Z/I Imaging Announces Airborne Sensor Management System; New Sensor Management Systems Integrates Complete Acquisition System.

Business Editors & High Tech Writers

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 22, 2002

Z/I Imaging Corporation announced today at the International FIG XXII Conference in Washington, D.C. the release of its Airborne Sensor Management System (ASMS) for sensor management in photo flight operations. The ASMS combines the power of the Flight Management System (FMS) with selectable Sensor Control Modules (SCMs) for improving efficiency in photo flights. ASMS allows users to interface with and control a wide variety of sensors, such as the Digital Mapping Camera (DMC), RMK, LMK, RC30, T-AS, PAV30, POS/AV and various GPS receivers.

"The ASMS is a collection of hardware and software components that was designed to help our customers streamline their workflow," said Eric Grigorian, Director Computational Systems, Z/I Imaging. "Not only does the ASMS physically pull all components together, it provides the tools to control the complete acquisition system."

With ASMS, multi-sensor sensor hardware configurations are simplified by integrating various sensor interfaces into a single 2U rack-mountable enclosure. The ASMS hardware and software components include the Real Time Controller (RTC), as the base hardware platform for interface to various sensors at the physical layer, the Sensor Control Module, as the component designed for enabling protocol exchange with individual sensors and the ASMS Application Framework that contains the Flight Management System component and the user interfaces for each Sensor Control Module.

The RTC contains a microprocessor with the surrounding support devices and provides the functions within the system that must execute in real time or predictable time. Functions that require response in real time include triggering of the sensor at the closest approach to an exposure station, recording the GPS coordinates of the mid-point of the exposure and similar events. The RTC provides a single container within which to integrate all of the custom hardware aspects of a sensor management system. The hardware components and/or functions within the RTC include:

-- The real time single board computer with its ancillary I/O subsystems

-- The video frame grabber (interfaces with video camera)

-- Interface converter (converts the Ethernet interface between the RTC and the
system controller to the various signals needed by other components within the
system)

-- A navigation quality GPS

Z/I Imaging Background

Z/I Imaging Corporation is the world's largest company dedicated to the development and support of Earth Imaging tools. Z/I Imaging provides total end-to-end imaging solutions including aerial cameras, stereo softcopy workstations, photogrammetric scanners and open Microsoft Windows-based image management, processing, and distribution software.

Z/I Imaging is a registered trademark and ASMS, DMC and RMK TOP are trademarks trademark of Z/I Imaging Corporation. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright 2002 Z/ I Imaging Corporation. All rights reserved.