A Brief History of ERDAS ER Mapper

I thought I would take some time to briefly outline some of the major points in the history of ERDAS ER Mapper. I have rebuilt this history from "What's New" PowerPoints and "What's New" documents, software documentation, software media, software code, advertisements, and personal interviews. I do not have as much materials as I did to build the A Brief History of ERDAS IMAGINE, immediately at hand, but will build the history as I uncover documents.

As a master’s student at the University of South Carolina Department of Geography and Remote Sensing Specialist at SC DNR, I interviewed with ER Mapper while at ASPRS in Baltimore Maryland the week of March 24, 1991 and was invited to interview with ER Mapper in San Diego in mid-May 1991. During my visit in May, I met with David Hayward and Stuart Nixon. David gave me an extensive demo of the software. I was very impressed with the software.

I was somewhat concerned when Stuart stated ER Mapper would be larger than ERDAS within 2-years. ER Mapper hired Jill Andrews rather than me. I accepted a technical sales position at ERDAS and started at ERDAS on July 15, 1991. On May 21 2007, ERDAS announced the purchase of ER Mapper Ltd.

19 Feb 1990, Australian Beta Release (Beta 1)

• Introduces Dynamic Algorithm Compiler (on-the-fly image processing) to Remote Sensing community
• Sun Workstation only

6 Apr 1990, US Beta Release (Beta 2)
1 May 1990, ER Mapper 1.0 released
9 Jul 1990, ER Mapper 1.1 released
21 Sep 1990, ER Mapper 1.2 released
10 Jan 1991, ER Mapper 2.0 released

• Expanded marketing efforts into Europe and Americas

22 Nov 1991, ER Mapper 3.0 released
20 May 1992, ER Mapper 3.1 released
26 Aug 1992, ER Mapper 3.2 released
15 Jan 1993, ER Mapper 4.0 released

• Expanded capabilities to support forestry, land use and water resources
• As reported by GISL Limited, the first PC ER Mapper license was purchased in Europe by GISL Limited, but Windows was not supported until a later version.

25 Oct 1993, ER Mapper 4.1 released
4 Feb 1994, ER Mapper 4.1a released
18 Oct 1994, ER Mapper 4.2 released
30 Jun 1995, ER Mapper 5.0 released

• Support Sun, SGI, DEC, HP And Windows NT
• 3D Capability introduced

Sep 1995, ER Mapper 5.1 released

• Microsoft Windows 95 support added

20 April 1996, ER Mapper 5.2 released
27 Feb 1997, ER Mapper 5.5 released

• HP-UX and DEC Alpha support dropped, Sun Solaris, SGI Irix, and Windows 95/NT remain
• Improved 3D capability
• Oil and Gas Wizards to exchange data with Charisma, GeoQuest and SeisWorks
• Customers include Landmark, Schlumberger, BP Exploration, Mobile, Texaco and Shell

1 Feb 1999, ER Mapper 6.0 released

• Introduce real-time roaming and zooming
• Introduce ortho-rectification of images
• Introduce image compression wizard
• Introduce mosaic wizard
• Introduce image gridding wizard (ascii points and vector datasets)
• Introduce contour to screen wizard, file save as to create files
• Radar processing bundled into core package

15 June 1999, ER Mapper 6.0 CEP released

• ECW Compression Enhancement Pack added (ECW v2.0)

29 April 1999, ER Mapper 6.0 SP1 released
4 January 2000, ER Mapper 6.1 released

• Image Web Plug-in

11 May 2001, ER Mapper 6.2 released

• Improved licensing
• Improved ECW performance(70% faster)
• Add GeoTIFF support
• Wizard to support MapInfo .tab files
• Landsat Web publishing wizard
• Introduce Mineral Exploration wizard

29 June 2001, Release of OrthoWarp ER (Inpho add-on module)

• IKONOS, IRS, Landsat and Spot data supported
• Automated tools for orientation, measurement, and error correction

24 September 2001, ER Mapper 6.21 released

• Maintenance release
• HDF Translator

28 Feb 2002, OrthoWarp ER v2.1 released

• Simplified workflows

19 July 2002, ER Mapper 6.3 released

• Windows XP Support
• Enhanced Compression Tools
• Shapefile I/O
• Spectral Angle Mapper Formula
• Aster Processing Wizard

6 December 2002, ER Mapper 6.3 SP1 released

• Maintenance release

14 November 2003, ER Mapper 6.4 released

• Reprojection-on-the-fly introduced
• Compression to ECW of Multi-TB images (5TB tested)
• Reproject GeoTIFF and ECW
• Add floating network license support

15 May 2004, ER Mapper 6.4 SP1 released

• Maintenance release

22 April 2005, ER Mapper 7.0 released

• JPEG2000 support added (Lossly, lossless, NITF), created 1-TB JPEG2000 Landsat mosaic
• Added 13 new Batch Processing Wizards
• Added new projections

28 July 2005, ER Mapper 7.01 released

• Maintenance release

31 March 2006, ER Mapper 7.1 released

• Maintenance release
• Add support for ERDAS IMAGINE .img format
• GeoTIFF enhancements (read and write TIFFs up to 2GB, JPEG format TIFF)
• JPEG2000 Alpha Channel Support

21 May 2007, ER Mapper Ltd. Purchased by Leica Geosystems Geospartial Imaging (aka ERDAS)
2 Sept 2008, ER Mapper 7.1 SP1 released

