THE GENERAL PROBLEM IDENTIFIED IS: "HOW CAN THE LARGE ARCHIVE OF TECHNICAL DATA EXISTING IN PLOTTED GRAPHIC FORM IN PRINTED JOURNALS, HANDBOOKS, TECHNICAL REPORTS AND OTHER LITERATURE BE MADE AVAILABLE IN MACHINE-READABLE REPRESENTATION FOR ENGINEERS AND

THE GENERAL PROBLEM IDENTIFIED IS: "HOW CAN THE LARGE ARCHIVE OF TECHNICAL DATA EXISTING IN PLOTTED GRAPHIC FORM IN PRINTED JOURNALS, HANDBOOKS, TECHNICAL REPORTS AND OTHER LITERATURE BE MADE AVAILABLE IN MACHINE-READABLE REPRESENTATION FOR ENGINEERS AND SCIENTISTS WHO ARE RAPIDLY MOVING TO A COMUTER-SUPPORTED WORKSTATION ENVIRONMENT?" THE OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL TO ADDRESS THIS PROBLEM INCLUDE: 1) IDENTIFICATION OF REQUIRED METADATA; 2) DEVELOPMENT OF A TEMPLATE METHODOLOGY FOR ORGANIZING AND RECORDING THE TOTAL INFORMATION ASSOCIATED WITH A PRINTED GRAPH FOR STORAGE IN A MACHINE-READABLE REPRESENTATION AND SUBSEQUENT RETRIEVAL, ANALYSIS AND MANIPULATION AT THE USER WORKSTATION; AND 3) DEVELOPMENT OF A SPECIFICATION FOR SOFTWARE TO USE THE METADATA FOR FULL CAPTURE OF GRAPHIC INFORMATION. THE RESEARCH PLAN INVOLVES: DRAFTING A TEMPLATE, SELECTING TEST GRAPHS, AND REITERIVELY MODIFYING THE TEMPLATE, ELECTRONICALLY STORING THE CAPTURED DATA AND METADATA, AND FINALLY TESTING THE OUTPUT OF THE ELECTRONIC FILE FOR ACCURACY AND COMPLETENESS. IT IS ANTICIPATED THAT THE RESEARCH WILL ESTABLISH THE FEASIBILITY OF A NEW APPROACH TO THE FULL CAPTURE OF PLOTTED GRAPHICAL DATA. IF SUCCESSFUL, THE METHODOLOGY COULD BE USED BY ALL THOSE N ACTIVE IN BUILDING COMPUTERIZED NUMERIC SCIENTIFIC/ ENGINEERING DATABASES. SPEECIFIC POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL AREAS OF APPLICATION ARE IDENTIFIED.