926
October 2014
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
incomprehensible. A Flight Surgeon had to tutor me where
to look and what to look for. Contouring terrain certainly
did not prepare me for that experience! Training a novice
technician turned out to be easier than un-training me, so
that wound up a success. In addition to the anthropometry of
the thorax of the humans and animals, the head coordinate
system had to be determined for each “volunteer” also. The
animals had surgically-implanted targets so X-rays were easy
to measure in stereo. The humans on the other hand were
different. For some reason, the Navy sailors did not want
permanent targets surgically implanted into their skulls! The
Flight Surgeons were concerned about X-ray exposures to the
retinas, so I developed an optical technique for defining the
head anthropomorphic coordinate system with stereo pho-
togrammetric methods rather than stereo X-rays as used for
the monkeys. That method proved popular with all concerned.
Head volumes were determined with stereo photos and then
contoured just like determining stockpile volumes with aerial
photography; trivial for a photogrammetrist and “magical”
for the Flight Surgeons. An instant (500 milliseconds) before
ejection seat firing, the initial conditions are required of the
test subject in order to establish baseline readings for the rate
gyroscopes and accelerometers mounted on the subject. That
determination was accomplished with six Nikon 35mm cam-
eras arrayed around the subject and solved simultaneously
in a six-photo bundle block adjustment. By the time I was
finished, even the Flight Surgeons were photogrammetric
veterans. Some of the photogrammetric instruments were
surplus from the DMA and were actually used during the
Cuban Missile Crisis.
Moving the topic from doctors to lawyers, you have spent
about 40 years in courtrooms as an expert witness. When
you are introduced as an expert witness, what do the
opposing sides say about your qualifications?
The common thread in a jury trial is that the opposition
tries to get the Judge to stop the attorney that I am working
for from going into a series of questions that describe my
experience and qualifications. The longer the “qualification
stage” of the interrogatory lasts, the better the chances are
that the Jury will accept my opinions and findings as fact.
That is what the opposition does not want to happen, and
they often will object to each question that I am asked. Rarely
will I get cross-examined at that stage of testimony, as it’s
only going to reinforce my direct testimony. In a bench trial
(Judge only), my CV is submitted as evidence to the Judge
and it’s a done deal, no argument. In Federal trials, you have
to list all the cases in which you have worked for the past
five years. Although not usually necessary in State trials, it
doesn’t hurt.
When you testify as an expert witness, what are some of
the most common misconceptions that you have to dispel?
The most common misconceptions are that registered profes-
sional engineers already know everything about everything.
Using PhotoShop™ to “count pixels” and then multiplying
by some scalar is not photogrammetry. Measuring one half
of a stereo pair of images does not allow one to determine
locations and sizes of objects in three dimensions. Multiple
images of a scene can indeed be used to compute locations
and sizes of objects in three dimensions, and sometimes
viewed stereoscopically.
Another rumor says that you barely escaped being blown
up by artillery fire. Who was shooting at you and why were
you getting shot at? Was it photogrammetry-related work?
I suspect that there is a database somewhere in the Pentagon
that correlates queries of weird photos with my name. I was
doing some work for the Naval Research Labs (NRL) years
ago that concerned digital cameras and shipbuilding. An
explosives expert at a Navy firing range in Florida called
me and wanted to verify that I possessed some cameras
with radio remote controls. I answered that I did at the time
because I was using the equipment for the NRL, and he
asked me to bring them over in a few weeks to document a
“live” test. A few days before I left, he called again and said
that there was a problem. There was insufficient time for me
to go through Navy SEAL school in order to hang out of a
helicopter on a harness during “live” firing on the explosives
range, and would I agree to let a Navy Combat Photographer
use the equipment instead of me? Since I did not want to go
through SEAL school 30 years ago when offered, I was happy
to stay in the firing range blockhouse while some other fool
was hanging out of a helicopter for the “live” demolition test.
My two cameras downrange and the one in the helicopter got
imagery, and I downloaded it all to the explosive experts. I
left in one piece, cameras undamaged.
There is another rumor that says you were involved in
a once-secret government spy project called CORONA.
What was CORONA and why was it important?
President Eisenhower authorized the design, production, and
flights of the U-2 planes used to monitor ICBM production
and deployment in the USSR. He also authorized the space
program (disguised at the time by NASA civilian research)
for orbital imagery-collecting national technical means. After
Gary Powers was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile and
paraded before the international press, it was obvious the
only means left to monitor the USSR ICBM fleet would be
through satellite imagery. Thus, the CORONA programwas
born. Initially, only reconnaissance (monoscopic) photogra-
phy was inserted into orbit, but the Army Map Service and
the Air Force Aeronautical Chart and Information Center
convinced the intelligence services that topographic mapping
could be accomplished with stereo imagery. Determination
of sizes of objects by photogrammetry again proved to be
reliable, and equipment and techniques were developed that
proved that the “Russian Threat” was far less worrisome
than originally thought. As the USSR continued its R&D
program and deployment of ICBMs, CORONA was critical to
the collection of intelligence over areas where public access
was denied to the U.S. and its allies.
