Digital terrain modeling and industrial surface metrology: Converging realms
Professional Geographer
By: R.J. Pike
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Abstract
Digital terrain modeling has a micro-and nanoscale counterpart in surface metrology, the numerical characterization of industrial surfaces. Instrumentation in semiconductor manufacturing and other high-technology fields can now contour surface irregularities down to the atomic scale. Surface metrology has been revolutionized by its ability to manipulate square-grid height matrices that are analogous to the digital elevation models (DEMs) used in physical geography. Because the shaping of industrial surfaces is a spatial process, the same concepts of analytical cartography that represent ground-surface form in geography evolved independently in metrology: The surface topography of manufactured components, exemplified here by automobile-engine cylinders, is routinely modeled by variogram analysis, relief shading, and most other techniques of parameterization and visualization familiar to geography. This article introduces industrial surface-metrology, examines the field in the context of terrain modeling and geomorphology and notes their similarities and differences, and raises theoretical issues to be addressed in progressing toward a unified practice of surface morphometry.
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | Digital terrain modeling and industrial surface metrology: Converging realms |
| Series title | Professional Geographer |
| DOI | 10.1016/S0890-6955(01)00052-9 |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Year Published | 2001 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| Description | 12 p. |
| First page | 263 |
| Last page | 274 |
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