Java Advanced Imaging In Action -- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

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AppNet, Inc., an Internet professional services company, is using Sun's Java Advanced Imaging API to turn laptops and desktop computers into portable scientific workstations. AppNet, in collaboration with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, will give scientists, researchers, educators, and students alike access to tools that were once only available to a select few.

Up until now, most scientific image visualization and manipulation has been done on high-end workstations, limiting the number of people who have had access to these resources. In order to create a new system, an extensible Java technology-based image-processing tool that delivers platform-independent functionality was clearly needed.

AppNet and NASA chose Sun's Java Advanced Imaging API to create its software tool, because it is based on the Java platform and provides over 70 standard image-processing operations. Image2000, the software application created by AppNet and NASA, incorporates the Java Advanced Imaging API features and includes many tools for science such as latitude and longitude-registered image overlays, map projections, non-destructive annotation, animated image stacks, and a graphical operation editor which allows new operations to be constructed using combinations of existing operations. Image2000's tools are accessed through a standard menu-based user interface and can also be accessed through a scripting language.

The easy look and feel customization of any Image2000 installation allows the application to be targeted to specific audiences. For example, an educator can tailor the interface of Image2000 for rudimentary functionality for grade school students while a university professor can customize the interface to present only the functionality that is appropriate for graduate students.

NASA's Scientific and Educational Endeavors (SEE) group and the Center for Image Processing in Education (CIPE) will be integrating Image2000 into their extensive set of lessons aimed at students ages 12 to 18.

" We chose Sun's Java Advanced Imaging API because it is based on the same principles and goals needed to make Image2000 a success--full functionality, platform-independence and fast, accurate image processing," said Philip Wheeler, Systems Architect of AppNet. "We are excited that this imaging tool will further the spread of scientific information across the globe. "

Goddard Space Flight Center
Code 130, Office of Public Affairs
Greenbelt, MD 20771
(301)286-8955.

Image2000

Studying Earth's Environment from Space

Center for Image Processing in Education