Spatial Express Enables Storage of MrSID® and JPEG 2000 Images Natively in Oracle® Spatial Database

Spatial Express Supports JPEG 2000 and MrSID

SEATTLE, Wash., — April 24, 2006— LizardTech, a division of Celartem, Inc., and a leading provider of software solutions for managing and distributing digital content, today announced the company’s further support of JPEG 2000 within its Spatial Express application which enables storage of MrSID and JPEG 2000 images natively in Oracle® Spatial 10g, an option to Oracle Database Enterprise Edition.  Oracle Spatial 10g provides a robust foundation for storing and retrieving geospatial data from Oracle Database 10g.

With Spatial Express, organizations can now maximize investment in Oracle Spatial 10g by storing geospatial raster imagery natively in both JPEG 2000 and MrSID formats dramatically reducing the storage space used for their raster imagery by up to 95 percent while retaining visually lossless image quality. Spatial Express also decreases the load on database servers by using the selective decoding of JPEG 2000 and MrSID, eliminating the need to decompress the entire image to view only a portion of it.

“The combination of LizardTech’s Spatial Express and Oracle Spatial 10g delivers a powerful foundation for customers with spatial data management needs,” said Steven Hagan, vice president, Oracle Server Technologies.  “Through this partnership with Oracle, LizardTech’s customers will be able to leverage the benefits of a highly available, secure, and reliable database that can efficiently store and manage their massive raster imagery datasets.”  Oracle Spatial 10g supports vector, raster and gridded geospatial data.

In addition, because Spatial Express uses the Oracle Spatial GeoRaster API, applications will be able to retrieve and view JPEG 2000 and MrSID imagery from Oracle Spatial 10g. Organizations no longer have to wonder whether their application will support various file formats because Spatial Express allows users to choose their image format and begin work.

 “As a member of the geospatial community, LizardTech strives to continually improve our customer’s experience with our software through open standards,” said Carlos Domingo, CEO and president of Celartem, Inc. “With the addition of JPEG 2000 support in Spatial Express, all of LizardTech’s geospatial products now fully support the ISO standard for JPEG 2000.  With the addition of other technologies and open standards such as GMLJP2 and WMS, LizardTech is continuing to embrace open geospatial standards and tools.” LizardTech is a member of Oracle PartnerNetwork.

To see a full demo of LizardTech’s geospatial products, including Spatial Express, please visit us in Tampa, FL at GITA, booth #107 and in Reno, NV at ASPRS booth #423. We will also have a booth at the Oracle Spatial Users Conference in Tampa, FL.

About Oracle PartnerNetwork
Oracle PartnerNetwork is a global business network of 16000 companies who deliver innovative software solutions based on Oracle software.  Through access to Oracle’s premier products, education, technical services, marketing and sales support, the Oracle PartnerNetwork program provides partners with the resources they need to be successful in today’s global economy.  Oracle partners are able to offer customers leading-edge solutions backed by Oracle’s position as the world’s largest enterprise software company.    http://oraclepartnernetwork.oracle.com

About Spatial Express
LizardTech Spatial Express enables storage of MrSID® and JPEG 2000 images natively in Oracle Spatial. Spatial Express helps organizations maximize their investment in Oracle Spatial 10g by enabling dramatic reductions of up to 95 percent for raster image storage. Spatial Express also enables organizations to lower costs and keep all raster, vector, and business information in a common Oracle Database.  Further, because LizardTech’s Spatial Express uses Oracle GeoRaster interface, MrSID® and JPEG 2000 images can be viewed in any GeoRaster-enabled application, easing training, deployment, and support costs.

About LizardTech
LizardTech, a division of Celartem, Inc., was founded in 1992 to build valuable business solutions from technologies created by the world’s leading research organizations including Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and AT&T Labs. LizardTech is a leader in applying state-of-the-art technologies to the real-world challenges of managing, distributing, and accessing large complex digital content such as aerial photographs, satellite imagery, and color scanned documents. LizardTech’s software is installed on millions of desktops and integrated into a wide variety of platforms and applications. LizardTech has offices in Seattle, London and Tokyo. LizardTech is a division of Celartem, Inc., which is wholly owned by Celartem Technology Inc., (Hercules: 4330). For more information about LizardTech, visit www.lizardtech.com.

About Celartem
Celartem Technology Inc., develops and sells innovative technologies for storage, access and distribution of rich media content. Celartem has developed technology in the areas of digital image compression, scalable image viewing and secure content distribution and management. Celartem is listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange, Hercules:4330. Established in 1996, Celartem is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and has a wholly owned subsidiary, Celartem Inc. with headquarters in Seattle.