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A robot-assisted pipeline to rapidly scan 1.7 million historical aerial photographs

Author

Listed:
  • Sheila Masson
  • Alan Potts
  • Allan Williams
  • Steve Berggreen
  • Kevin McLaren
  • Sam Martin
  • Eugenio Noda
  • Nicklas Nordfors
  • Nic Ruecroft
  • Hannah Druckenmiller
  • Solomon Hsiang
  • Andreas Madestam
  • Anna Tompsett

Abstract

During the 20th Century, aerial surveys captured hundreds of millions of high-resolution photographs of the earth's surface. These images, the precursors to modern satellite imagery, represent an extraordinary visual record of the environmental and social upheavals of the 20th Century. However, most of these images currently languish in physical archives where retrieval is difficult and costly. Digitization could revolutionize access, but manual scanning is slow and expensive. Here, we describe and validate a novel robot-assisted pipeline that increases worker productivity in scanning 30-fold, applied at scale to digitize an archive of 1.7 million historical aerial photographs from 65 countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Sheila Masson & Alan Potts & Allan Williams & Steve Berggreen & Kevin McLaren & Sam Martin & Eugenio Noda & Nicklas Nordfors & Nic Ruecroft & Hannah Druckenmiller & Solomon Hsiang & Andreas Madestam &, 2025. "A robot-assisted pipeline to rapidly scan 1.7 million historical aerial photographs," Papers 2503.24063, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2025.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2503.24063
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    1. Mads Dømgaard & Anders Schomacker & Elisabeth Isaksson & Romain Millan & Flora Huiban & Amaury Dehecq & Amanda Fleischer & Geir Moholdt & Jonas K. Andersen & Anders A. Bjørk, 2024. "Early aerial expedition photos reveal 85 years of glacier growth and stability in East Antarctica," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
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