Overwatch is now accepting submissions for the 2008 AFE Analyst of the Year Award. The award recognizes projects that have improved GIS efforts and education all over the world. Click here for more information, including submission guidelines and past nominees and winners.

Overwatch Geospatial is a world-wide leader in geospatial technology and constantly pursues research and development contract opportunities with government and industry partners. As a result we are looking for higher-education partners working in the fields of remote sensing, data mining, terrestrial LIDAR, vegetation mapping, hyperspectral imaging, urban GIS and many other fields to share their application stories with us. Please take a moment to tell us what you are doing with our products and your current research interests in geospatial technology.

Overwatch Geospatial announces the release of RoadTracker™ as an extension to its award-winning feature-extraction program, Feature Analyst^®. RoadTracker, developed in conjunction with GeoEye, accelerates the collection of roads and other linear features from satellite or aerial imagery. RoadTracker works by automatically tracing the centerline of a feature between two defined endpoints. RoadTracker also includes automatic feature attribution and other ‘smart editing’ tools that save organizations time and money by greatly improving speed, accuracy, and overall workflow in the collection of map-quality linear features. RoadTracker is available for sale through Overwatch Geospatial, and free to download here.

Overwatch Geospatial is partnering with SpectrUM for GIS Day. The event will take place on November 19, 2008. Click here for more information on the event.

Overwatch Geospatial will be hosting professional software training classes September 16-18, 2008 in Sterling, Va. Classes will cover the Geospatial Analyst Suite. Pre-registration is required. Don't miss out. Sign up today! For more information, email us!

Overwatch recently attended the ESRI User Conference. Attendees who stopped by the booth viewed demos and received more information on the upcoming training days. Overwatch also provided a training workshop on Friday, Aug. 8, in which users built 3D city models from imagery and lidar. Thanks to all of those who participated!

Attendees at the ESRI User Conference will have three opportunities to find information about Overwatch's Geospatial Analyst Suite product line--by visiting booth D325 at the conference, attending a vendor meeting on Wed., Aug. 6th from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in room 23C, and a product workshop Fri., Aug. 8th. Reservation for the workshop is required. Click here to email us for more information on the vendor meeting or product workshop.

Overwatch Geospatial recently returned from the 2008 Intergraph conference, held in Las Vegas from June 2-5. Kevin Opitz, VP of Sales at VLS, discussed the Feature Analyst tools currently available from Overwatch Geospatial as part of the Geospatial Analyst Suite. Demonstrations showcased the new functionality and toolsets, and specific customer examples were highlighted. Refer to our events page for more information on future tradeshow appearances.

Overwatch Geospatial recently attended the 2008 ASPRS conference in Portland. Stuart Blundell, Chief Operating Officer of VLS, led a workshop on hyperspectral image processing and feature extraction. The presentation targeted analysts who are interested in building on their multispectral data and GIS systems experience by integrating it with hyperspectral data and feature extraction.

Overwatch VLS would like to thank everyone who made the 2008 Overwatch Geospatial Users Conference a success. Attendees at the conference, held in Vienna, Virginia, had the opportunity to view the entire Overwatch Geospatial product line and learn more about individual software solutions in training sessions. VLS also presented the AFE Analyst of the Year Award to Mike Diller, who has been using Feature Analyst to map illicit crop production. Refer to our events page for more information on future tradeshow appearances.

In a compelling case study, the USDA Forest Service recently presented an assessment of an 85,000-acre area identified as the core habitat for the red-cockaded woodpecker. A major tactic in this study involved using Feature Analyst to interpret aerial imagery of the forest ecosystems in order to examine the environment's suitability as the bird's habitat. The summarized outcome of their work is available to view: Landscape Scale Assessment of Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Habitat in Apalachicola National Forest Using Feature Analyst (4MB, new window will open).

In other news, VLS is pleased to announce that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has selected Feature Analyst for early insertion into the NGA production environment. Click here to view the press release.

Press Releases:

RoadTracker™ Extension Now Available for Feature Analyst^® - June 11, 2008

VLS Issues Essential LIDAR Analyst Extension for ERDAS IMAGINE - February 16, 2007

VLS Releases Urban Analyst for ArcGIS - February 16, 2007