Pii: S0267-7261(99)00018-4

Common problems encountered in automatic digitization of strong motion accelerograms, recorded on film, are presented and discussed. These include synchronization of the time scale for the three components of motion, non-uniform film speed, trace following in case of scratches or trace crossings, distortions from high contrast preprocessing of the scanned image, and trace “rotation” resulting from rotated position of the scanned film record. Procedures for correcting or eliminating these problems are suggested. The image processing hardware has developed so much during the past 20 years, that at present it exceeds the technical requirements for processing strong motion accelerograms. The problems described in this paper result from lack of training of the operators and lack of quality control in the process, which still seems to be esoteric and highly specialized. This situation may have been caused by the low demand by the engineering profession for high quality and large volume of strong motion data. q 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.