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The Cyborg Astrobiologist: scouting red beds for uncommon features with geological significance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2005

Patrick Charles McGuire
Affiliation:
Robotics & Planetary Exploration Laboratory, and Transdisciplinary Laboratory, Centro de Astrobiología (INTA/CSIC), Instituto Nacional Técnica Aeroespacial, Carretera de Torrejón a Ajalvir km 4.5, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain 28850 e-mail: mcguire@physik.uni-bielefeld.de
Enrique Díaz-Martínez
Affiliation:
Dirección de Geología y Geofísica, Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, Calera 1, Tres Cantos, Madrid, Spain 28760
Jens Ormö
Affiliation:
Planetary Geology Laboratory, Centro de Astrobiología (INTA/CSIC), Instituto Nacional Técnica Aeroespacial, Carretera de Torrejón a Ajalvir km 4.5, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain 28850
Javier Gómez-Elvira
Affiliation:
Robotics & Planetary Exploration Laboratory, Centro de Astrobiología (INTA/CSIC), Instituto Nacional Técnica Aeroespacial, Carretera de Torrejón a Ajalvir km 4.5, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain 28850
José Antonio Rodríguez-Manfredi
Affiliation:
Robotics & Planetary Exploration Laboratory, Centro de Astrobiología (INTA/CSIC), Instituto Nacional Técnica Aeroespacial, Carretera de Torrejón a Ajalvir km 4.5, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain 28850
Eduardo Sebastián-Martínez
Affiliation:
Robotics & Planetary Exploration Laboratory, Centro de Astrobiología (INTA/CSIC), Instituto Nacional Técnica Aeroespacial, Carretera de Torrejón a Ajalvir km 4.5, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain 28850
Helge Ritter
Affiliation:
Neuroinformatics Group, Computer Science Department, Technische Fakultät, University of Bielefeld, PO Box 10 01 31, Bielefeld, Germany 33501
Robert Haschke
Affiliation:
Neuroinformatics Group, Computer Science Department, Technische Fakultät, University of Bielefeld, PO Box 10 01 31, Bielefeld, Germany 33501
Markus Oesker
Affiliation:
Neuroinformatics Group, Computer Science Department, Technische Fakultät, University of Bielefeld, PO Box 10 01 31, Bielefeld, Germany 33501
Jörg Ontrup
Affiliation:
Neuroinformatics Group, Computer Science Department, Technische Fakultät, University of Bielefeld, PO Box 10 01 31, Bielefeld, Germany 33501

Abstract

The ‘Cyborg Astrobiologist’ has undergone a second geological field trial, at a site in northern Guadalajara, Spain, near Riba de Santiuste. The site at Riba de Santiuste is dominated by layered deposits of red sandstones. The Cyborg Astrobiologist is a wearable computer and video camera system that has demonstrated a capability to find uncommon interest points in geological imagery in real time in the field. In this second field trial, the computer vision system of the Cyborg Astrobiologist was tested at seven different tripod positions, on three different geological structures. The first geological structure was an outcrop of nearly homogeneous sandstone, which exhibits oxidized-iron impurities in red areas and an absence of these iron impurities in white areas. The white areas in these ‘red beds’ have turned white because the iron has been removed. The iron removal from the sandstone can proceed once the iron has been chemically reduced, perhaps by a biological agent. In one instance the computer vision system found several (iron-free) white spots to be uncommon and therefore interesting, as well as several small and dark nodules. The second geological structure was another outcrop some 600 m to the east, with white, textured mineral deposits on the surface of the sandstone, at the bottom of the outcrop. The computer vision system found these white, textured mineral deposits to be interesting. We acquired samples of the mineral deposits for geochemical analysis in the laboratory. This laboratory analysis of the crust identifies a double layer, consisting of an internal millimetre-size layering of calcite and an external centimetre-size efflorescence of gypsum. The third geological structure was a 50 cm thick palaeosol layer, with fossilized root structures of some plants. The computer vision system also found certain areas of these root structures to be interesting. A quasi-blind comparison of the Cyborg Astrobiologist's interest points for these images with the interest points determined afterwards by a human geologist shows that the Cyborg Astrobiologist concurred with the human geologist 68% of the time (true-positive rate), with a 32% false-positive rate and a 32% false-negative rate. The performance of the Cyborg Astrobiologist's computer vision system was by no means perfect, so there is plenty of room for improvement. However, these tests validate the image-segmentation and uncommon-mapping technique that we first employed at a different geological site (Rivas Vaciamadrid) with somewhat different properties for the imagery.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2005 Cambridge University Press

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