• Maintenance release

19 Sept 2008, ERDAS ER Mapper 7.2 released

• Significant maintenance effort
• Expanded projection support
• Native support to read IMG
• Clip Region Wizard, included rotated regions
• Add MrSID, RPF (CIB and CADRG) and PCIDSK support
• Joint Licensing with IMAGINE Professional
• License borrowing

11 Nov 2008, ERDAS ER Mapper 7.2 SP1 released

• Maintenance release

23 Mar 2009, ERDAS ER Mapper 7.2.1 released

• Maintenance release

19 Nov 2009, ERDAS ER Mapper 2010 released

• Support for Windows x32 and x64 for Windows XP, Vista, and 7
• Improved raster file format handling
• ASTER Processing Wizard
• Expanded projection support (use ERDAS projection engine)
• Improved Image Handling and Processing
• Improved handling and visualization of 16-bit and floating point data

21 April 2010, ERDAS ER Mapper 2010 v10.1 released

• Transparency Masks in ECW and JPEG2000 images
• Implement 'Large Memory Aware' to better utilize RAM
• Upgraded to latest ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK

7 Dec 2010, ERDAS ER Mapper 2011 released

• Maintenance release
• Expand 'Large Memory Aware' use
• Handle calibrated IMG files with affine map model
• Write IMG files
• Upgraded to latest ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK

1 Dec 2012, ERDAS ER Mapper 2013 released

• Maintenance release
• Upgraded to latest ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK

4 Apr 2013, ERDAS ER Mapper 2013 v 13.00.0002 released

• Maintenance release
• Upgraded to latest ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK

12 Dec 2013, ERDAS ER Mapper 2014 released

• Maintenance release
• Upgraded to latest ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK

5 Dec 2014, ERDAS ER Mapper 2015 released

• Maintenance release
• Upgraded to latest ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK 

The first ERDAS Manual

Brad Skelton, as a hobby over the years, has been the ERDAS archivist. I enjoy visiting his office and looking at the more than 30 years of ERDAS historical ‘stuff.’ One bit of ‘stuff’ Brad has archived carries a lot of significance, the very first ERDAS Manual. I am embarking on an effort to scan and OCR the document into a searchable PDF that looks exactly like the original document. Two beautiful and multi-talented ERDAS ladies, Candy Billips and Jenn Gazdziak, will help me with the effort. (Truth be told, I could not do it without their help.)

The first ERDAS Manual was written by Mark Finlay, Larry Brantley and Brad Skelton. Andrea Gernazian (Bruce Rado's, one of the three ERDAS founders, wife) proof-read the manual and performed word processing duties along with Melissa Ergle using Wordstar on a Cromemco Z80 microcomputer. The entire document was printed with great effort on a Brother daisy wheel printer (which had the tendency to jam every few pages, or smear printer dust over the pages). Andrea coined the phrase “The Oh, Brother! Printer”.

I quoted from another page of the first ERDAS Manual in the blog post, A Brief History of ERDAS IMAGINE

Below is the introduction page (page 2-1) from the first manual. Note the spelling error ’digitial,’ which everyone missed in 1983.

INTRODUCTION Rev 7.1 / 1 June 1983
A. ERDAS 2300/2400 SYSTEM

I. Introduction
The ERDAS 2300/2400 system is a complete turn key stand alone image processing system for performing image analysis of remotely sensed data, such as LANDSAT or SPOT satellite data, video digitized image data such as aerial photographs, or gridded polygon data such as digitized soils or topography maps. The ERDAS software package that comes with the 2400 system provides many standard image processing functions , a complete and integrated geographic information system (GIS), polygon capture software for use with a table digitizer, and many data base management utilities, all run in a menu-driven and highly interactive environment. The ERDAS 2400 system may be configured to work with several different image processors, ranging from the low cost Digital Graphics CAT system to the more powerful, higher resolution displays such as the Raster Technologies and Gould (DeAnza) image processors. Through the GIS software, many different types of data may be combined in one analysis to provide solutions to problems that cannot be solved using only one type of data. The ERDAS mapping package can produce true scale hard copy map output on the graphics line printer provided as standard equipment. The amount of data that can be processed and stored on the system is limited only by the amount of disk space that is purchased with the system, and more disk space can always be added later if the need arises. As little as 20 megabytes of storage can be used for small scale image processing requirements, or as much as 1000 megabytes can be purchased. A standard 9-track tape drive is also provided with the system to allow for easy access to digital image data from a large number of sources. A number of different CPUs, ranging from the PDP 11/23+, and MICRO-VAX for small scale operations, up to the VAX 11/780, for large scale image processing, are available to satisfy the most demanding applications. An optional table digitizer may also be purchased to allow the system to capture data directly from maps of almost any scale. Multi-user capability is also provided with the ERDAS system. One or many users may perform data processing simultaneously, and in fact, each individual user can run and manage several concurrently running programs so that tasks such as loading a tape can be performed in the background, while other, more interactive tasks, can be done at the console. Data files may be shared by several users or protected from unauthorized access by the file protection system of the RSXll-M or VMS operating system. The ERDAS system is designed to provide a powerful software tool for managing, displaying, and processing digitial image and geographic data, without requiring sophisticated knowledge of computers or programming.

Copyright 1983, 1984 by ERDAS, Inc. All rights reserved