ImageTree Corp. Signs Strategic Technology Development Agreement with In-Q-Tel to Support U.S. Intelligence Community
Forestry technology solutions company to leverage expertise in geospatial imagery, data
May 4, 2009
ImageTree Corporation has signed a strategic investment and technology development agreement with independent strategic investment firm In-Q-Tel. Under this agreement, ImageTree will leverage its patented technology and processes to help In-Q-Tel support the interests of the United States Intelligence Community, which includes the Central Intelligence Agency and 15 other organizations.
With this agreement, ImageTree becomes an In-Q-Tel portfolio company and part of the process through which In-Q-Tel supports the advancement of innovative technologies to meet the intelligence community’s strategic needs.
Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
“In-Q-Tel annually reviews hundreds of innovative solutions, but selects only a small percentage with the superior capabilities that can best serve the critical technology needs of the intelligence community,” said Troy M. Pearsall, In-Q-Tel’s executive vice president of architecture and engineering. “ImageTree is a strong company that provides unique insights in the field of imagery and geospatial intelligence, and this strategic agreement holds the promise of further significant developments that will have broad utility for the intelligence community.”
“The field of geospatial intelligence, which refers to the use and analysis of imagery and geospatial information to describe, assess and visually depict physical features and geographically referenced activities on Earth, is a critical aspect of gathering business intelligence and making decisions,” said ImageTree CEO Mark Redlus.
“ImageTree’s capabilities of fusing data with imagery provide a unique level of insight to land management,” Redlus continued. “In the commercial marketplace, they benefit forest conservation programs, timber investment management organizations and others, but they also can address a wide range of government activities and needs,” he said.
ImageTree has the ability to incorporate multiple sources of data and leverage multiple image sources (including its current set of LiDAR and CIR imagery), addressing analysis needs as diverse as illicit crop production and humanitarian concerns resulting from decreased crop output.
“We are enhancing existing algorithms and developing new ones to help determine areas of high and low potential for specific crop species, which yields additional insights into a region’s output, and offers change-detection capabilities through time-lapse analysis,” explained Redlus. “Our algorithms can help show patterns in imagery that document such ground characteristics as forests and vegetation, as well as man-made objects and roads, helping users gain insight into an area’s activities.”
About ImageTree Corporation
ImageTree Corp. is a forestry-technology-solutions company with a patented technology platform called ForestSense, which combines remote sensing, field inputs, automated software and advanced mathematics to provide a comprehensive view of a forest, down to every visible tree crown. Known as “the precision forestry company,” ImageTree uses its precise baseline assessments of forest assets, including biodiversity and carbon-stock assessments, to create valuable forest-management information, then reformats the data to create management tools and analyzes the data to make recommendations for more profitable forest management. The company, whose customers include timber investment management organizations (TIMOs) and real-estate investment trusts (REITs), has academic relationships with the Forest Nutrition Cooperative; University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources; Yale University’s Global Institute for Sustainable Forestry; and the Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences at West Virginia University. Please visit www.imagetreecorp.com
Note: ImageTree, ForestSense, and The Precision Forestry Company are trademarks of ImageTree Corporation. The names of other actual companies, organizations and/or products/services mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.