iAnnotate Application Overview

The iAnnotate web application is designed to enhance the ability to annotate portions of an image by creating links to regions or points of high resolution images found in NASA's image database. These marks are added to a URL for inclusion in on-line dialog and correspondence.

The NASA Image Search Service

This application makes use of an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows searching of the millions of images acquired by NASA during its nearly 70 year history.

The NASA database includes several fields containing meta-data regarding the topic.

• Description: text describing the image
• Keywords: a collection of terms related to the image
• Asset ID: a string providing a unique identifier of the image

What Images are Returned?

The application's interface returns a list of images which match the search criteria. When the user select an image, two files are returned:

• A low resolution image used to guide the user for the creation of pointers or selection areas
• A high resolution image used to provide the illusion of a magnified region of interest pointed to by the user.

(NOTE -not all images include a high resolution version. In those cases, the region of interest is sampled from the low resolution image and no magnification is apparent.)

How to Search

The user has a number of options for searching the database:

• Free Form:A space separated collection of terms applied to description and keyword fields.
• Description: A space separated collection of terms applied to the description field. The terms are applied to an AND condition for the search.
• Keyword:A list of terms or phrases applied to the keyword field. If separated by commas, the terms are applied to a logical OR search. With no commas, the terms are applied as a logical AND.
• NASA ID:The NASA identifier for the image.
• AI Scored: Similar to 'Free Form', but adds use of OpenAI to score the results, returning up to 100 records with the highest scores.

NASA EPIC Database

NASA also includes a database of images acquired by the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera aboard NOAA's DSCOVER satellite.

EPIC images are taken from a stable point relative to the earth, with an image taken every two hours. These images capture the entire sunlit surface of the earth.

Samples include natural color, enhanced color, and pseudo-color images for aerosol and cloud coverage. Complete explanations of these options may be found at NASA's EPIC site.

How to Search

The API to search the database allows for searching by a given date, or simply the most recent images available.

What Images are Returned?

A list of time/dates are returned which reference the image captured at that moment. Selecting a value will display a thumbnail sample of the image. NOTE: There is a delay in when images are available for searching. It is possible that entering a date may return no results, but may return data if the search is repeated at a later date.

Marking an Image

Users can mark a point or a region of an image and send the resulting point/region to others. Marking a region involves adding a selection rectangle; the resulting region of interest is displayed in the right-side image of the interface. Marking the image with a point provides a high resolution square centered on the point.

The Mark Color dropdown allows the user to change the color of the selector to increase visibility atop certain images.

Users can press the Make URL navigation button to create a URL that includes the representation of the selected region or point.

Any recipient of the link is able to view the referenced selection. Users must log in in order to use the search feature and add marks to newly retrieved images.