A new discontinuity trace automated detection methodology was presented based on automated line feature detection,SVM fracture recognition, and segmentation tracing linking. The line feature point was the zero crossings of the light intensity function’s first derivatives, which were calculated at each pixel in the direction where the image light intensity function’s second derivative was maximum. All line feature points were linked into line segmentations according to the principle of edge likelihood. These line segmentations were thus characterized by calculating a series of photometric and geometrical parameters. Then, the fracture traces were classified by the soft margin optimization with box constraints. The experimental results showed that the fracture trace in the rock mass exposure image can be automated detected and recognized by this new methodology. The discontinuity trace map constructed by the new methodology is mainly consistent with the map drawn manually. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.
