Automated Software System for Updating Digital Terrain Databases from All-Source Imagery. Phase 1.

摘要

VEXCEL Corporation's Phase l SBIR research effort for U.S. Army's Engineer Topographic Laboratories concentrated on the feasibility of creating the primary tools for the prototype development in Phase ll of a digital change detection work station. This system in intended to be capable of detecting long-term (6 months to 1 year) and/or seasonal changes from all-source imagery. The system is intended to be hosted on a SUN-4 platform operating under a UNIX/C software environment. The emphasis of the present Phase l effort was on the two major technical challenges for the development of such a system: precision image registration and robust change detection and analysis. Most of this effort was directed toward automated SAR-optical image registration and automated change cueing experiments. Change cueing is an initial step in change detection for identifying regions where possible change events may have occurred. The automated registration and cueing efforts were successful over the data sets tested. These data sets did not contain appreciable terrain-induced distortions. Theoretical improvements for algorithms are recommended for addressing such terrain-induced registration complications in Phase ll. Recommendations are also made for the inclusion of interactive capabilities to supplement the automated registration techniques.