1. BA Computing Studies (Cartography major)
A Unique Course
“From their inception back in the 1960s, the computing studies courses from CCAE were considered by many to be the
best in Australia and they also had a great reputation worldwide”.
Bob Ecclestone, Honorary Degree Holder, Master of Applied Science, 1989
My personal view of the sciences Core scientific discipline
Cartography
Foundation scientific discipline
Mathematics
Enabling scientific discipline
Computer science
Projections &
transformations
Spatial & temporal
reasoning
CalculusAlgebra
Geometry
Trigonometry
Numerical
analysis
Spherical
Trigonometry
Course subjects and topics
Datums & Coordinate
systems
Topology
Data
structures
Terrain
modelling
Information science
Computer science
Computer programming
ALGOL + Several other languages
Systems analysis
Computer architecture
Numerical analysis
Graph theory
Operations research
Machine (artificial) intelligence
Representation &
communication
2. CCAE
Origins
A Unique Course
Remote Sensory Mapping – Assignment 1
Lecturer: Dr Grahame Smith
Assignment 1 required the use of LANDSAT data and required the following tasks:
² Reduce a scene (150 scan lines in length and 480 pixels wide) of central Canberra
sensed on 18 November 1975 to a new scene 50 lines in length and 160 pixels
wide. There are many methods of accomplishing this reduction, you should carry
out at least two. Included with map outputs should be a discussion of the merits
and demerits of your methods.
² Using thresh-holding techniques extract Lake Burley Griffin from your reduced
scene. You should produce a map of the lake, together with an account of the
methods you used to get it.
² Locate the bridges and other non-water features of the lake. Produce these as an
overlay for your lake map.
The photographic images (below) did not become available until later in the course. The
images were processed by Dr John O’Callaghan at CSIRO. Thus, photographic images
were not in existence at the time of the actual assignment. Naivety can be beneficial in
conducting innovative work.
LANDSAT scene of Canberra
Sensed 18 November 1975
Bridges
Shoreline of
Lake Burley Griffin
Comment
Bridges X
Shore *
Fountain in front of
Old Parliament
House*
Google Earth 2014
3. Typical object recognition enquiries might take
the form:
• What is the feature 5KM north-west of the
junction of road A and road B?
• Give details of this building (pointed to on a
screen).
• What is this feature (pointed to on a screen)?
Examples of these types of queries may take the form:
• Show a base map bounded by 20OS, 25OS, 130OE and 132OE
and highlight the bores.
• Locate and list details of the nearest airfield to
the town of Kyogle, NSW
• Plot all roads between Dubbo NSW and Bourke NSW to a
distance of 100KM from the centre line
A DEFENCE ENQUIRY SYSTEM (DES)
LT R.J.Williams
1980
Photo taken in December 1979 of (then) SSGT
Bob Williams. Military symbols produced using
Tektronix PLOT 10 software.
Fulfilling a Promise!
… a discussion paper on where I thought that the
Royal Australian Survey Corps should be heading …
1980
Below are copies of extracts from the original paper with
scanned copies of the original illustrations.
Abstract “an emergency situation, whether it be military
in nature or a natural disaster, often tests the speed of
response of sub-units of an organisation. Planning,
staffing, coordinating, directing and controlling decisions
are required in a limited time frame”.
Object recognition. Today’s orthophotomap may be replaced
by a digital image, perhaps similar to LANDSAT images, and
various features highlighted or classified. It might also
be feasible that digital terrestrial cameras of the future
could be used to identify features (possibly with the help
of symbol tables and definitions).
4. I again rewrote my
mapping software in
FORTRAN77 this time for
use by the Joint
Intelligence Organisation
(JIO) for use on a HP2100
series computer.
I called my software WIMS
(World Interactive
Mapping Software).
Vision – World (or
Williams) Interactive
Mapping System that could
automatically extract
information from a world
data base determined by
place names and search
criteria.
Applications would include
producing background
maps in normal, radial and
oblique rectangle formats
anywhere in the world.
Fulfilling a Promise! Returing to JIO (Joint Intelligence Organisation)..
… the year after the Falklands War …
1983