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ISPRS
The International Society for Photogrammetry and
Remote Sensing (ISPRS) is a non-governmental organi-
sation devoted to the development of international co-
operation for the advancement of photogrammetry and
remote sensing and their applications. Officially, ISPRS is
composed of member organisations representing 102
nations, 8 regional associations and 50 sustaining mem-
ber companies and institutes. The activities are con-
ducted by 7 Commissions. Each Commission has Work-
ing Groups, totalling 45 in all.
Computational Intensive Task
The history of photogrammetry began over a century ago.
The extraction of information from imagery is a computa-
tional, intensive and non-trivial task. The central aim, dur-
ing its long history, has always been to reduce human
involvement by automating parts of the complex process.
In the past, one circumvented labour-intensive transforma-
tions by constructing sophisticated optical mechanical
analogue ‘computers’. With the advent of digital comput-
ers transformations are done computationally, enabling
flexible work flows. Today, most photogrammetric
processes have become fully digital, which is enabled by
storage of the image contents in the form of pixels. For the
distribution of imagery and even software, the Internet
increasingly becomes an important transport medium.
Automation
Today, the processes are fairly well automated up to the
level of constructing DEMs and the creation of geo-refer-
enced stereo-images and orthophotos. This development
A
International Archives of Photogrammerty and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part A. Amsterdam 2000.
ISPRS
2000
enables the easy use of these value-added products by
GIS users. Automatic processing also means that vendors
are able to charge a modest price. This is, of course, very
beneficial for all those customers who have a need for
these products. This development will undoubtedly mean
that the user group for photogrammetric image products
will rapidly grow in the near future. In this respect the
choice of the theme 'Geo-information for all' has to be
considered to be a hit.
Fusing and Merging
Although much research has been devoted to the auto-
matic extraction of features such as roads and buildings,
the automation rate of this part of the mapping process is
low. Many of the papers on this subject presented during
the Congress demonstrated that work on the (semi-) auto-
matic extraction of features is still very much alive,
although the claims have become, compared to the past,
quite rightly modest. The approach involving searching for
Sophisticated algorithms, which operate on just one type
of image source, moves increasingly in the direction of fus-
Impression of the exhibition
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