Advanced Visual Systems Announces: ENEA Uses Data Visualization System Based on AVS/Express to Study Biodiversity in Mediterranean Sea.Business Editors WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 23, 2001 Advanced Visual Systems Inc. (OTC OTC See: Over-the-counter. OTC See over-the-counter market (OTC). BB: MUZE) Monday announced the completion of a cooperative project with the ENEA ENEA Ente per le Nuove Tecnologie l'Energia e l'Ambiente (Italian National Board for New Technology, Energy and the Environment) ENEA European Neuroendocrine Association ENEA European Nuclear Energy Agency ENEA European Nursing Education Association Marine Environment Research Centre near Lerici, Italy. AVS (Audio Video Coding Standard) A video compression technique developed by Chinese companies and supported by the Chinese government. Expected to provide better compression than MPEG-2, AVS was created to avoid paying royalties to the MPEG licensors, which are outside engineers and ENEA biologists collaborated to create a visualization tool based on AVS/Express that facilitates the Centre's study of coastal marine ecosystem Marine ecosystems are part of the earth's aquatic ecosystem. They include oceans, estuaries, salt marshes, lagoons, some tropical ecosystems, such as mangrove forests and coral reefs, rocky, subtidal ecosystems, and shores. biodiversity, particularly in areas most exploited by humans. Images from the project can be seen at the following URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. : http://www.avs.com/news/072301-ENEA.html AVS/Express enables rapid, object-oriented development of rich and highly interactive scientific and technical data visualizations for Digital, HP, IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) , SGI (SGI, Sunnyvale, CA, www.sgi.com) A manufacturer of workstations and servers, founded in 1982 by Jim Clark. The company was founded as Silicon Graphics, Inc., but changed to its acronym in 1999. , Sun and Windows systems. The ENEA system, called MOD3D, represents an integrated approach to processing and analyzing ecosystem data. A diver first prepares the site under study and films the area. Next, the application guides him through selection and filtering of significant images from the film, selection of objects to be reconstructed as 3D models, camera calibration The determination of the calibrated focal length, the location of the principal point with respect to the fiducial marks and the lens distortion effective in the focal plane of the camera referred to the particular calibrated focal length. and position computations, and finally reconstruction of the structures under investigation. The user can then measure the model, compare it to others, and extract images and VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) A 3D graphics language used on the Web. After downloading a VRML page, its contents can be viewed, rotated and manipulated. Simulated rooms can be "walked into." The VRML viewer is launched from within the Web browser. models of the reconstruction for publication in print or on the Web. "It is important to understand processes that promote diversification of coastal marine biotopes," explained ENEA Biologist Dr. Silvia Cocito, "and this can be done by studying biogenic biogenic /bi·o·gen·ic/ (-jen´ik) having origins in biological processes. biogenic having the property of originating in a biological process. carbonate buildups. "Their presence and growth is directly related to promotion and enhancement of biodiversity. Unfortunately, those studies have only marginally benefited by recent advances in technology, and often they need repeated biological sampling followed by long and complex laboratory analysis." The need to perform repeated measurements using environmentally friendly Environmentally friendly, also referred to as nature friendly, is a term used to refer to goods and services considered to inflict minimal harm on the environment.[1] , non-destructive techniques led the team to consider underwater photography Underwater photography is the process of taking photographs while underwater. It is usually done while scuba diving, but can be done while snorkeling or swimming. Overview , with which ENEA has significant experience. Underwater photography, explained project leader Sergio Sgorbini, "Has been mainly used as a descriptive method. But in this project we make a leap forward and use it as input to a three-dimensional model reconstruction of the biological structures we are studying. "The project goal has been always clear to us, as was the biologist usage of the reconstructed models. But we lacked the knowledge to build a system that fills our needs. In fact, the few existing commercial reconstruction systems were absolutely not suitable for our environment." Through feasibility studies and prototyping, ENEA found that the AVS/Express framework includes suitable algorithms for its data model as well as innovative visualization techniques. Sgorbini continued, "We asked Advanced Visual Systems to implement the applications we devised, in strict cooperation with us. Tight cooperation with developers reduced the development time and, most importantly, raised our confidence in the final product quality." The resulting architecture has proven flexible enough to accept rapid algorithm changes as well as supporting continuous functionality upgrades and field tests. AVS and ENEA have a long tradition of collaboration. ENEA's various research centers -- Bologna, Frascati, Casaccia and Lerici -- use AVS visualization tools in various scientific research areas. This project is ENEA's first, however, to involve the technique of three-dimensional reconstruction. About ENEA -- Centro Ricerche Ambiente Marino The ENEA Santa Teresa Marine Environment Research Centre, on the eastern coast of the Gulf of La Spezia, near the town of Lerici, is hosted in the ancient fortress of Santa Teresa, built by the Genovese Republic in 1747 and restored by ENEA in 1982. Four main lines of research are conducted at the Centre: initiatives for the European Thematic Centre, research on the global and Mediterranean climate, research on marine biodiversity,and monitoring and research of the marine coastal environment. More info can be found at http://www.santateresa.enea.it. About Advanced Visual Systems Advanced Visual Systems (AVS) is an international leader in data visualization software and solutions that enable computer users to experience and interact with all types of business, scientific and engineering data. AVS offers a complete line of products that bring information to life on all major computing platforms using the latest in graphics, Web-based and collaborative technologies. AVS is a wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. of MUSE Technologies Inc. and is dedicated to assisting clients in nearly every industry speed the process of data analysis and decision-making. For more information on AVS or MUSE call 781/890-4300, write to info@avs.com, or visit www.avs.com. |
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