[Gdal-dev] ORFEO Toolbox

[Jordi Inglada]

Dear all,

In behalf of CNES, I have the pleasure to announce the availability of
the ORFEO Toolbox, OTB, version 1.0.

OTB is a library of remote sensing image processing algorithms developed
by CNES in the
frame of the ORFEO Accompaniment Program. It is distributed as C++
source code under a free software licence: 
<http://www.cecill.info/licences/Licence_CeCILL_V2-en.html>.

OTB is based on the medical image processing library ITK and offers
particular functionnalities for remote sensing image processing in
general and for high spatial resolution images in particular.

In this first version, OTB provides:

- image access: optimized read/write access for most of remote sensing
image formats (thanks to GDAL), meta-data access, simple visualization;
- filtering: blurring, denoising, enhancement;
- feature extraction: interest points, alignments, lines;
- image segmentation: region growing, watershed, level sets;
- classification: K-means, SVM, Markov random fields; 
- change detection.

Many of these functionnalities are provided by ITK and have been tested
and documented for the use with remote sensing data.

In order to download OTB v.1.0, go to the ORFEO web site:

http://smsc.cnes.fr/PLEIADES/A_prog_accomp.htm

and follow the "ORFEO Toolbox" link. You will have access to the OTB
source code and to the Software User's Guide. Your are invited to
download those and to read the Introduction chapter before proceeding to
the software installation.

We have tested the OTB on a several configurations (Linux, Windows, Sun
Solaris) in order to ensure the code portability. We have also developed
an automatic procedure for the configuration/installation which should
allow to compile OTB on most platforms. However, some difficulties can
appear for some specific software/hardware combinations. Do not hesitate
to give us feed-back about installation issues in order for us to
correct those.

The main information source is the OTB Software Guide. It contains
tenths of commented examples which should be a good starting point for
any new OTB user. The code source for these examples is distributed with
the toolbox. Another information source is the on-line API
documentation.

We can assist you in the installation and use of the OTB. We are also
very interested in getting feed-back on the use of the software. A
discussion group has been set up for information exchange. The details
about subscription are given in the user's guide.

Your comments and suggestions will help us improving the OTB. Do not
hesitate to express yourselves, either on the user's group or by writing
to me: jordi.inglada at cnes.fr

Finally, I would like to thank the OTB team at "Communications &
Systèmes" for their good work.

Sincerely,

J. Inglada
-- 
CNES - DCT/SI/AP - BPI 1219
18, avenue Edouard Belin
31401 Toulouse Cedex 09 - France
Tel. +33.(0)5.61.27.33.97 - Fax. +33.(0)5.61.28.31.09