NAU Capstone Design Sequence
Sponsor Project Description
Isis Graphical User Interface

Sponsor Information:

Jeff Anderson, Supervisory Computer Scientist
U.S. Geological Survey, Astrogeology Team
2255 N. Gemini Drive
Flagstaff, Arizona 86001
(928) 556-7167
janderson@usgs.gov

 

Project Overview:

The USGS Astrogeology Team, over the course of 20 years, has developed an extensive software system for processing planetary image data. The Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers (ISIS) consists of nearly 250 application programs, dealing mainly with cartographic mapping and scientific analysis of images from instruments such as Viking Orbiter, Voyager I/II, Galileo SSI/NIMS, Mars Global Surveyor, and Mars Odyssey. We are currently in a redevelopment phase and are migrating much of our code to C++. A requirement of the migration is the redesign of the current text-based user interface. The USGS has developed a customizable graphical user interface (GUI) for each the individual (250+) applications, however, there lacks an all-encompassing GUI which allows an ISIS user to select, control, and execute the applications as a single unit. It is the overall GUI that forms the backbone of this Capstone Project.

Knowledge, skills, and expertise required for this project:

The participants will be required to design, document, and develop the GUI on an Intel Linux-based platform using C++, XML (eXtensible Markup Language), the Qt API, and the Xerces API.

Equipment Requirements:

The USGS will provide access to a Linux-based Intel platform configured with the necessary software elements (Isis, Qt, Xerces, Gnu C++, Make, etc).

Deliverables:

There are two stages of deliverables. The first stage includes a graphical user interface that will execute the 250+ Isis applications by presenting them to the user in a highly organized fashion (e.g., categorized by application type). The second stage adds a significant level of complexity by allowing an Isis user to graphically string together a sequence of applications (e.g., ratio of two images, edge enhance the ratio, convert to jpeg). This graphical sequence would then be used to generate a batch job that can be applied on tens to thousands of images.