AUTOMATIC INTERPRETATION OF TERRAIN FEATURES

THE IDENTIFICATION OF TERRAIN FEATURES IS BASED ON THE INTERPRETATION OF THE ELEMENTS OF FORM AND THE ELEMENTS OF TONE AND TEXTURE. MEASUREMENTS OF THE ELEMENT OF TONE AND TEXTURE WERE PERFORMED WITH A DENSITOMETER ADAPTED TO OBTAIN CONTINUOUS SCANS. SOME OF THE FACTORS INVESTIGATED INCLUDE: EFFECT OF FILM TYPES AND FILTERS, SEASONAL EFFECTS, APERTURE SIZE, AND SCALE. MEASUREMENTS WERE ALSO PERFORMED ON MULTICHANNEL IMAGERY AND SPECTRAL RESPONSE SIGNATURES WERE DEVELOPED FOR VARIOUS TARGET MATERIALS. A TECHNIQUE WAS ALSO DEVELOPED FOR THE PREPARATION OF ISOCHROMAL MAPS FROM DENSITOMETRIC SCANS ON COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. ANALYSIS OF THE SPECTRAL RESPONSE CURVES DEVELOPED FROM MULTICHANNEL IMAGERY INDICATED THAT THIS APPROACH OFFERED THE GREATEST POTENTIAL FOR DELINEATING TERRAIN FEATURES. THE TECHNIQUE DEVELOPED FOR ISOCHROMAL MAPPING OFFERS A METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY MAPPING VARIOUS TONAL PATTERNS PRESENT ON COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. THIS HAS IMMEDIATE APPLICATION FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF THOSE TERRAIN FEATURES WHICH ARE DIRECTLY RELATED TO COLOR TONAL PATTERNS. /AUTHOR/