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DATA PROCESSING VERSUS GEOMATICS 
T.Bellone*, L. Mussio **, C. Nardinocchi*** 
*DIGET, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy 
**DIIAR, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy 
***DITS, Università La Sapienza, Roma, Italy 
Commission VI, Workiing Group 3 
KEY WORDS: Geomatics, Mathematical Logic, Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence 
ABSTRACT: 
Some present procedures of Geomatics may be referred to symbolic and logical structures proper for Mathematical 
Logic and even of Linguistics. 
This paper is mainly a review and a historical-logical excursus of possible questions common to the said disciplines, in 
principle so far from each other. 
1. Historical background 
Pattern Recognition is a procedure of Artificial 
Intelligence that is based upon matching of parts of maps 
and/or images or 3D models with archetypes or objects 
(parsers). 
In order to find out some representative elements (e.g., 
edges), a binary value matrix is generated, starting from 
an early scene: an edge is the limit between two zones 
having distinct characteristics (e.g., grey levels: edge 
detection). 
The relational matching is performed by three steps: 
■ transformation from raster space to entity space 
■ transformation from entity space to relational 
space 
■ matching strategy which takes place in the 
relational space (research tree). 
The research tree is made with knots and arcs linking 
them: every knot means one possible linkage between 
one character of the acquired data (e.g., an edge in an 
image) and one character of an object. 
Ample overviews upon the world of GIS and Image 
Processing are possible now: at present, problems of 
different source data fusion into a unique GIS, 
transformation in scale dimension {generalization), 
temporal aspects, etc., are widely debated. 
Many Natural Sciences are based upon the idea of 
structure {Structural Analysis), whilst in the Information 
Technologies the idea of pattern {Pattern Recognition) 
is often ?A number of sciences are in an intermediate 
position (e.g., Linguistics). 
The human thought is able to reassemble (intercept) 
objects in classes: the scope of Logic is to establish 
relations between classes (Boole). 
According to Boole, human thought works by opposite 
concepts; the language is characterized by phonemes, 
which are opposite, related and negative entities (De 
Saussure). 
According to Boole, the thought is based upon a number 
of constitutive elements; the thought has a meaningful 
network underlying (Chomsky). 
Every expression of language may bear some 
transformation, although keeping firm a deep meaningful 
structure which allows for matching to be made. 
Geomatics deals with both reality (description of 
structures) and models (patterns) to compare with 
(recognize). 
The Latin of Middle Age faded together with the Middle 
Age. Galileo, Newton, Leibniz, Lomonosov wrote their 
works in their mother language. A number of scholars 
kept about a language which possibly could be 
substituted to Latin. In the XVIII century, a universal 
language was first imagined, also as a rational mean for 
communications of thought. 
Logic is the philosophy of the whole though which is 
expressed by signs: the very natural language is taken to a 
set of symbols and combinatory rules among them. 
Raimondo Lullo (1235-1315) firstly tried to reduce 
logical though to computing, but easily attempts to 
conceive an artificial rational language were due to 
Descartes. Leibniz (1646-1716) painted at the means to 
organize such a language: it should be became the 
alphabet of human thought. Words were to pass ideas and 
also show their relationship. 
Reasoning should have been replaced with computation: 
the language was to become some sort of algebra of 
thought, with all complex ideas resulting from merger of 
simpler ones. As all numbers may be obtained from 
prime integers, also all complex concepts were to be 
derived from elementary atoms of meaning and logical 
truth may be obtained with the help of mathematical 
assumptions. Leibniz built this way the foundations of 
mathematical logic (Mathematische Schriften). 
However the true founders of mathematical logic were 
Boole (1847, The Mathematical Analysis of Logic; 1854,