Txij li thaum lig 1960s thiab thaum ntxov 1970s, feem ntau cov tsoos aerial photography systems tau hloov los ntawm huab cua thiab aerospace electro-optical thiab hluav taws xob sensor systems. Thaum kev yees duab huab cua ib txwm ua haujlwm feem ntau hauv qhov pom-lub teeb wavelength, niaj hnub airborne thiab hauv av-raws li cov chaw taws teeb sensing systems tsim cov ntaub ntawv uas npog lub teeb pom kev, reflected infrared, thermal infrared, thiab microwave spectral cheeb tsam. Cov txheej txheem kev txhais lus pom hauv cov duab saum huab cua tseem yuav pab tau. Txawm li cas los xij, kev paub txog tej thaj chaw deb suav nrog ntau yam kev siv, suav nrog cov haujlwm ntxiv xws li theoretical modeling of target properties, spectral measurements of objects, and digital image analysis for information extraction.
Kev paub txog tej thaj chaw deb, uas yog hais txog txhua yam ntawm kev tsis sib cuag mus ntev-ntev, yog ib txoj hauv kev uas siv electromagnetism los ntes, sau thiab ntsuas cov yam ntxwv ntawm lub hom phiaj thiab cov ntsiab lus tau hais thawj zaug hauv 1950s. Lub teb ntawm kev paub txog tej thaj chaw deb thiab daim ntawv qhia, nws tau muab faib ua 2 hom kev paub: nquag thiab passive sensing, uas Lidar sensing yog active, muaj peev xwm siv nws tus kheej lub zog kom emit lub teeb rau lub hom phiaj thiab ntes lub teeb reflected los ntawm nws.