FINAL REPORT OF CODIB TASK TEAM VIII - PHOTO CHIP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82M00097R001400080002-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 15
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 26, 2005
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: January 26, 1968
• Content Type: MF

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CODIB-D-111/1.8/10
26 January 1968
MEMORANDUM FOR:
United States Intelligence Board
SUBJECT:
Final Report of CODIB Task Team VIII - Photo Chip
REFERENCES:
(a)
USIB-D-39.7/5, 16 March 1964
(b)
(c)
USIB-D-39.7/6, 6 May 1964
CODIB-D-111/1.8/8, 15 November 1967 (Attached)
A. Background.
1. The attached final report of CODIB Task Team VIII, Photo Chip,
is the eighth in a series prepared in response to USIB direction in
Reference (a). Specifically, it responds to the USIB directive to
"Develop a standard photographic chip, exploring the feasibility of
adopting the recently developed DoD standard."
2. Since this task team undertook its assignment, the Joint Imagery
Interpretation Review Group (JIIRG) was organized and completed its
report which resulted in the formation by USIB of the Committee on
Imagery Requirements and Exploitation (COMIREX). The JIIRG and the task
team were each aware of the work being done by the other. If COMIREX
had been in operation at the time the CODIB task team was formed, some
of the work undertaken by the task team might properly have been
assigned to that committee. Certainly, some of the follow-on work recom-
mended by the task team should involve COMIREX to a considerable extent.
B. Summary of Task Team Findings.
1. Except for the original USIB directive in Reference (a), at no
point did the task team find a clearly stated requirement for photo chip*
standardization. However, the team found that the photo chip has a high
*Although the task team was not asked to include document storage chip
systems, per se, in its recommendations, it felt that it could not
ignore them because of the propensity for including, and even intermixing,
images of photography, documents and maps in operational data bases.
Thus, whenever the task team uses the term "data base chip", or "photo
chip" without any qualification, it may refer to images of photography,
maps, documents, radar returns, or any combination thereof. See Annex G
of the task team report for chip definitions.
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potential value and that chip standardization, along with its implied
automation, is important to the realization of that potential. For that
reason it feels that initiation of even partial standardization at this
time will provide a substantial advancement toward realization of the
full chip potential.
2. There exist a number of different chip system concepts, operational
chip systems, chip handling techniques, technologies and hardware which
have consumed substantial resources in planning, research and development,
and implementation. However, the team did not find sufficient development,
experience, or agreement on file and data base concepts, systems or equip-
ment to provide a realistic basis for determining the requirement for a
single, all-purpose standard chip or the physical and quality characteristics
of such a chip.
3. The team concluded that the initial action toward chip standardiza-
tion should be to limit the number of chip options for operational data
base applications to three sizes: 70mm x 100mm, the 4 x 6 inch (approximate)
MICROFICHE and the EAM/Aperture card size with overall dimensions of 3.25
x 7.375 inches. The task team recommends that these three sizes be recognized
as de facto elements of the chip standardization program. For the first two
of these, the proportionality ratio (ratio of width to length) is approxi-
mately 1:1.42; and the team felt that there was considerable merit in
standardizing on this proportionality ratio so that conversion from one
size or system to another would be facilitated. For this purpose it also
recommended that special consideration be given to standardizing the dimen-
sions of the image on the EAM/Aperture card to a ratio of 1:1.42. It
further recommended that all future developments in interpretation/
exploitation* or reference* chips should conform or be compatible
(proportional in size) with one of the three sizes recommended above
for data base* applications.
4. The task team identified many problem areas requiring further
study and analysis and recognized that there was much work to be done
before a practical, long-range solution to chip standardization could be
accomplished. (See Annexes D, E, and F of the task team report). It
also concluded that this work could not be satisfactorily accomplished by
a task team on part-time assignments. It recommended that a small, full-
time group be established to pursue the identified problem areas and overall
standardization program.
C. CODIB Comment.
1. CODIB feels that this task team has performed a very useful
service to the intelligence community in its investigation of the photo
chip standardization problem and that the team report and its accumulated
*See Annex G of the task team report for definitions.
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files will continue to serve a very useful purpose in the future as the
intelligence community moves further toward standardization in its efforts
to achieve compatible systems.
2. CODIB agrees with the task team that it would not be wise at this
time to standardize on a single chip size for the entire intelligence
community. We believe, in fact, that to do so at this time could be
counter-productive because of the multiplicity of uses and sizes of
imagery, as can be seen in Annex B to the team's report. However, we see
no inherent problems or characteristics which would preclude eventual
achievement of a single chip standard.
