ASPRS

PE&RS May 1999

VOLUME 65, NUMBER 5
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND REMOTE SENSING

Peer Reviewed Articles

564 The Impact of Interoperable Geoprocessing
Lance McKee

567 Interoperable Web-Based Services for Digital Orthophoto Imagery
John D. Evans

Abstract
Download Full Article
Disseminating digital geospatial imagery using an online service makes it accessible to a wide audience by automating such tasks as image selection, extraction, mosaicking, and georeferencing. One such service, online for over two years, has a streamlined, modular architecture, with a simple query interface that facilitates its integration into a larger computing context. This prototype illustrates how interoperable interfaces may link online services into a global, seamless infrastructure that will provide ortho-imagery and related geospatial information to any client on demand.

573 Interoperable Spatial Data Catalogs
Douglas Nebert

Abstract
Download Full Article
The discovery of spatial information on the Web is challenged by the many approaches to organizing and presenting it for search. Conventions for searching or navigating collections of information on the Web are almost as personal and unique as the Web authors who create them. Because there are few rules in the creation of Internet information sites, and because the number of these sites is increasing exponentially, the discovery of specialized, highly structured information - such as spatial information - is especially difficult. Communities that require or generate imagery, cartographic, and thematic spatial data usually manage their information in highly structured ways, but the organizing structures are not standardized. Inventories whose descriptive content is dynamic are often stored in a database, opaque to systematic web crawler searches. The use of full-text search engines and, even more recently, 'meta" tags of keywords inside HTML (HyperText Markup Language) documents often falls short of imparting the contents of spatial data collections.

The OpenGIS Consortium (OGC) is in the process of defining implementable, interoperable spatial data catalogs that can be used to discover spatial data holdings in different data computing environments and across and within information communities. Spatial data catalogs have been around for many years, exemplified by product-specific image catalogs managed by remote sensing organizations. Unfortunately, there is little interoperability among spatial data catalogs, requiring the user or agent to traverse and translate many different user interfaces to locate relevant spatial data. In a broadly interoperble environment,a network of generic clients and servers could be built to enable global discovery of spatial data. As high-level software interfaces are standardized across disparate spatial data collections, access to them may be provided through reasonably lightweight gateway software. building up super-collections across and within information communities defied by discipline, geography, or cross-discipline interests.

577 Defining Standard Interfaces for Image Exploitation Services
Arliss Whiteside

Abstract
Download Full Article
The current effort in the Open GIS Consortium,lnc. (OGC) to develop open specifications for a set of software interfaces that enable diverse geoprocessing systems to access each other's image exploitation functions and image data is described. The objective is to specify standard interfaces to the functions needed for both use and production of data. Developing the Abstract Model of these services is the task of the OGC Technical committee's Image Exploitation Services Special Interest Group (IES SIG). The specification will become part of OGC's OpenGIS Specification, which is intended to address software and data interoperability in every kind of geoprocessing, including GIS, photogrammetry, remote sensing, digital cartography, and others.

585 The OpenGIS Data Model
John R. Herring

Abstract
Download Full Article
The OpenGIS Consortium (OGC) develops implementation specifications to promote the interoperability of geographic information applications. This development is based on the concept of a comprehensive set of common software interfaces supported by geographic servers, across computing platforms. It has begun the process of making geographic information and services an easily used technical information resource. In the process, it is redefining the way many industries look at geographic information.

589 Dynamic Monitoring with Video Systems
C.K. Lee and W. Faig

Abstract
Download Full Article
While close-range photogrammetry has been widely applied for static deformation analysis, video cameras have many characteristics that make them the sensors of choice for dynamic analysis of rapidly changing situations. They also have limitations.

This paper explores the potential of a video system for monitoring dynamic objects. The system consists of two camcorders, a VCR, and a PC with frame grabber. Basic characteristics of the video camera and frame grabber were investigated in static and dynamic modes. Then, sequential images of a moving car were captured and digitized at one-fifteenth of a second intervals. The image coordinates of targets attached to a car were acquired by IDRISI, and the object coordinates were derived based on DLT. This study suggests that home video cameras, a PC, and photogrammetric principles are promising tools for monitoring moving objects and vibrations as well as other time dependent situations.

