Diamond Eye is a computer program that enables a user equipped with only a personal computer, web-browser software, and a network connection to analyze large collections of scientific image data. The system is based on a distributed applet/server architecture that provides platform-independent access to image mining services. A user interacts with the system through a Java applet interface that is dynamically downloaded when a session is established. There is no need for the user to install "client" software or perform upgrades; the latest stable version of the applet is available automatically. Each server program is typically co-located with a large image repository to enable mining the data in place. Servers are also coupled with an object-oriented data base and a computational engine such as a network of high-perfor mance workstations. The data base provides persistent storage and enables querying of the "mined" information. The computational engine provides parallel execution of the most demanding parts of the data-mining task: image processing, object recognition, and querying-by-content operations. Diamond Eye is currently being used to locate and catalog geological objects in large image collections, but the design provides infrastructure for a range of scientific-data-mining applications. The system can be easily extended to incorporate domain-specific algorithms in any executable form (translation to the Java language is unnecessary).

This program was written by Michael Burl, Charless Fowlkes, Saleem Mukhtar, Joseph Roden, and Andre Stechert of Caltech for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For further information, access the Technical Support Package (TSP) free on-line at www.nasatech.com/tsp  under the Software category.

In accordance with Public Law 96-517, the contractor has elected to retain title to this invention. Inquiries concerning rights for its commercial use should be addressed to

Technology Reporting Office
JPL Mail Stop 249-103
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109
(818) 354-2240

Refer to NPO-20921, volume and number of this NASA Tech Briefs issue, and the page number.



This Brief includes a Technical Support Package (TSP).
Document cover
Infrastructure Software for Mining Image Data Bases

(reference NPO-20921) is currently available for download from the TSP library.

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