An interactive program for digitization of seabed photographs (PHDIG)

Abstract

A program for dignitization of seabed photographs to compute coverage and abundance of polymetallic nodules is developed. Since the objects in the seabed photograph are partially covered by thin sediment layer, the automatic scanning devices may yield erroneous results. In this method, the user has to define the outlines of the nodule images on the photograph. For estimation of coverage, the nodule outlines are assumed to be polygons. In order to avoid possible errors in the areal calculations, entire computational procedure is carried out in user coordinate system. The software can be used for any similar application with minor suitable modifications.