3. CODIB agrees with the task team that at the present time probably
the best action toward eventual standardization that can be taken is to
limit the number of chip options to the three sizes specified in para-
graph B3 above. However, we feel that these options should be applied
primarily to future applications/developments and that systems which are
operational now or in an advanced state of development should not be
required to convert to one of these sizes except where a cost-benefit
analysis shows such conversion to be desirable from the community viewpoint.
4. We believe that there may be some merit in standardizing, insofar
as feasible, on the proportionality ratio of chip dimensions so as to
facilitate conversion from one chip or image size to another. However, we
feel that this is not necessarily the ultimate answer. There are many
other factors that must be considered when converting from one chip system
to another, particularly in automated systems, e.g., type, location, size,
and coding of machine-readable code and human-readable information.
Enlarging or reducing from one image size to another is not the same thing
as converting from one automated system to another at this point. A
single chip standard appears to be the most desirable ultimate goal if
we are to achieve the compatibility necessary to permit the development
of cooperative, mutually-supporting information storage, retrieval and
exchange systems to meet the expanding requirements of the intelligence
community. Much more experience and work will be necessary before we
can say just what further standardization action should be taken.
Furthermore, it will require a desire, willingness and determination on
the part of the various agencies involved to cooperate and perhaps to
subordinate some of their own self-interests to achieve a solution that
will be to the overall benefit of the community.
5. CODIB agrees with the task team that the problems requiring
further study before a practical, long-range solution to chip standardiza-
tion can be achieved are so vast and complex that the work ahead cannot be
accomplished by a part-time task team. Task Team VIII, which has been
studying some of these problems for over three years, has amply demonstrated
the validity of that conclusion. We feel that a small working group,
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sponsored jointly by CODIB and COMIREX, should be established in order
that full attention may be given to the photo chip problems that lie
ahead. In the meantime, we feel that no additional chip applications
or R&D efforts should be undertaken in this field that are not related
to one of the three chip sizes indicated above unless there is
substantial promise of improvement in quality or economy.
6. CODIB recognizes that departmental R&D efforts in the photo
chip area may be concerned with problems which are not directly related
to intelligence. This will require that the desires of the intelligence
community for standardization along the lines set forth in this study be
made known to the appropriate R&D organizations in each case.
D. Recommendations.
CODIB recommends that USIB:
1. Note the attached Final Report of CODIB Task Team VIII - Photo Chip.
2. Recognize the following three sizes as de facto photo chip
standards for data base applications (as defined in Annex G of the task
team report) pending further study and acquisition of experience:
a. 70mm x 100mm - DoD ISCIG/TARABS* proposed standard;
b. 4" x 6" (approximate),- Federal MICROFICHE standard;
c. EAM/Aperture Card Size - MIL-D-9877/MIL-D-804 standard
and Navy MITRAN;
with dimension tolerances and other characteristics for these three
sizes as specified on page 6 of the task team report.
3. Direct the formation of a photo-chip working group, sponsored
by CODIB and COMIREX, to provide for continuous monitoring of activities
within the intelligence community relating to the development and
standardization of concepts, procedures, equipment and other factors
pertaining to the utilization of photo chips as a major information-
bearing medium. As appropriate the photo-chip working group will
submit findings and recommendations jointly to CODIB and COMIREX.
4. Request all agencies to keep this CODIB-COMIREX photo chip
working group fully informed on all plans for future photo chip applica-
tions or R&D; and further request, pending additional recommendations
of CODIB/COMIREX, that the agencies not initiate any additional chip
*Interservice Coordinating and Integrating Group for Tactical Air
Reconnaissance and Battlefield Surveillance.
(Revised 28 February 1968)
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developments or applications that do not relate to one of the three chip
sizes indicated in Recommendation D2, above, without notification of -the
photo chip working group and indicating their rationale for such a
departure.
Chairman
Committee on Documentation
Attachment:
As stated
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REPORT ON
04
PHOTO CHIP
STANDARDIZATION
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CODI B-D-111/1.8/8
NOVEMBER 1967
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CODIB-D-111/1.8/8
15 November. 1967
U N T ' I ' E D S T A T E S I N T E L L I G E N C E B 0 A R D
COMMITTEE ON DOCUMENTATION
TASK TEAM VIII --- Photo Chip
Final Report
GROUP I
Excluded from automatic
downgrading arid
declassification.
