EXRAND OBJECTIVES FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN IMAGERY EXPLOITATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: NGA Records (Formerly NIMA)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78B05171A000800020012-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 17
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 3, 2003
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: April 26, 1968
• Content Type: MF

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26 April 1968
MEMORANDUM FOR: Committed on Imagery Requirements and
Exploitation
SUBJECT: EXRAND Objectives for Research and
Development in Image:i?y Exploitation
1. The Exploitation Research and Development
Subcommittee (EXRAND) has prepared the attached outline
of objectives for the 1970-1980 time period. It is the inte,:tion
of EXRAND to continue the refinement of the objectives with
the assistance of an R&D oriented group, under the guidance
of the Chairman, EXRAND, to be selected by EXRANND members.
Prior to this step it is requested that COMIREX study the
objectives and provide EXRAND with firm guidance on the
objectives as defined in the attached document, on the rationale
given for pursuing the objectives, and any critique it may have
as to the approach outlined by EXRAND. Recommendations as
to how objectives should be reoriented as well as additional
objectives should also be a part of the COMIREX consideration.
2. The Chairman, EXRAND, has noted that the
attached objectives have not been completely staffed through
all elements of the agencies represented on EXRAND.
COMIREX may have specific questions on the extent of the
staffing and may have recommendations on further work
needed along these lines. has noted however, 25X1
that in previous and preliminary draft stages the objectives
have been distributed quite extensively in certain areas and
have indeed provided unofficial guidance for projects for the
19&9-1974 budgets. The NPIC Project Evaluation Committee
also had drafts available prior to its review of the R&D portion
of the NPIC FY 1969 operating budget.
Declass Review by NIMA/DOD
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3. This paper will be on the agenda for discussion at
COY:--;.E at an early elate.
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Executive Secretary
Committee on Imagery Requirements and Exploitation
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PROPOSED
NATIONAL IMAGERY EXPLOITATION ; ESEARCHH AND
DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES
A. General Objective
1. Under the provisions of DCID 1/13, the Exploitation
Research and Development Subcommittee (ERRAND) of the USIB
Committee on Imagery Requirements and Exploitation (COMIREX)
has prepared this Objectives Document for the 1970-1980 time period
to unify and guide the Research and Development activities of those
? facilities participating in the National Tasking Plan.
2. The intelligence community must insure that the cost
of supplying the information needed to support National policy decisions
is held to a, minimum. This creates a.situation with many potential
tradeoffs between accuracy, speed, completeness, need, capability
and cost. Exploitation efficiency is the key to the appropriate mix
of these elements. Within this objective, the following principles
must be directly addressed in exploitation R&D plans:
a. Accuracy and reliability near one-hundred
percent.
b. Speed of response equal or faster than the
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c. Completeness sufficient to answer all
reconnaissance EEI`s.
d. Clear understanding of man-machine
relationships in visual perception and in the extraction
of information from imagery
B. Specific Objectives
1. High Volume, Large-Scale Imagery Exploitation
a. Objective: Develop imagery exploitation
techniques and related equipment which will provide an
efficient and timely capability for exploiting great volumes
of large-scale imagery which will result from future long
focal-length, narrow viewing-angle collection systems.
b. Rationale-: The developers of future collection
systems have indicated that the trend in improving reconnaissance
systems will continue in a direction which will produce increas-
ingly large-scale, narrow-angle imagery rather than extremely
high resolution, very small-scale imagery. The result of this
trend is that the volume of imagery to be exploited will increase
in direct proportion to the increases in focal length and the
reduction in the angle of view. These huge quantities of large-
scale imagery present severe problems to efficient, timely
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exploitation processes. Thus, it will be necessary to
develop significantly new approaches to exploitation
techniques, including the automation of major portions
of the tasks involved, if any reasonable available force
of image interpreters are to be able to exploit these
large volumes of imagery in an efficient and timely manner.
2. National Multisnectral Information Data Base
a. Objective: To develop and maintain an
advanced integrated multispectral data base system to
support the production of a timely, accurate, collated
finished intelligence product at the national and departmental
levels throughout the 1970's.
b. Rationale: Substantial improvement in the
timeliness and efficiency in the future imagery exploitation
system requires real-time accessibility to both data and
multispectral imagery-retrieval records to insure effective
exploitation support of national and departmental needs.
