Recognition Of Lines And Symbols In Maps

A typical geographical map consists of a large number of lines and symbols. These symbols and lines represent various physical entities and their spatial relationships. Design of a computer-based system to automatically extract information from a map and answer queries is a very challenging task. This requires an intelligent query processor and a very sophisticated image analysis system. One of the tasks of the image analysis system is recognition of symbols and lines. In this paper we describe simple line tracking and symbol identification routines. The routines are capable of tracking various types of lines (continuous, broken, intersecting) and symbols having simple geometrical shapes.