGlobe's WorldView-2 data. HCS pan sharpening accepts any number of bands and handles both spatial and spectral recovery over a wide variety of scenes.

LPS 2011 is a powerful, workflow-oriented photogrammetry system for production mapping, including full analytical triangulation, the generation of digital terrain models, orthophoto production, mosaicking, and 3D feature extraction. A key theme for the LPS 2011 release is distributed processing, which enables users to leverage multi-core CPUs and multiple networked servers to increase production throughput and accelerate processes that have been extremely time-intensive until now. LPS 2011 enables generation of orthos for a specific area of imagery defined by a shape file or AOI. LPS eATE is an add-on product that enables users to generate high-resolution terrain information from stereo imagery, ensuring speed and accuracy, providing an unparalleled environment for processing terrain data.

ERDAS Extensions for ArcGIS 10 is a production suite of tools that enhance the ArcGIS 10 platform with stereo visualisation. This suite of products includes Stereo Analyst for ArcGIS and two optional modules that extend its functionality, ERDAS Terrain Editor for ArcGIS and FeatureAssist for ArcGIS. Stereo visualisation enables users to view imagery in 3D, facilitating interpretation of topological features, enabling more spatially accurate feature collection than digitizing features from an orthorectified image. In addition, a new release of Image Analysis for ArcGIS is also available.

ERDAS APOLLO 2011 is the market leading geospatial solution for managing and delivering imagery. ERDAS APOLLO consistently delivers more data, quicker, using less hardware than other image serving product. An interoperable OGC/ISO based solution, ERDAS APOLLO also easily delivers feature data, terrain and virtually any digital object in an enterprise. ERDAS APOLLO 2011 introduces clustering, in which multiple servers work in concert to fulfill data searches and requests, increasing the number of supportable users. ERDAS APOLLO 2011 now also provides support for cataloging and serving LIDAR (LAS) files, editing metadata for multiple datasets at once, and instantaneous propagation of metadata changes through the data hierarchy.

ERDAS Software 2011 will be available later this year. For more information, please see the comprehensive What's New in ERDAS Software 2011 document on the Erdas website, register for the upcoming webinar on 9th November 2010 or visit http://labs.erdas.com.