Research Systems, Inc.
Software  Vision
Rolando V. Raqueño
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Monday, March 14, 2016
Presentation Outline
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Introducing Research Systems
IDL overview
ENVI - remote sensing application
Visible Human - anatomical CD reference
VIP
RiverTools
NeoSys
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Monday, March 14, 2016
The Company
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Founded in 1977
Privately owned - internally financed
Growing strong, continuously profitable
70+ Employees
25,000 IDL users worldwide
Distribution in more than 35 countries
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IDL Target Markets
• Focus on technical user
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Physical Sciences
General Imaging
Medical Imaging
Engineering
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Some RSI Customers
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Barrick Exploration
CSIRO
Daimler Benz
Fujitsu
Lawrence Livermore
National Lab
• Lockheed Martin
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NASA
NIH
NOAA
Sandia Nat’l Lab
Siemens
Texaco
US Geological Survey
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Research Systems’ Products
• IDL
– Interactive Data Language
• ENVI
– Environment for Visualizing Images
• Visible Human CD
– Human Anatomy Reference
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IDL Overview
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What is IDL?
• Technical computing environment
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data analysis
visualization
array-oriented language
interactive execution and/or programs
portable application development
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The Benefits of IDL
• Easy
– access via GUI, programs and commands
– high-level language simplifies programming
• Flexible
– integrated, comprehensive system
– cross-platform development tool
• Fast
– rapid application development
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– efficient array processing
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IDL is a Language
• 4GL optimized for technical applications
– simple and complete
– procedural and modular
• Wide variety of data structures, types:
– scalar, vector, array and records
– eight native data types
• Integrated graphics, GUI, math & stats
• Generalized input/output
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IDL is Array-Oriented
• Natural representation for technical data
– Avoids most loops
• Operators work on arrays and scalars:
–A = B + C
– C = SIN(2 * !PI * A)
– POWER = ALOG(ABS(FFT(A, -1)))
• Numerous functions for array manipulation
• Quick to program and execute
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Monday, March 14, 2016
IDL is Portable
• Built-in program and data portability:
– Windows 95/98/NT OpenVMS
– Unix
Linux
– Macintosh
Power Mac
• XDR binary data interchange
• Cross-platform GUI toolkit
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Monday, March 14, 2016
IDL is Open
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Import/export virtually any type of data
User-definable functions and procedures
Programs are cross-platform (somewhat)
Access to Fortran or C code (not very easy)
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IDL Functionality Overview
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2D Graphics
• Contour plots
• XY plots
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Integrated Mapping
• Integrated with
graphics
• 2D & 3D polygon
filling
• Map overlays
– images, contours
– continents, coasts,
borders, rivers
– multiple resolutions
• Many projections
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IDL Map Projections
• Azimuthal
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Stereographic
Orthographic
Gnomonic
Lambert’s Equal Area
Satellite
Hammer-Aitoff
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• Cylindrical
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Mercator
Conic
Cylindrical
Equidistant
• Sinusoidal
• Mollweide
• User-defined
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Surface Plots
• Mesh surface plots
• Shading with light-sources, elevation or
other variables
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3D Graphics
• Z-buffered graphics
• Isosurfaces
• Voxel rendering
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Image Processing
• Contrast enhancement
• Edge detection,
smoothing, sharpening
• Morphological
operations
• Geometric
transformations
• Frequency domain
processing
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Fast & Easy Image Processing
• Compute and display a 512 x 512 power spectrum
in under 5 seconds on a standard PC:
TV, a
b = ALOG(ABS(FFT(a,-1)))
TVSCL, SHIFT(b, 256,256)
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Mathematics
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Arrays & matrices
Correlation
Eigenvalues/vectors
Curve fitting
Surface fitting
Gridding
Interpolation
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Sparse arrays
Linear systems
Nonlinear equations
Optimization
Time-series analysis
Integration
ODE: Runge-Kutta
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Statistics
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Hypothesis testing
Correlation analysis
Multivariate analysis
Time-series analysis
Probability functions
and inverses
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On-line Help
• Features:
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all text and graphics
hypertext index
keyword search
bookmarks
printing
create custom HTML
(WWW) help files
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Integrated Development Tools
• Editor
• Debugger
• Compiler
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GUI Toolkit
• Cross-platform GUI
applications
• Large selection of
widgets/controls
• Native look & feel
• Portable API
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Callable IDL
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Unix Sharable Object Library
Windows DLL
Macintosh AppleScript support
Integrate IDL with other programs
– complete library for data analysis & display
– call IDL functions from FORTRAN/C/C++
– call custom functions prototyped in IDL
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Application Distribution
• Run-time IDL licenses
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IDL save/restore file
No access to the IDL prompt
Developer retains control of application
Protection options available, if desired
Embedded licensing
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IDL Features Recap
• Choose from many display options:
– XY Plots, Surfaces, Images, Volumes, etc.
• Powerful mapping capabilities
• Broad suite of math & statistics functions
• Integrated development & interface tools
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Summary
• IDL - foremost data visualization and
analysis tool
• ENVI - the tool for remote sensing
• Visible Human - an anatomical CD
reference
• Research Systems - a company dedicated to
customer service and support
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Monday, March 14, 2016
IDL is just a tool (saw)
UNIX is just a tool (hammer)
• Each is great for certain tasks, not as good
in others.
• An image is only as useful as the ancillary
data associated with it
• IDL provides visualization and image and
computation
• UNIX provides fast text manipulation and
general data processing (ancillary data)
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IDL is great at...
• Visualizing data
• Array and structure manipulation
• Writing something quickly to see if it makes
sense (prototyping)
• Providing a graphical user interface (GUI)
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IDL is not the best at...
• Advanced MATRIX and mathematical
methods outside of Numerical Recipes
• True color application
• Routine names that can be remembered
• Distributing “executables”
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Personal Biases
• IDL under the UNIX environment
• Command Line IDL (vs. IDLDE)
• Above combination allows a seamless
integration of strengths
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Monday, March 14, 2016
For those who can’t wait
% idl
OR
% idlde
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Monday, March 14, 2016