A system for automatic extraction of road network from maps

With the aid of computer technology, geographical information systems (GIS), which have the ability to handle a large amount of geographical data in it, have been developed. In particular, substantial efforts have been devoted to the conversion of paper-based map into computer readable form which is suitable for input into GIS. This paper presents a system for extracting road network from paper-based urban maps. First, digitized map image is input to the system, then processing algorithms are carried out to extract road network from the map image. Finally, the extracted road network can be output to GIS. In this system, a set of algorithms has been developed for character separation, perceptual grouping, road network extraction and some other processing. This system has been applied to many urban maps. It is shown that the system can extract road networks in various cases successfully.