In 1997, Dr. David Opitz and Stuart Blundell teamed up to develop an innovative software system that enabled computers to automatically analyze satellite images, aerial photos and any other raster format supported by ESRI's ArcGIS® suite.

A substantial Small Business Innovative Research grant from NASA provided the two scientists with the funding needed to launch a software development company in Missoula, Montana.

VLS' flagship product, Feature Analyst®, debuted in 2001 and quickly garnered industry-wide attention. Feature Analyst earned "Most Innovative Solution" in the 2002 ArcGIS Challenge Contest sponsored by ESRI, the world's leading provider of GIS software.

The company continued to make waves among the GIS community, hosting the first Feature Analyst Users Conference in 2004. For information about the 2005 conference, click here.

Also in 2005, VLS introduced LIDAR Analyst®, the original software for interpreting LIDAR data.