Remote sensing of the sea-bed using fractal techniques

With the increase in the demand for high-quality sidescan sonar imagery of the sea-bed, there is a need for the development of fast and accurate computer techniques for the analysis of the survey information. The paper describes some techniques that have been developed to perform operator-assisted and fully automated classification of sidescan sonar images of the sea-bed on the basis of sediment texture. Special reference is made to the usefulness of the fractal model for the analysis and synthesis of textures.