4 SCIENTIFIC SOFTWARE imam.. , - n** Re search Systems, Inc. (RSI), Boulder, Col- orado develops and markets software for analysis and visualization of scientific and engineering data. The company's flagship product is IDL@( Interactive Data Lan- guage), developed for use with a broad spectrum of computing hardware. More spacecraft flown in the late IDL designed specifically for than 20,000 scientists and 1960s and early 1970s. The Goddard Space Flight Center. engineers in laboratories, concept embedded in MMED The accompanying photos universities and commercial - and the essential element illustrate some IDL applica- organizations employ IDL's of IDL - was that scientists tions. At left is an IDL 3D ren- comprehensive mathematical could test their hypotheses dering showing the magma analysis and graphical dis- without having to write a cus- flow that drives continental play capabilities for research tom program every time new plate movements. IDL's use in physics, remote sensing, data were collected. It pro- as a mapping tool is shown astronomy, test and mea- vided scientists a general above; this is a stereographic surement, financial visualiza- tool that allowed them to projection in which great cir- tion and medical imaging. investigate their data direct- cles pass through two user- ly, without the need for pro- defined points of interest. At grammers or for extensive top right is an image of the programming knowledge. Sun in the x-ray wavelength Founded in 1977, RSI acquired by a CCD camera/ began developing IDL that soft x-ray telescope combina- year, using the MMED tech- tion built by Lockheed Solar nology as a departure point. & Astrophysics Laboratory IDL was introduced commer- and flown aboard the cially - for use on a VAX Japanese Yohkoh spacecraft. system - in 1982. It has At center right is a Magnetic since progressed through Resonance Imaging slice of a four technology generations human head displayed by - IDL traces its lineage to a and the current version runs IDL's slicer tool, which predecessor software pack- on all popular workstations allows users to investigate age known as the Mariner and personal computers. and display 3D volumes of Mars spectral Editor NASA, one of RSI's first cus- data. At right is a screen shot (MMED), developed for tomers, sponsored develop of the surface of Venus NASA's series of Mars flyby ment of a Convex version of displaying two sets of radar mapping data collected by NASA's Magellan spacecraft; - a special IDL capability - known as Show3 allows researchers to view a single dataset as an image, a con- tour and a surface. ten in IDL, ENVI allows a user The newest RSI product, A recent addition to the to easily read, display, ana- released in 1995, is the Visi- RSI software family is ENVITM lyze and output any space- ble Human CD, described by (Environment for Visualizing acquired or aircraft digital the company as "the world's Images), an advanced image imagery, and to import, first complete digital refer- processing system for Earth manipulate and analyze ence of photographic images scientists who analyze ground-based and laboratory for exploring human anato- remotely sensed data. Writ- spectral measurements. my." The body reference product draws on RSI's extensive experience in med- ical imaging, which dates back to the company's early work in reconstructing multi- dimensional images of the human heart, part of a pro- ject that helped scientists build the first practical tomography imaging system. Developed in cooperation with the National Library of Medicine, the Visible Human CD offers ready access to more than 7,800 physical slices of an anatomical male human, enabling medical pro- fessionals, researchers and 1e ducators to "navigate* an entire human body on a desk- top computer. For efficient storage and retrieval, the image slices are compressed on a single CD ROM. "IDL is a registered trademark of Research Systems. Inc. ENVI is a trademark of Research Systems, lnc. TECHNOLOGY