Frequent-image-frames enhanced digital ortho-rectified mapping (FIFEDOM) airborne mapping system

FIFEDOM is an innovative digital airborne image acquisition system, which exploits the additional information inherent in highly overlapped image frames. FIFEDOM proposes a new analysis methodology for aerial mapping, based on image processing algorithms, which extract the information found only in highly overlapped image sequences to create orthographic map information. FIFEDOM will concentrate on three applications of highly overlapped aerial image data. They were selected because they fill a clear commercial need and have the most direct impact on the core business of the mapping industry. They are also comprehensive in the sense that they span the radiometric, geometric and classification aspects of the new data. The three applications are: improved mosaicking, improved DEMs and orthorectified images, and improved land classification. Currently, these sophisticated tasks require skilled human operators. The intelligent systems built for FIFEDOM will reduce human interaction, thereby reducing operating costs.