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RI | Thesis Oral | 23 Jul 2002

Robotics Institute Thesis Oral 23 Jul 2002
Place and Time | Abstract | Further Details | Thesis Committee


Automatic Three-Dimensional Modeling from Reality

Daniel Huber
Robotics Institute
Carnegie Mellon University

Place and Time

WEH 4625
1:30 PM

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) modeling from reality is the process of creating 3D digital models of real-world objects and environments. Modeling from reality finds use in a variety of domains ranging from archaeology to entertainment. Research has shown that range sensors are well-suited for creating geometrically accurate models of complex scenes. However, range sensors only capture the 3D scene structure as seen from a single viewpoint. Multiple views must be combined in order to create a complete model. Current methods for modeling from reality are limited in that they require careful measurement of the sensor viewpoints or manual registration of each view. We have developed an alternative approach that fully automates the modeling process without any knowledge the sensor viewpoints and without manual intervention.

Given a set of 3D views of a scene, the challenge is to align all the views in a common coordinate system without knowing the original sensor viewpoints or even which views overlap one another. We call this the multi-view surface matching problem. It can be seen as an extension of the pair-wise surface matching problem, in which pairs of views are aligned from arbitrary, unknown starting positions.

To solve the multi-view surface matching problem, we use pair-wise surface matching to align pairs of views, collecting the resulting matches in an attributed graph called the model graph. Unfortunately, these pair-wise matches are frequently incorrect, and it is sometimes impossible to distinguish the correct matches from incorrect ones at the local (pair-wise) level. However, by considering the global consistency of a network of views, we can eliminate incorrect, but locally consistent matches. We formulate the problem as a mixed discrete/continuous optimization over sub-graphs of the model graph, and we have designed several algorithms for performing this optimization. Once the views are correctly registered using one of our multi-view surface matching algorithms, we merge them and texture-map the resulting object.

Our multi-view surface matching framework is sensor independent and can be applied to 3D data at any scale. We show results using two different range sensors to automatically model scenes varying in size from small, "desktop" objects to large-scale terrain. For small objects, we have developed an application called hand-held modeling, in which the user holds an object and scans it from various viewpoints. This is an easy modeling method, requiring no specialized hardware, minimal training, and only a few minutes to model an average object.

Further Details

A copy of the thesis oral document can be found at http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dhuber/files/huber_thesis.pdf.

Thesis Committee


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