• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.376-391
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• 1998

Images from satellites will have 1 to 3 meter ground resolution and will be very useful for analyzing current status of earth surface. An image processing system named GeoWatch with more intelligent image processing algorithms has been designed and implemented to support the detailed analysis of the land surface using high-resolution satellite imagery. The GeoWatch is a valuable tool for satellite image processing such as digitizing, geometric correction using ground control points, interactive enhancement, various transforms, arithmetic operations, calculating vegetation indices. It can be used for investigating various facts such as the change detection, land cover classification, capacity estimation of the industrial complex, urban information extraction, etc. using more intelligent analysis method with a variety of visual techniques. The strong points of this system are flexible algorithm-save-method for efficient handling of large size images (e.g. full scenes), automatic menu generation and powerful visual programming environment. Most of the existing image processing systems use general graphic user interfaces. In this paper we adopted visual program language for remotely sensed image processing for its powerful programmability and ease of use. This system is an integrated raster/vector analysis system and equipped with many useful functions such as vector overlay, flight simulation, 3D display, and object modeling techniques, etc. In addition to the modules for image and digital signal processing, the system provides many other utilities such as a toolbox and an interactive image editor. This paper also presents several cases of image analysis methods with AI (Artificial Intelligent) technique and design concept for visual programming environment.