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CODIB-D-111/148/8
IS November 1967
U N I T E D S T A T E S I N T E L L I G E N C E B O A R D
COMMITTEE ON DOCUMENTATION
TASK TEAM VIII - PHOTO CHIP
4
MEMORANDUM FOR: Chairman, Committee on Documentation
SUBJECT: Transmittal of Task Team VIII Report
REFERENCE: CODIB-D-111/1.8/3*
1. Attached. is the final report of CODIB Task Team VIII, prepared in
response to reference. Further discussion supporting the major points in
this summary report may be found in the annexes.
2. The judgments expressed reflect the extensive experience and the
insights of the team members** many of whom are key managers in the aero-
space reconnaissance community. Departmental and organizatio:a1 thinking,
positions and guidance were set aside in the interest of objective findinge.
Although this report has been informally checked by the USIB components
primarily concerned, there has been no formal departmental/agency coordination
of the report in any sense.
3. Requirements for photo chips and reduced imagery are a pressing,
diverse, and. generally underestimated problem in the intelligence community.
The magnitude of the problem has varied extremely, depending upon the changing
environmental climate and whether the objectives were defined in terms of
the ideal, possible, feasible, or practical solution. The Team, in addressing
its assigned task, found itself in a predicament much like that of a physician
trying to diagnose and prescribe a cure for a group of patients suspected
of suffering from the same or related conditions. The Team, like the physician,
found the patients treating their local symptoms with home remedies. In some
cases these local remedies appeared to be reasonably successful for a given
condition, however, no single local remedy appeared capable of curing all the`
various other local conditions. Standardizing; treatment at this point would
be tantamount to choosing among the "mi ,acle drugs", innoculation, or other
unproven treatment like the current "cures for cancer". There is little
prospect or authority for preventing patients from still using their established
local treatment of known value and confidence factor. The Team, like the
physician, also found it wise to only prescribe standardizing on the fewest
selected treatments and techniques that have proven most successful across the
spectrum of symptoms (requiremer.nts) until the best solution can be determined,
tested, and evaluated scientifically under the authority of a carefully
selected panel of experts.
rl_. A paradoxical situation exists, where, in spite of a continual avalanche
of reconnaissance material, decision makers at all levels need more
Terms of Reference, see Annex '1-
Li.st of team members and their organizations are contained in Annex K.
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details upon which they can base decisions of critical importance. The photo
chip/imagery problem has been rising rapidly above department considerations to
the National level of decision making. There is a pressing need to match the
truly significant sums spent to obtain high quality imagery with sufficient
facilities for systematic handling, exploitation, storage and retrieval if the
essential quality is to be retained and exploited. This situation, recent
operational experience in Southeast Asia, and a growing appreciation for the
advantages of improved data base concepts have finally created a more receptive
condition of readiness for this Team's report. Key, necessary actions require
increasing attention to (a) development of national and operational "Data-Base"
concepts (including imagery), and (b) distribution of the prodigious amount of
reconnaissance imagery collected to the place(s) where it can be properly
analyzed, in a near real-time as possible, and then exploited in depth.
Attention must certainly be given to the photo chip as the most probable and
promising solution. The chip can serve such functions as publication, dis-
tribution, analysis, local file storage and retrieval, display, exchange,
and imagery/facsimile transmission.
5. After carefully studying alternatives in this changing environment, the
Team presents its solution in the form of a standardization plan. This plan
is for the most practical and feasible standardization action for the immediate
future while providing for timely and systematic progress toward a more nearly
ideal solution in pace with evolving concepts, technology, and conditions of
readiness. It is essential that the recommendations contained herein be
endorsed as soon as possible to provide the most timely and cost effective
benefits to the U. S. intelligence community; the worth of the recommendations
will probably be proportional to their early endorsement and effective
implementation. Unless adequate guidance on the photo chip/imagery problem
is provided by CODIB/USIB, development chip decisions will continue to be based
on expediency and local, rather than community, requirements. This could lead
to unnecessary and costly duplication, delays, and confrontation among chip
systems and between chip and associated systems.
6. Recommended actions are in two categories, first, those requiring
immediate CODIB decisions and second, those which require consistent coordinated
action by one or more appropriate follow-on bodies. The composition of the
follow-on body(ies) is critical to the success of the standardization plan.
Misassignment or assignment on a collateral duty basis, would continue to
compound the problem. Since a summary report,.like a five minute brief of a
detailed lecture, may appear to oversimplify the problem and encourage pre-
emptive decisions, it appears advisable to make the following observations.
