• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.679-688
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• 2009

Worldwide exploring and research for manganese nodules, as new energy resource, distributed on the deep seabed have progressed recently. Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute(KORDI) is a central organization to exploit the manganese nodules in the Pacific Ocean with 5,000m depth. Precise exploration is required for estimating amount of recoverable deposit, and this task could be accomplished by processing digital image processing techniques to the images taken by underwater camera system. Image processing and analysis provide information about characteristics of distribution of the manganese nodules. This study proposed effective methods to remove vignetting effect to improve image quality and to extract information. The results show more reliable information could be obtained by removing the vignetting and feasibility of utilizing image processing techniques for exploring the manganese nodules.