September 30, 2004 -- MISSOULA, Montana – Industry and government leaders gathered recently in Missoula, Montana to praise the value of Feature Analyst for powering GIS mapping efforts in Homeland Security, Defense and Intelligence, Forestry, and other vital application areas. Declaring in her keynote address that Visual Learning Systems (VLS) technology helps to “protect Montana’s border”, Montana Governor Judy Martz explained, “the State of Montana, like many other state and local governments, has made large investments in GIS software, computer hardware, and most importantly geographic data. Tools, such as the VLS software Feature Analyst, can help government agencies address this cost by lowering the labor hours required to produce and maintain features such as road, buildings, and streams.”

During the two-day workshop on the state-of-the-art in Automated Feature Extraction (AFE), papers were presented on many mapping topics such as defense applications, 3-D feature collection from stereo imagery, building and tree extractions from LIDAR, and forest management. VLS CEO, Dr. David Opitz summarized the importance of this event stating, “We’re looking at this User Conference over the long term. This is a key part of our customer relationship pipeline as we gain insight into new features, tools, and workflows our clients need to support their goals. Ideally, this software will be the choice for all GIS-based organizations using digital imagery.” Conference sponsors included ESRI, Inc., BAE Systems, Leica Geosystems, Digital Globe Inc., and Space Imaging, LLC. In follow-up conversations with attendees, the vast majority (97%) indicated that they plan on attending the Feature Analyst Users’ Conference in September 2005.

About VLS

Visual Learning Systems, Inc. (VLS) is a worldwide leader in feature extraction and image understanding solutions supporting the geospatial industry. The VLS flagship software product Feature Analyst is used worldwide for GIS database management and mapping applications supporting Defense and Intelligence, Local Government, Forestry, Agriculture, Transportation, and Environmental projects. Feature Analyst is noted for its automation of feature extraction workflows, ease-of-use, accuracy, and workflow enhancements for being extensions to ESRI’s ArcGIS suite, Leica Geosystems’ ERDAS IMAGINE, and BAE’s SOCET SET. VLS was recently recognized by ESRI, Inc. as the 2004 New Partner of the Year. VLS provides professional and on-line training services, feature extraction services, and customized programming. To find out more about Feature Analyst go to: www.featureanalyst.com.

Feature Analyst is a registered trademark of Visual Learning Systems, INC. All rights reserved. ERDAS IMAGINE is a registered trademark of Leica Geosystems GIS & Mapping, LLC. SOCET SET is a registered trademark of BAE SYSTEMS Mission Solutions.