Hills and valleys analysis in optical mapping and its application to moiré contouring.

The information content of a contour map is calculated and compared with the information required for determining the relative position of the contours. We have found that usually the information required for arranging the contours in the right order is small as compared with that of producing the map. To demonstrate this finding we introduce two novel methods for ordering the contours. The first makes use of two colors, double exposure, moire mapping. The second analyzes the relative motion of hills and valleys, while the relative angle of two transparencies photographed in the grid projection technique is changed.