National Imagery And Mapping Agency, PCE Mail Stop D-88, 4600 Sangamore Road, Bethesda, MD 20816-5003

70 -- SOURCES SOUGHT FOR SCENE VISUALIZATION DATA PRODUCTION TOOLS SOL NMA201-00-RFI-0001 DUE 032300 POC Capt. Robyn Mortensen, Contracting Officer at 301-227-7824; or Ms. Sylvia Spriestersback, Technical POC at spresters@nima.mil WEB: http://164.214.2.59/poc/contracts/contracts.html, http://osis.nima.mil. E-MAIL: mortensenr@nima.mil or spriesters@nima.mil, mortensenr@nima.mil or spriesters@nima.mil. DESC: The National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), Technology Commercialization and Assessments Division (TEC), Pathfinder 2001 Team (Pf 2001) is submitting the following Request for Information (RFI) regarding Scene Visualization Data Production tools or systems (see Background below). A key problem that NIMA is facing is the inability of current data exchange formats and Application Program Interfaces (APIs) to satisfactorily accommodate scene visualization data structures with NIMA data. That is, NIMA data that is accurately defined and accurately described in real world must be accurately placed and visually the same in the simulation scene. Since NIMA data was not originally designed to support the ways customers render scenes, a great deal of time and money is spent trying to manipulate the data to import to rendering tools. The objectives will be 1) to assess existing data interchange formats, data import and export mechanisms, API technologies and the capability to ingest multiple data types, using government and industry standards; and 2) to identify scene visualization data exchange requirements to facilitate the production and reuse of data base components, such as those used in video gaming technology. The assessment will emphasize the use of multiple systems employing the use of open and standard data sets and data brokering through common interchange formats, such as the Synthetic Environment Data Representation Interchange Specification (SEDRIS) (refer to URL: http://www.sedris.org/). The purpose in assessing this area of interest is to allow NIMA to produce scene visualization data to better support commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) and government-off-the-shelf (GOTS) rendering systems. THE RFI: NIMA TEC is interested in finding DEVELOPERS or VENDORS of off-the-shelf (commercial or government-owned) technologies, from low- to high-end, "beta or better," who are experienced in the Scene Visualization Data Production arena. Based upon the responses to this RFI, the Pf 2001 Team will select the Scene Visualization Data Production tools and systems for assessment. If you or your organization is involved in the area of Scene Visualization Data Production technologies, please submit the following information: 1) The name of a point of contact who is familiar with your organization's activities, your organization's name, address, phone/fax numbers, and e-mail address. 2) A description of past, present, and planned capabilities, activities, and programs in Scene Visualization Production. 3) Candidate Y2K-compliant tools or systems you produce or use, and the types of hardware and software (including versions) that are part of, or used in conjunction with, those tools or systems. 4) Description of security services available with the candidate tools and systems. NIMA's systems may require substantial security services in order to convert and host tools on unclassified and classified networks. 5) Description of operating system requirements (preferred, but not limited to, Windows NT and variousUNIX versions); software standards, such as SEDRIS; compatible image/mapping data formats and sources. 6) Description of system hardware requirements (CPU speed, hard disk memory, on-board memory, other applications or processes required to be running, video requirements). 7) Description of compliance with the Windows NT and various UNIX versions of the Defense Information Infrastructure/Common Operating Environment (DII/COE) (for more information, refer to the DII/COE Homepage at http://spider.dii.osfl.disa.mil/dii/). Vendors/developers with tools/systems that are not yet compliant with DII/COE should cite what actions, if any, are under way to make them compliant. In the case of systems that are not compliant with DII/COE, vendors are asked to document their interest in bringing such systems into eventual compliance. 8) Your interest in being considered in NIMA's assessment of Scene Visualization Production tools. Please send your responses (not more than 6 pages, please) to Mrs. Sylvia Spriestersbach by March 23, 2000. Submit via e-mail to spriesters@nima.mil; via fax to (202) 863-0989, or by mail to Pathfinder 2001, ATTN: Mrs. Sylvia Spriestersbach, National Imagery and Mapping Agency, NIMA/TECA, Mail Stop N-06, Washington Navy Yard, Building 213, 1200 First Street, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20303-0001. Concurrently, please also send a copy to Capt. Robyn Mortensen at moretensenr@nima.mil; via fax to (301-227-7824); or by mail to NIMA/PCE, 4600 Sangamore Rd, MS D-88, Bethesda, MD, 20816. Responses will be accepted after this date; however, responses received prior to the 23rd will be used to guide many of the processes and selection criteria needed to perform the assessments. BACKGROUND: NIMA's mission is to provide relevant and timely imagery, imagery intelligence, and geospatial products and services to NIMA customers. The Pathfinder process identifies, assesses, and recommends key technologies and tools for possible insertion into the NIMA operational environment, and potentially other government and military agencies (refer to URL: http://164.214.2.59/TAT/html). Pathfinder 2001 is a follow-on effort to Pathfinder 99 which focused on rendering tools exclusively, since many organizations were in the process of buying new visualization systems. With the experience gained and the many points of contacts made during Pathfinder 99, the Pathfinder 2001 project, scheduled from March 2000 through November 2000, can now assess the COTS and GOTS tools that produce the front-end scene visualization data that support the follow-on scene visualization rendering tools. A community-wide Kick-off Conference will be held on April 3, 2000, at the Booz Allen & Hamilton Building, to outline details of the Pathfinder Process and the Pathfinder 2001 Scene Visualization Data Production project. The Pathfinder assessment will include two parts: a functional assessment and a technical assessment. The first assessment is a functional assessment of all submitted tools by potential users, based on a 20 minute-presentation and materials submitted by each participating vendor/developer. The second assessment is a half-day technical assessment of selected tools by potential users and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) experts, based on a hands-on demonstration of tool/system capabilities, possibly using one or more data sets provided by NIMA. Vendors may be requested to provide their own datasets, including a common set of parameters defined by NIMA. The Pf 2001 team may respond with a questionnaire to ascertain additional information about your tools/systems, and information from the questionnaire will be used during the various assessments described above. This is an open and participative process. Should you determine that sharing of some information is not desired, please clearly mark or indicate the specific portions, and we will honor your request and protect that data. This process is being conducted as described in SD-2, "Buying Commercial & Non-developmental Items: A Handbook," April 1996. SD-2 can be found in the DoD Discretionary Documents of the Reference Library of the Defense Acquisition Deskbook at http//web.deskbook.osd.mil/". Procurement of tools, however, is not part of the Pathfinder process. However, NIMA will use the results to further test and evaluate the most versatile and promising tools and technologies in a follow-on data exchange project. Thank you for your interest and participation Posted 03/03/00 (W-SN430904). (0063)

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