July 23, 2001 6:30 a.m. EDT
 

ENEA Uses Data Visualization System Based on AVS/Express to Study Biodiversity in Mediterranean Sea

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(Waltham, MA -- July 23, 2001 6:30 a.m. EDT)

Advanced Visual Systems, Inc. today announced the completion of a cooperative project with the ENEA Marine Environment Research Centre near Lerici, Italy. AVS engineers and ENEA biologists collaborated to create a visualization tool based on AVS/Express that facilitates the Centre's study of coastal marine ecosystem biodiversity, particularly in areas most exploited by humans.

AVS/Express enables rapid, object-oriented development of rich and highly interactive scientific and technical data visualizations for Digital, HP, IBM, SGI, 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 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 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 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, non-destructive techniques led the team to consider underwater photography, 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 support 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.

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