3. Duplicating Equipment and Emulsions
Objective: To provide easy to use duplicating
materials and related equipment.
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(1)
Continue development of film
emulsions with emphasis on reversal materials
with quality of image recording equal to or better
than emulsions in use today.
(2)
Develop duplication equipment for
use at the imagery exploitation station. This
equipment must be capable of producing film or
paper reproductions ;E~t contact or enlarged scale
from the original. Equipment must be designed for
ease of operation by the image interpreter to permit
rapid selection and reproduction of selected imagery
and reduce material handling problems.
Develop non-silver duplicating media
for all major aspects of image duplication including
line and continuous tone. This material must be
equal in performance to silver materials and less
costly to utilize. Dry processing is an important
collateral objective.
Rationale: The conventional silver halide
. continuous-tone reproduction process, now universally used,
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requires considerable time, cost, specialized manpower,
complex equipment, and extensive logistical support. Prior
and current R&D studies directed toward the development
of a rapid-access, dry photographic material have produced
emulsions with very high resolutions and require only heat
for development. This development produces positive images
from negative, and vice versa. Studies indicate that a
practical reversal reproduction system can be developed which
can produce an image with the same polarity as that of the
original.
4. Exploitation of Imagery in Both Chip and Roll. Form
a. Objective: Develop systems to produce
reference quality chips rapidly and efficiently and to produce
exploitation quality chips at slower but adequate speeds;
develop improwI techniques and equipment for the efficient
and timely use of, roll film with or without both reference
and exploitation quality chips.
b. Rationale: Trends in image exploitation
operations indicate that, within the foreseeable future,
there will be valid and important uses for imagery in both
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roll and chip form. Thus, the R&D effort must provide
adequate techniques and equipment for the most efficient
production and use of both chips and roll film. The very
circumstances of when and how best to utilize each of
these imagery forms must be investigated. Roll film may
maintain a position of importance in initial screening,
scanning, and in the early phases of exploitation; if so,
then the techniques and equipment for producing, viewing,
handling and storing it must be improved and further automated.
The place of chips as a reference material appears to be
assured, thus, the processes of rapidly and efficiently
producing medium quality chips, storing and retrieving
them, and displaying them for comparative use in relation
to other imagery must be improved and automated. If high
quality, exploitation type chips are to find a place in improving
and increasing efficiency of detailed analysis, breakthroughs
in the technology of reproducing imagery without loss and in
a reasonably efficient manner must be -made. It appears that
the best .possibilities for improving efficiency and timeliness
in image exploitation lie in significant improvements in the
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interrelated use of all of these types of imagery records.
It also appears that, regardless of the final size of chips
which result from the R&D Program, the CODIB concept
of proportionality should receive serious consideration.
5. Target Charge Detection
a. Objective: Develop devices and techniques which
will assist the imagery analyst in detecting significant changes
to a target which has been photographed repeatedly.
b. Rationale: The increasing volume of
reconnaissance materials demands an acceleration in the
exploitation process. One mea:is of acceleration is to provide
the imagery analyst with semi-automatic aids which will
assist him by performing routine, redundant, and time
consuming tasks such as the detection of changes to a
previously interpreted target.
6.
Semi-Automatic Reporting
a. Objective: Develop an effective and efficient
interface with the National Base of Imagery Derived Information
(NBIDI) for use by the image interpreter.
b. Rationale: Imagery, line drawings and sketches
will be included in third phase reporting into the NBIDI. Formats
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and information content for third phase reporting are now
being developed by the Exploitation Subcommittee and
National Imagery Data Base Working Group. These formats
will be designed primarily to be human-readable but they
will also be, to the extent practical, machine-proces sable
for reporting through computer-based files. Effective inter-
face with the NBIDI by the image interpreter for inputs must
be provided.
7. Near Real-Time Data Extraction System
a. Objective: The objective is to provide the
equipment and techniques for a-near real-time exploitation
to efficiently and accurately exploit near real-time imagery
inputs in the 19702s.
b. Rationale: The potential uses of near real-time
imagery acquisition, transmission and delivery dictate the
need for major automation efforts to achieve increased imagery
exploitation efficiency in all phases of the future operational
exploitation process.
