REDSTONE ARSENAL, Alabama -- One U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command employee recently earned a patent for designing a program that supports the Warfighter as well as civilian rescue personnel.
Justin Novak, USASMDC/ARSTRAT Future Warfare Center, was issued a patent on Aug. 11 by the U.S. Patent Office for the Rapid Imagery Dissemination System, a technology that distributes bulky satellite imagery data over small, low-bandwidth networks.
Novak first used the technology as product manager for the Eagle Vision and Rover Responsive Exploitation of Space Products for Tactical Use, or EVR2EST, technology in Huntsville during the April 27, 2011, tornado outbreak. Later that year, Novak accepted the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation's award for Military Achievement on behalf of the EVR2EST team.
"Through the leadership of my director, Norven Goddard, and user, U.S. Air Force A2, I was able to develop that concept into a prototype system that is the basis for the system used in the field today," Novak said. "The patent was issued to me but the Army has the full rights to the patent."
Conceptualized in 2010, Novak had an idea on a system to distribute massive quantities of satellite imagery data quickly over slow networks. Shortly thereafter, he developed the first prototype for a system that would share satellite imagery directly to Soldiers and first responders using satellite networks.
"The patent allows Warfighters and first responders to access photos of the earth from satellites in space quickly after the photos are taken," Novak said. "Each of these large pictures typically fill a DVD worth of storage, which makes them difficult to share with the people who need the information rapidly. The initial concept of the invention was known as Imagery Online, or ION. ION brings sharing this information into the 21st century with Internet-friendly services that allow first responders to access these pictures on anything from laptops to tablets and smartphones.
"It's humbling to know that with all the amazing inventions out there that I was the first to come up with this process," he added. "It took a lot of time away from the family but the fact is the technology is in use today saving lives around the world. I'm glad to have seized the opportunities that allowed this dream to become a reality."
Before this system, it would take a satellite ground station a day just to share a single image over a satellite communications network. With this invention, that same image is sharable within minutes to users around the world on low-bandwidth networks. This allows satellite imagery to support fast-moving military combat operations as well as civilian operations including search and rescue, hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, floods, tornadoes and man-made disasters.
"My patent took two and a half years to go through the process and was issued on Aug. 11," Novak said. "When I came up with the initial concept I had a lot of naysayers equating ION to commercial software that could be purchased. As I researched these products as part of my market research, I concluded that neither the capability nor the technology existed to achieve the objectives of what was needed. It was at this point I knew I had come up with something interesting."
This soon caught the eye of the U.S. Air Force A2's Eagle Vision program personnel and the Alabama Air National Guard 226th Combat Communications Group based at Redstone Arsenal. Working with the Air Force, Novak incorporated the system into the Eagle Vision commercial satellite imagery ground station.
Eagle Vision is a family of deployable, commercial satellite ground stations that collect and process near real-time optical and synthetic aperture radar imagery from commercial satellites. Eagle Vision imagery is unclassified, making it readily shareable and releasable to emergency and first responders. Officials can then use the satellite imagery to efficiently plan and prioritize their actions. Satellite imagery is then processed to agencies using EVR2EST.
"Although the patent was issued in my name, the full rights for use reside with the Army," Novak said. "This allows the U.S. Government to develop systems based on this technology for sale to other nations with similar technology challenges. Also, since this was government developed, the Army owns the technology in full and can either continue government-only development or conduct a full and open competition to issue contracts that are the lowest cost to the taxpayer.
"The traditional solution to moving large data around is to buy more bandwidth," he added. "ION is also a leap forward in addressing both budgetary and technological needs of the future. For example, as camera technology in the next generation of satellites gets more sophisticated, the need to share larger and larger imagery files will be more essential. The traditional solution has been to purchase more bandwidth to share large data. ION technology allows the Army to use the same amount of bandwidth to move more data, resulting in lower costs and improved performance."
EVR2EST helps support emergency agencies by providing aerial photos of grid searches to help first responders and workers. It also helps direct rescue crews to hard-hit areas without them going to unaffected areas or areas that already have units there. EVR2EST has been fielded to satellite ground stations around the world and supports numerous operations each year.
In 2011, Novak accepted the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation's award for Military Achievement on behalf of the EVR2EST team.
"It's pretty cool knowing that I came up with something original in the technology saturated world we live in," Novak said. "At the end of the day I was just doing what I love to do -- solve problems. "If you have an idea that you feel is worthwhile, don't get discouraged by the naysayers. Hold on to your vision and follow through on your plan. I have learned through this process that there will always be naysays resistant to change."
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