597 Automatic Extraction of Road Signs from Terrestrial Color Imagery
Ayman F. Habib, Robert Uebbing, and Kurt Novak

Abstract
Download Full Article
The advent of massive quantities of high spatial resolution multispectral imagery mandates the development of effective algorithms to manipulate these data. As a result of this research, an algorithm for automatic extraction of road signs from color terrestrial imagery has been developed. The main premise is to utilize prior knowledge about the color and shape of these signs to facilitate both hypothesis generation and verification stages of the recognition process. Any color can be obtained by combining the three basic colors (red. green, end blue) with different ratios. Knowing the colors of the targets of interest, one can define the range of response in the RGB bands of color imagery to yield this particular color. This will be the starting point for hypothesis generation of regions with the predefined colors. Then, the generated hypotheses must be either verified or rejected, The verification process will be established through comparing the geometric properties of the hypothesized regions with those of the standard targets available in a database, In other words, the analysis of the multispectral data will initiate the hypotheses that will later be verified using the geometric properties of the objects of interest. Interest operators are used to detect corner points in the hypothesized regions. These comer points will be matched with those points associated with the targets of interest using the Generalized Hough Transform . The ON-SIGHT™ mapping van of TRANSMAP Corporation has used the suggested algorithm to identify road signs in captured RGB color imagery. The preliminary results demonstrate the feasibility and the potential of the suggested algorithm.

603 Evaluation of NDVI for Monitoring Live Moisture in Three Vegetation Types of the Western U.S.
Colin C. Hardy and Robert E. Burgan

Abstract
Download Full Article
The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is evaluated for monitoring seasonal changes in live vegetation moisture. NDVI values for scenes of meadow grass, sagebrush, and an open-conifer stand were calculated using 0.5-m resolution multispectral images acquired from a fixed-wing aircraft four times from May to October, and live vegetation moisture was sampled simultaneously with each flight. Changes in sampled live vegetation moisture were compared with changes in the NDVI, and the proportion of seasonal change in NDVI attributable to changes in the understory vegetation rather than the conifer canopy was examined. Seasonal changes in vegetation moisture for all sites were statistically significant (p<0.05). Time-series profiles of the NDVI were functionally related to changes in vegetation moisture only for the grass and forest understory vegetation. No significant relationships were observed for either the shrub or coniferous forest canopy vegetation. This field experiment will improve our interpretation of seasonal NDVI data with respect to fire potential.

611 Remote Sensing of Urban/Suburban Infrastructure and Socio-Economic Attributes
John R. Jensen and Dave C. Cowen

Abstract
Download Full Article
Temporal and spatial resolution requirements for extracting urban/suburban infrastructure and socio-economic attributes from remote sensor data are presented. The goal is to relate the user information requirements with the current and proposed remote sensing systems to determine if there are substantive gaps in capability. Several remote sensing systems currently provide some of the desired urban/suburban infrastructure and socio-economic information when the required spatial resolution is poorer than 4 by 4 m and the temporal resolution is between 1 and 55 days (e.g., Landsat MSS and Thematic Mapper, SPOT1-4, Russian TK-350, RADARSAT, Indian IRS-1 CD, NOAA AVHRR, GOES, Meteosat). Current high spatial resolution sensor systems such as the Russian SPIN-2 KVR-1000 (2- by 2-m panchromatic; when in orbit) and proposed sensor systems (EOSAT Space Imaging IKONOS 1 - by 1-m panchromatic; Earthwatch Quickbird 0.82 by 0.82 m; OrbView-31 by 1 m) may provide additional capability. Large-scale metric aerial photography or digital camera imagery with spatial resolutions managing from ≤ 0.25 to 1 m will still be required to satisfy several important urban/suburban information requirements.
Top Home