Definiens to Launch Online Application Center

Definiens was the first company to provide OBIA to the earth sciences market. The company’s mature image analysis software products, Definiens Developer and Definiens Architect, enable users to develop custom solutions that rapidly extract accurate geo-information from any kind of remote sensing data. Moving forward, Definiens and its partners will increasingly develop standardized applications for common remote sensing and mapping challenges. The company will also facilitate the commercial and non-profit distribution of third-party applications developed using Definiens software. 
“Remote-sensing image analysis technology has come a long way, but the development of applications remains predominantly in the hands of experts, utilizing them locally,” said Ralph D. Humberg, Vice President, Earth Sciences at Definiens. “As the founder of OBIA for earth science professionals, we are excited to lead the industry into a new era; one in which users will independently and rapidly develop applications and then share these with colleagues and customers globally in online communities. Users will increasingly gain access to both Definiens-built and third-party commercial applications designed to solve mission-critical image analysis challenges across a wide array of industries.”
The recent launch of the Definiens eCognition Community website was the company’s first step toward fostering greater collaboration between its users. Definiens eCognition 8, to be released late in 2009, will incorporate functionality designed to make the software accessible to users without extensive software programming experience, promoting knowledge transfer and application development among Definiens Earth Sciences’ community.  The new software will maintain Definiens’ easily transportable and modifiable ruleware and open-architecture, enabling the integration of industry standard platforms and imaging data from all modalities, while introducing a streamlined graphical user interface and pioneering new multidimensional and LIDAR capabilities. 
“While informal exchange of rule sets between users has been the status quo for some time, we anticipate our upcoming products will enable the development of a true global marketplace for user-developed applications in the earth sciences,” continued Ralph D. Humberg. “Being the primary enabler of this marketplace will consolidate Definiens’ leadership in the industry while providing our users with additional avenues for monetization of their own applications.”
The new strategic direction for Definiens’ Earth Sciences division also sees the reintroduction of its eCognition brand.  First utilized in the company’s introduction of OBIA to the earth sciences industry in 2001, the widely-recognized eCognition brand will be utilized broadly as the company leads the industry into an era of expanded image analysis capabilities and increased global collaboration.  
For more information on the eCognition Community and Definiens’ leading image analysis software for earth sciences visit the company at the INTERGEO conference in Karlsruhe (Hall 4, Booth 4.626), or go to http://earth.definiens.com.  Definiens will preview its latest software, eCognition 8, in two presentations at the INTERGEO Forum in room K1: Tuesday, September 22, “Neue Dimensionen der objektbasierten Bildanalyse” and  Trend und Medienforum, dm-Arena (Halle 4): Wednesday, September 23, “eCognition 8 - taking object-based image analysis to new geo-dimensions.” 
Definiens in Earth Sciences 
Definiens enables organizations involved in Earth Sciences to quickly extract accurate geo-information from any kind of remote sensing data. The company assists data providers, value adders, scientists and end users in integrating earth observation and remote sensing data to generate accurate GIS-ready information. Definiens’ intelligent feature extraction capabilities accelerate mapping, change detection and object recognition – delivering standardized and reproducible image analysis results. Further information is available at http://earth.definiens.com.