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Precision mapping and interpretation of oblique aerial photographs
Author(s) -
Doneus Michael
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
archaeological prospection
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.785
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1099-0763
pISSN - 1075-2196
DOI - 10.1002/1099-0763(200103)8:1<13::aid-arp158>3.0.co;2-#
Subject(s) - oblique case , interpretation (philosophy) , aerial photos , computer vision , artificial intelligence , aerial photography , oblique projection , aerial imagery , geology , computer science , cartography , remote sensing , geography , linguistics , philosophy , programming language , orthographic projection
This paper deals with high‐level mapping with the aim of linking buildings recorded on aerial photographs of part of the Roman town of Teurnia (Carinthia) with those known from excavation. The settlement area in the eastern part of the city was photographed from the air on several occasions between 1978 and 1992. These oblique photographs show the cropmarked settlement structures of an area of 23 000 m 2 in several narrow fields. To be able to understand the archaeology behind the cropmarks and to integrate the information of these photographs into a complete city‐map, the photographs had to be rectified and interpreted in a GIS environment. Problems during the rectification of oblique photographs are mainly due to perspective distortions, use of amateur cameras, a usually missing stereo partner, and a poor distribution of control points. To deal with these problems the photogrammetrical technique of bundle adjustment was applied, where control points and tie points are measured on all photographs and all measurements are adjusted to the ground control values in a single solution. The whole procedure was done digitally using the software Softplotter TM on a Silicon Graphics O2 workstation. After the orientation, topographical data were measured and a digital terrain model calculated. Consequently, this was used to rectify all of the photographs. The interpretation was carried out using the geographical information system ERDAS Imagine ® . All of the georeferenced orthophotographs and their filtered variations were interpreted on screen. The interpretation drawing was combined with digitized results from the previous excavations which had been done between 1971 and 1978. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.