General Dynamics [GD] recently said it has acquired Mediaware International Pty Ltd.,a leading developer of real-time full-motion compressed digital video processing software and systems for defense, intelligence and commercial customers.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The privately held Mediaware International, which has about 40 employees, will continue to be based in Sydney, Australia. It will become a part of General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics based in Fairfax, Va.

Mediaware’s Web site says its systems and technologies are deployed by the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force as well as the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and Joint Special Operations Command.

Mediaware’s flagship defense system, the Digital Video Exploitation System (D-VEX), provides U.S. and international customers with an end-to-end solution for real-time video processing and exploitation of full motion video from airborne electro-optical and infrared sensors and sources.

D-VEX systems maximize the value of full-motion video with frame-accurate alignment of video and metadata, enabling advanced processing such as georegistration, mensuration, accurate coordinate marking, video-to-still image mosaicing and object tracking of multiple moving targets in a live video stream.

“Mediaware’s products, services and capabilities are highly complementary to our existing full-motion video and related geospatial intelligence offerings,” Lou Von Thaer, president of General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, said. “This acquisition strengthens the ability of General Dynamics to offer intelligence analysts, warfighters and other customers fully integrated, standards-compliant solutions for real-time digital video processing and exploitation.”

Three research scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia’s peak research and development body, founded Mediaware in 1996. The scientists had conducted ground-breaking research in the areas of compressed video (MPEG) and image processing, and left CSIRO to commercialize the technology.