TECHNOLOGY > STARFISH SCANLINE SOFTWARE
STARFISH SCANLINE SOFTWARE
Scanline is the user-friendly data acquisition and logging software package for StarFish Seabed Imaging Systems. It operates from any Microsoft® Windows® 2000/XP/Vista based PC or laptop to capture and display real-time StarFish side scan sonar data. Scanline can also acquire data from several other sensors including GPS, compasses and speedometers and all data can be logged, replayed and exported from the software.
Scanline's easy-to-use Hardware Manager interface means you'll be up and running in no time. Users can quickly add, remove and configure all hardware devices recognised by the software in one location. Helpful 'Wizards' guide you through many hardware management tasks making system configuration very simple.
The sidescan plotter window displays sonar data as a standard 'waterfall' image.
The operator can control whether port, starboard, or both sonar channels are active and displaying data.
Side scan data can be magnified or stretched to change the aspect ratio of seafloor targets and help aid in their identification.
The orientation of data plotting on the display can be changed (from top-to-bottom, left-to-right, or vice-versa) to help users interpret real-time sonar data relating to the boat.
Sonar scan speed can be changed between Fast, Normal and Slow modes to help reduce any distortion on the sonar image relative to boat speed.
Gain, Contrast and Range settings for the sonar can be altered using standard 'dual channel' controls but more experienced users can choose to independently control these settings for each channel if they wish.
There are also a wide variety of colour palettes which can be used for the sonar display. These include a range of high contrast (non-linear) palettes which are better at highlighting targets against seabed textures, and several inverted palettes which improve viewing contrast when operating in direct sunlight.
When capturing real-time sonar data from StarFish or playing back a log file, it may be desirable to capture an image of the current display window (or all windows). Scanline allows the user to perform a screen capture or 'snapshot' of the current display window(s) to an image file (BMP, PNG, TIFF or JPG).
If you require advanced post-processing of log file data, Scanline's Data Export Wizard will convert existing StarFish log files into industry standard XTF (eXtended Triton Format) or CSV (Comma Separated Value) text file formats, suitable for use in third party analysis software.
Scanline's Info Bar is a dockable window that you can stick to either side of the main display. It contains 'widgets' that provide extra control functionality or show data from hardware sensors. Default widgets include GPS Positional Information, Vessel Heading Information and Towing Speed Information.
The built-in web browser window within Scanline allows users with an active internet connection on their PC or laptop to view online content from the StarFish website and read the very latest StarFish news headlines as soon as they are published directly from the software.
User's can customise the Scanline environment settings to select which units of measurement, speed, position and signal level (sonar gain and contrast settings) they wish to use. It is also possible to customise the layout and position of menus and toolbars, as well as creating completely new toolbars with your own group of commands. You can, for example, enlarge the toolbar icon size, change the default appearance of the menus and assign new keyboard shortcuts to your favourite toolbar and menu commands.
Download the latest StarFish Scanline software updates for free from the support section of this website.