Advances in the Processing and Analysis of Photogrammetric
and Remotely Sensed Data
Prof Dr (Eng) habil Klaus Szangolies, President of ISPRS
Commission II "Systems for Data Processing and Analysis"
Dresden University of Technology
Department of Surveying and Cartography
Mommsenstrasse 13
Dresden, DDR-8027
1. Introduction
The past ten years have seen a speedy progress of data
extraction systems in photogrammetry and remote sensing,
a development that has continued since the last ISPRS Congress
in Kyoto in 1988 at an undiminished pace.
We are aware that the main propelling forces for that
development do not originate from our own field of activity
but from the superordinate scientific disciplines of
microelectronics/computer engineering, and
space technology.
The progress made there has a direct, only insignificantly
delayed impact on the entire field of surveying and
cartography. By estimation, about 30% of all data extraction
assignments in photogrammetry and remote sensing will be
carried out by means of computers, compared with only 20% in 1980.
In other words, the use of optical and mechanical systems for
photogrammetric compilation has substantially declined in terms
of percentage. Universal stereoplotters such as the Stereo-
metrograph, Topocart, Planimat, Aviomap, PG 3 and many others
have been phased out of production. Although more than 10,000
of these machines may still be in operation the world over,
their function is successively taken over by analytical plotters
and videomappers. The numbers of new instrument models of
different makes introduced to the participants of the last
three ISPRS Congresses developed as follows:
