PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
August 2019
535
BOOK
REVIEW
Remote Sensing and Cognition – Human
Factors in Image Interpretation
Raechel A. White, Arzu Coltekin, and Robert R.
Hoffman, Editors
CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, LLC 2018, xiv and 175 pp.,
black and white and color figures, tables, index. ISBN-13 978-1-
4987-8156-5. Hardback: $141.98; Kindle: $33.86.
Reviewed by
Demetrio P. Zourarakis, Ph.D., GISP,
CMS, CGP-GIS.
Reluctantly subversive and at the same time pleasingly fresh,
this succinct and extremely readable excursion into the hu-
man aspects of geoimage interpretation comes at a time when
spectacular results from AI-driven, automated sensor data
capture, and analysis appear to be an everyday expectation.
The quality of this compilation is affirmed by the glowing
reviews on its back cover. The book is slightly over 175 pages,
including a preface and eight chapters. This work provides an
insight into the psychological, philosophical, and sometimes
anatomic/physiologic, aspects of human perception and un-
derstanding of images as rendered by geospatial software and
hardware.
“
Remote Sensing and Cognition
” makes its opportune ap-
pearance now that technological advances thrust us into a
“must-be-3 (or more)-D-or-else” geospatial data visualization
paradigm. As “mixed reality” or XR, as it is known, i.e., Vir-
tual Reality plus Augmented Reality plus, based experiences
are quickly disrupting and forcefully extending the capabili-
ties of everyday analytical workflows. This volume provides
an opportunity to explore what still makes image interpreta-
tion a uniquely human endeavor.
In assembling a group of experts from diverse fields, the
editors try to elucidate how geocognition and cognitive GI-
Science works, focusing on the most basic aspect associated
with remote sensing; i.e. the interpretation of images (“e.g.
photographs, digital images, and sensor data rendered on a
display).
Chapter 1—Cognitive and Perceptual Processes in Remote
Sensing Image Interpretation by Robert R. Hoffman, sets the
stage for subsequent chapters by examining the core issues
of what constitutes expert interpretation and how knowledge
and reasoning serve the expert.
What constitutes “human spatial knowledge?” That is the
question addressed in Chapter 2—Characteristics of Geospa-
tial Photographs in Constructing Human Spatial Knowledge
by Pyry Kettunen.
The influence of perspective on both art and military re-
connaissance are explored in the context of cognitive GISci
in Chapter 3—Intersectional Perspectives on the Landscape
Concept: Art, Cognition and Military Perspectives by Raechel
A. White.
The dichotomy in the perceptual framework in analyzing
terrestrial and “from above” scenes is presented in Chapter
4—Head in the Clouds, Feet on the Ground: Applying Our
Terrestrial Minds to Satellite Perspectives by Ryan V. Ringer
and Lester C. Loschky.
Chapter 5—Eye-Tracking Evaluation of Non-Photorealistic
Maps of Cities and Photo-Realistic Visualization of an Extinct
Village by Stanislav Popelka examines the results of geovisu-
alization modalities by exposing participants in a study to 2D
and 3D stimuli from map portals.
Chapter 6—Designing Geographic Information for Moun-
tains: Mixed Methods Research by Raffaella Balzarini and
Nadine Mandran, presents results from exposing human
subjects to different mountain area views and diverse carto-
graphic products in order to detect differences in geocognition
patterns and the quality and quantity of extracted informa-
tion.
The essence of what constitutes geointelligence is analyzed
in Chapter 7—The Human Factors of Geospatial Intelligence
by Laura D. Strater, Susan P. Coster, Dennis Bellafiore, Ste-
phen P. Handwerk, Gregory Thomas, and Todd S. Bacastow;
the constraints and possibilities posed by Goal-Directed Task
Analysis are presented.
The potential for true encapsulation of expert knowledge
involved in the process of image classification via geo-seman-
tics and geo-ontologies is postulated in Chapter 8—Employ-
ing Ontology to Capture Expert Intelligence within GEOBIA:
Automation of the Interpretation Process by Sachit Rajbhan-
dari, Jagannath Aryal, Jon Osborn, Arko Lucieer, and Robert
Musk.
Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing
Vol. 85, No. 8, August 2019, pp. 535–536.
0099-1112/19/535–536
© 2019 American Society for Photogrammetry
and Remote Sensing
doi: 10.14358/PERS.85.8.535
