U.S. Geological Survey, Procurement and Contracts Section, Building 25, Box 25046, MS 204B, Denver Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225

T -- REQUEST FOR INFORMATION FOR SCANNING OF AERIAL PHOTOS FOR CONVERSION TO DIGITAL MEDIA AND EQUIPMENT CAPABILITIES POC Deborah Boles, Contracting Officer, (303) 236-5900 x316 This is not an announcement of a solicitation. This is a request for information. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is interested in providing an efficient mechanism for converting both currently acquired and historical aircraft photography to digital image files. Industry response is solicited to indicate the level of interest in providing scanning services; what equipment capabilities are available; and how scanning services can be integrated into the current National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP) acquisition workflow. Specific functions may include all or parts of the following activities: Scanning of full aircraft rolls, spatial filtering of imagery to remove vignetting, creation of a subsampled browse image, storage of the digital information on high density tape or optical media for transfer to a national archive area, creation and handling of roll and frame metadata to facilitate data tracking and imagery retrieval. Additional background information: The USGS currently acquires, through contract, approximately 700 rolls (105,000 frames) of 9.5 inch aircraft Color Infrared and B/W photography annually. Individual frames of this photography are selectively scanned at 15 to 25 microns to produce digital files used to create Digital Orthophoto Quadrangles. The intent is to identify the efficiencies associated with scanning all frames of a roll at one time as part of the acquisition process. It is expected that the magnitude of work will provide efficiencies associated with roll film feed mechanisms, automatic frame advance and positioning, scanning, storing and retrieval processes and provide consistent image information. A single B/W 8-bit image scanned at 25 microns is expected to be 84 MB, a 3 band color image to be 252 MB. An average B/W roll containing 150 frames will produce a minimum of 12.6 Gigabytes of data. All responsible sources are encouraged to respond in writing. All responses should contain sufficient technical documentation and descriptive literature to sufficiently describe the scanning technology, high density storage and metadata collection, and tracking methodologies. Technical and commercial pricing information in response to the above description is being requested from private industry in as much detail as organizations are willing to provide. Proprietary data that contains restrictions on its release should not be submitted. Information responding to this request should be received within forty-five days from publication of this notice. Submit responses to Doug Binnie, USGS, EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, SD 57198. (0297)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0081 19951025\T-0001.SOL)