Open source remote sensing
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has released into open source software for analyzing remote sensing data. According to the company, Defense Department intelligence analysts and scientists use the software, called
Opticks. By open sourcing the software, Ball hopes to increase the demand for remote sensing analysis, as well as increase the number of features on the application. At present, Opticks supports analysis for imagery, motion imagery, synthetic aperture radar, and multi-spectral and hyper-spectral remote sensing data.
"Ball Aerospace's Opticks demonstrates how government-sponsored code originally developed by a contractor can be maximized by releasing it as open source," said John M. Weathersby, executive director of the Open Source Software Institute, in a statement. "This creative business development effort is consistent with the forward-thinking strategy outlined in the Department of Defense's Open Technology Development roadmap."
About the Author
Joab Jackson is the senior technology editor for Government Computer News.