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From: eugene@nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.visualization
Subject: Cartography reference
Message-ID: <1991Apr8.173634.15135@nas.nasa.gov>
Date: 8 Apr 91 17:36:34 GMT
Sender: news@nas.nasa.gov
Reply-To: eugene@wilbur.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)
Organization: NAS Program, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Lines: 30

A LOT of people are asking me for an introductory reference on cartography.
1) TO tell you the truth, it's been about 10 years since I had my
cartography classes and was working for JPL (imaging radar).  My suggestion
is to check the references at the end of the "How-To" book (it's cheap,
you can afford to 'throw away' $13).  I spend my time now benchmarking
(an application of visualization) and I've not even been able to read
comp.benchmarking for over a week.  I read this because a) I ran the
Bay Area ACM/SIGGRAPH group, and b) helped to start it's Technical Interest
Group in SV.

2) If you absolutely need a reference, you should understand my bias
is toward remote sensing and image processing.  The book I recommend
as a start is aerial photography based, but also has applications
in other areas.  That book is Paul Wolf's Elements of Photogrammetry.
I found this a good simple book with application as well to X-ray
photogrammetry, etc.  The book is about how contour maps are made
(obviously you need some math, the book is 50% trig).  It is my opinion
this is the direction "visualization" will go whether you understand why or
not.  It's quantitative, and potentially predictive (e.g., "based on the
mass & volume of material, determine the force of the St.Helens eruption."
simple observation won't tell you that, and that is what gets published.).
Mark Levoy seemed very interested when I show him my copy of Wolf, and
my copy is currently in the hands of RS/6000 people at TJW.
Also try library searches using "surveying."

Back to benchmarking.

--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@orville.nas.nasa.gov
  Resident Cynic, Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers
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