THE SOURCE ASSESSMENT SYSTEM 
Marilyn K. Massman 
Defense Mapping Agency 
The Source Assessment System, (SAS) is the result of a research 
and development effort begun in 1979. The three main goals of this 
research were to provide efficient visual comparison, user friendly 
automation, and output capability for annotations for the unique 
activity of source assessment. This R&D initiative was conducted 
by Rome Air Development Center (RADC). After initial planning and 
studies a contract was signed in 1982 with a private corporation to 
build the system and create the software. Their final design was 
fabricated, programmed and delivered to the Defense Mapping Agency 
Aerospace Center in early 1985. It is a prototype (one of a kind) 
system with contributions from several sub-contractors. 
The first goal, to provide efficient visual comparison capability 
for a diverse mix of sources and products, is captured in the video 
system and its software. With it hardcopy sources of vastly different 
scale and orientation can be viewed, aligned, and compared. These 
sources can be charts, maps, film or imagery. 
The second goal was to provide user friendly automated tools to 
permit comprehensive and systematic assessment procedures, which reduce 
risk of error and produce more accurate assessment. This "is 
accomplished with a data tablet and user friendly software. 
The third goal was to provide capability for annotating corrective 
actions on hardcopy sources/products, recording evaluation results 
and generating safety hazard notices. The digital annotation software 
and plotter and printer hardware satisfy these needs. 
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