8. Image Manipulation and Transmission
a. Objective: Develop devices and techniques which
will fully exploit target signature transmissions, including
manipulation of the electronic signals.
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(1)
Development of recorder-processor
viewer (RPV) with ultra-'high resolution output,
(2)
Development of equipment to manipulate
and analyze the electronic target signature data.
(3)
Development of broad band, high
frequency (200-500 megahertz) recording devices.
b. Rationale: Future reconnaissance systems
which are now in the planning stage are being designed to C, 0
utilize electro-optical systems with real-time or near real-
time transmission of target signature data to the reconnaissance
interpretation facility. Real-time or near real-time trans-
mission of electronic signals will insure immediate availability
of intelligence data for Cold War crisis management. Since
the target data will be transmitted in an electrical form,
considerable information of intelligence value may be gained
by electrically manipulating the signals to enhance and identify
the target signature data.
9, Multi-Spectral Exploitation
a. Objective: Develop the equipment and techniques
needed to fully exploit the spectral signature of targets.
Exploratory and advanced development efforts are required
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to produce equipment for use in the 19702s to give the
necessary capabilities to fully exploit the multi-spectral
imagery.
b. Rationale: High-altitude reconnaissance has
used silver halide photography almost exclusively to record
spatial image variations. However, this photography
produces imagery that represents radiance fluctuations as
averaged in the emulsion over a wide wavelength band. Such
photography ignores a characteristic of the object that may
contain as much information as the spatial and tonal variations -
its spectral reflectance or emission. Multi-spectral
collection and exploitation techniques may make it possible
to detect and identify objects that may otherwise go unnoticed.
10. Coding imagery
a. Objective: To devise a system and recommend
techniques and procedures to allow machine correlation
between various imagery records and ground coordinates,
b. Rationale: The speed and accuracy of first
and second phase exploitation may be increased through the
use of a technique to provide rapid correlation of different
imagery records with each other and with ground and map
coordinates. This coding system may be utilized to correlate
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Inertial Navigation Systems, previous coverage, ephemeris
data, magnetic tape recording, Elint data and other sensors.
11. Film Base Reclamation and Silver Recovery
a. `hective: Develop or select efficient standard
systems for the disposal of large volumes of classified
photographic film materials, the reclamation of the film base
and the recovery of silver from the film emulsion.
b. Rationale: U. S: intelligence collection systems
produce an increasingly high volume of imagery which is
normally duplicated in multiple copies on materials having
estar polyester, cellulose acetate butyrate, or triacetate
bases. When this imagery becomes obsolete or further
storage is impractical due to space limitations, the residual
materials must be reclaimed in a manner which eliminates
any chance of security compromise. Existing disposal devices
and techniques are considered to be inefficient and, in general,
lack capability to recover silver from the film emulsion.
12. Mensuration
a. Objective: Develop equipment and procedures
for imagery measurement to accommodate projected imagery
collection systems with emphasis on speed and simplicity of.
operation.
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b. Rationale: Mensuration, at all levels of
accuracy, is an integral part of interpretation and should
be performed by both the Image Interpreter and the
Photograrnmetrist. Routine measurements for identification
and analysis are a necessary part of the inductive reasoning
process performed by the interpreter, while measurements for
reports having calculated statistical accuracies must be derived
by specialists in mensuration.
13. Stereo Viewing
a. Objective: Develop display deviceSsuitable for
viewing large quantities of black and white and color stereo
imagery, in a wide range of formats and scales, and capable
of accommodating the distortions inherent in projected collection
systems. Emphasis should be placed on optical efficiency and
simplicity and reliability of operation,
b. Rationale: Stereo viewing is vital to imagery
interpretation and mensuration. Complex or "busy" images,
such as camouflaged targets, industrial plants, construction
sites, etc. , benefit most from stereo viewing but most targets
can be analyzed and identified satisfactorily through perspective
and shadow relationships in a monocular mode. The real need,
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therefore, is to have a stereo viewing capability which can
be quickly brought into use when monocular relationships in
the image fail to form accurate spatial relationships in the
mind of the interpreter. Accurate vertical measurements,
of course, require conjugate stereo images and mensuration
viewers in order to perform the necessary geometric solutions.
26 April 1968
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