Raster to Vector GIS Chart Conversion Through Lossless Compression

The proposed effort utilizes the by-product of an existing lossless compression process for digitized raster GIS charts as the basis for vector conversion. This process uses mutiple resolutions of the raster image to recognize and extract text, symbol, contour, and color data while preserving the original chart features. These data are stored as objects in an electronic database optimized for data compression. The proposed effort organizes this data representation into a format suitable for vector conversion, and development of the user interface appropriate for fully utilizing the resulting vector data. Prototype software development for raster to vector conversion of an existing digitized nautical chart is performed.