points
c'est-
sées
ants :
; de
bre
phoses
se,
rganisa-
putée
et de
d'assu-
capté
et trai-
eraient
x fichiers
numé -
aux sous
e données
ions
e de
d'in
es fi-
e du
non
calisa -
portance
lus recu-
la
plus
la solu-
onction-
| "
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.
wn La
