The needs and prospects for automation in palynology

This paper draws attention to the following needs of palynology as a technique for palaeoclimatic reconstruction: more sites, fine resolution, larger counts, speed, objectivity and finer determination. The answer to these needs is automation of both preparation and analysis. Preparation is already well on the way to automation, add is not seen as a bottleneck. Previous attempts at automation of analysis are reviewed. The most successful to date have used computerised texture analysis of SEM images, but attempts are now being made to repeat this using optical images. The prospects for furthering this work are reviewed under the following headings: realistic scale; classifier choice; prior information, reject options and misclassification costs; feature selection; application to fossil grains; and performance assessment. (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd