ATHENS, Greece, January 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
Planetek Hellas' ambition, innovation and commitment to applied research has brought another positive result, as it was announced that it has been selected for Phase 1 funding under the European Commission's Horizon 2020 SME-Instrument program.
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Planetek Hellas' winning proposal, 'OP3C (On board Processing for Compression and Clouds Classification in hyperspectral satellite data)', aims at the creation and launch of a product (HW & SW) to be placed onboard satellites that carry hyperspectral sensors. The component proposed would automatically recognize the cloud coverage and compress the images that these sensors receive. This solution was devised to meet the specific problems faced by manufacturers of hyperspectral sensors for satellites: the atmospheric conditions during the image capture (cloud-cover), and the size of the image itself (many TB), which make its transfer to Earth extremely difficult.
The results, published by the European Commission, on Friday, January 9, showed Planetek Hellas to be one of only 14 winners of the SME-Instrument in the "SPACE" category, out of 185 applications submitted from across Europe. One of only two Greek participants in any category to be awarded funding; this demonstrates once again the ability of the company to compete successfully at a European level.
"The decisive aspect of this very positive result was our experience in on board processing (compression & classification) and hyperspectral data management," said Dimitrios Sykas, 27, who along with his work at Planetek Hellas, is also finishing his PhD on hyperspectral satellite data processing, at the Polytechnic of Athens.
Stelios Bollanos, co-founder and director of Planetek Hellas commented: "This is a significant success that brings us closer to the phase2 of the SME-Instrument and the achievement of our objectives in this specific segment of the space market. We are happy to see that our strategic decision to adopt the principles of Design Thinking in every aspect of our activity is appreciated also by the European Commission. We continue with the same determination, to be able to offer to our customers' real problem solving technology."
H2020 SME-Instrument of the European Commission
The main objective of H2020 SME-Instrument is the creation of the "European Innovation Champions League". An elite group of companies moving Europe forward in the global market of research, growth and innovation. The program is divided into 3 phases and is addressed to highly innovative small and medium sized European companies, which already have a prototype of the product that they want to introduce to the market.
Click HERE for the map of the winners of H2020 SME Instrument
Click HERE for the relevant official press release of the European Commission
Planetek Hellas
Planetek Hellas is a Greek company, a member of the Planetek Group, which operates in the field of Earth and Universe Observation, Spatial Data Infrastructure and Software Development for Space Applications. Customers of the company are some of the most noted key players of the European market such as the European Space Agency, the European Environmental Agency etc. The company is a founding member of the newly established space cluster in Athens and a full member of the Hellenic Space Industry Association. http://www.planetek.gr
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