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| " 
GENERAL METHODOLOGY OF AUTOMATED PHOTOGRAMMETRIC SYSTEMS 
  
Morris M, THOMPSON 
U.S. Geological Survey, Washington D, C, 
Introduction 
This report describes some of the recent developments within the United States in auto- 
mating photogrammetric systems. Because of potential benefits in the joint application of space 
technology and photogrammetry, there has been a great upsurge in space-related photogramme - 
tric research, 
Acquisition of images 
  
Standard Mapping - During the past 3 years, several automated photogrammetric sys- 
tems developed for military use have been applied to civilian mapping projects. During the summer 
of 1971 the U. S. Air Force ( USAF) took photographs of 4, 250 square miles in the Brooks Range 
of Alaska with the USQ-28 Aerial Electro-Photo Mapping System installed in an RB-57 aircraft, 
The flights were designed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for topographic mapping 
at a scale of 1:63, 360, with contour intervals ranging from 50 to 200 feet, Elements of the USQ-28 
system operated during the flights were the camera-position determination equipment, the terrain 
profiling equipment, color infrared cameras, and black-and-white metric cameras. The cameras 
used to take the black-and-white photographs were precisely calibrated on the USAF multicollima- 
tor camera calibrator installed at Hill Air Force Base, Ogden, Utah, The cameras are equipped 
with a reseau for use in aerotriangulation, USGS will explore the practicality of using the exposure- 
station position data and the terrain profile data as constraints in aerotriangulation. The color 
photographs will be used primarily for geologic studies. | 
Applications of Ultra-High- Altitude and Space Imagery - The greatest advances in auto- 
mation of image acquisition in the past 3 years have been made in the development of instruments 
and techniques for automatically acquiring images from ultra-high-altitude or space vehicles. 
Cameras and remote-sensing devices have been developed that will automatically record the 
images of selected areas on the Earth, Moon, or Mars and return the images to the Earth by 
either film ejection systems or radio or vidicon telemeters, The images obtained are to be used 
for various forms of mapping, for resources surveys, for land use studies, and for ecological 
studies, 
  
Although the return-beam vidicon (RBV) television systems have relatively poor metric 
quality, the usefulness of the imagery is to be greatly increased by equipping each RBV tube with 
a calibrated reseau and by precisely determining the lens distortion of each television system. 
To date, some 32 RBV tubes have been calibrated by measuring the coordinates of reseau marks 
on a Specially designed comparator. Lens distortion is measured with a Kern DKM 3 theodolite. 
Techniques are now being developed for correcting image distortions electro-opto-mechanically 
and mathematically. 
Automatic image processing and data handling 
  
With increased applications for color photography, especially color infrared photography, 
the need has greatly increased for automatic processing of photographs. The greatest amount of 
effort has been expended in devising and perfecting methods for processing the huge volumes of 
photographs and remote-sensing data which will be obtained from instruments aboard high-altitude 
and space vehicles. To handle this huge amount of image data and related material effectively, the 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has designed an automated, production- 
oriented facility for recording, processing, storing, retrieving, manipulating, and distributing 
the image data, Three types of image processing are to be performed : bulk processing, precision 
processing, and special processing. 
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