The Automatic Digitizer in Computer Graphics

An operational hardware-software system is described which rapidly and economically converts hard-copy drawings into graphic data structures faithfully representing both their geometry and their topology. These facilities permit computer graphic console time to be concentrated on the interactive manipulation and analysis of readily accessible graphic data. They can be used to accomplish a large portion of the tedious and error-prone manual tasks historically used for entering such data into computers. The result is that the power of existing computer graphics systems can be enhanced considerably and their domains of applicability be extended into areas not previously considered economically feasible.