Although the Joint Imagery and Interpretation Review Group (JIIRG) report
generally agreed with this Team's earlier report of May 1966, it did not review
or deal directly with the photo chip problem.* The Photo chip problem prevades
the data base, research and development, systems support, storage and retrieval,
and ADP areas; therefore, it is not recommended that it be assigned solely to
any existing committee. Experience of this Team and those that have served in
Vietnam emphasizes the urgent requirement for more intimate and continuing
participation in systems design by the ultimate users, down to the lowest level
of field/tactical employment. Coordination/integration is required horizontally
at both the national and operational/field levels and vertically between the
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two. Appropriate follow-on action will require sufficiently broad authority
and responsibility to continue chip system development for the benefit of
the entire intelligence community.
7. The Team members and I stand ready to assist, where possible, those
concerned with the recommended follow-on actions. Team studies and
documentation have been retained to expedite and support in-depth analysis.
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CODIB-D-111/1.8/8
15 November 1967
U N I T E D S T A T E S I N T E L L I G E N C E B O A R D
COMMITTEE ON DOCUMENTATION
Task Team VIII - Photo Chip Standardization
Table of Contents
L=
I. Objective and Approach ........................................1
A. Objective ................................................. 1_
B. Approach ..................................................1
C. Task Team Agreements ......................................1
D. Survey and Analysis .......................................1
E. Membership ................................................2
II. Findings and Conclusions ...................................... 2
A. General ...................................................2
B. Photo Chip Standardization ................................3
C. Standardization Development Pr.rogram ....................... 4
D. Identification of Selected Problem Areas .................. 5
III.. Assembled Illustrations.,
A. Three Categories of Chips (Exploitation/ L-8276 ... Annex A
Interpretation, Data Base, Rf,ference).
B. DoD (ISCIG-TARABS) Recommended P= oto L-8277 ... Annex C
Chip Format (70mm X 100mm) .
C. Approach to Standardization (Decis ;on L-9684 ... Annexes A&D
Chart - Problems and Alternatives).
D. Data Bose Chip Interface/Interface (Family- L-8273..... Annex A
to-Family; Chip-to-Chip; and Image-to-
Image Exchange/Transfer Relationships).
E. Data Base Chip and Roll Film Interface L-8275 ... Annex A
(Variable Image Transfer; Direct Enlarge-
ment, and Reduction) .
F. Cli_i_p/In;a;e Proportionality and Data L-9342 ... Annex D
Exchange (Case for a Standard
Proportionality Ratio)
G. Chips in Proportion (Examples of various L-9344 ... Annex D
chip sizes having fixed dimensional
proportionality)
h Annex B also contains an extensive sampling of various chips investigated by
the Task Team. It is being published separately and in limited distribution.
Copies will be available on loan through the CODIB Support Staff.
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Table of Contents contd. Page
H. Sample specifications of MICROFICHE L-9343 ... Annex D
size chip which could be adapted for
Data Base and Exploitation applications.
I. Versatility of Chips in Combination L-8274 ... Annex E
(Advantages of Combining Chips of
Various sizes and Qualities).
IV. Recommendations ............................................... 6
A. Chip Standardization Action ............................... 6
B. Standardization Development Program ....................... 6
C. Identification of Selected Problem Areas .................. 6
A. The Chip Problem and Elements of Consideration
B. Chip Examples, A Major Sampling (Published Separately in
Limited Quantity)
C. Characteristics of the DoD Recommended 70mm X 100mm Data
Base Photo Chip
D. Considerations Affecting Chip Compatibility and Chip Systems
Concepts
E. Selected Considerations and Contingencies Affecting the
Future of the Photo Chip
F. List of Chip Standardization Follow-On Actions
G. Definition of Terms or Phrases Used with New or Particularized
Meaning
H. Terms of Reference for Task Team VIII
I. Briefings Given to Members of Task Team VIII
J. Photo Chip Survey Questionnaire
K. Task Team VIII Members and Participants
L. List of Selected Reference Material (Including Detailed Task
Team.Working Papers and Draft Reports).
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For purposes of the photo chip inquiry and this report, the
following definition was established by the Task Team:
Photo Chip - The general class of transparencies cut
or produced to convenient size, bearing an image of a physical or
cultural feature of the earth's surface, of maps, charts, text,
or of associated intelligence information or background materials.
The chip may also contain supplemental coded, indexed, locational, or
textual data related to the image content. There are three general
categories of chips considered in this report:
1. Data Base Chip
2. Exploitation/Interpretation Chip
3. Reference Chip
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