Model-Based Object Recognition Using Geometric Invariants of Points and Lines

In this paper, we derive new geometric invariants for structured 3D points and lines from single image under projective transform, and we propose a novel model-based 3D object recognition algorithm using them. Based on the matrix representation of the transformation between space features (points and lines) and the corresponding projected image features, new geometric invariants are derived via the determinant ratio technique. First, an invariant for six points on two adjacent planes is derived, which is shown to be equivalent to Zhu's result [1], but in simpler formulation. Then, two new geometric invariants for structured lines are investigated: one for five lines on two adjacent planes and the other for six lines on four planes. By using the derived invariants, a novel 3D object recognition algorithm is developed, in which a hashing technique with thresholds and multiple invariants for a model are employed to overcome the over-invariant and false alarm problems. Simulation results on real images show that the derived invariants remain stable even in a noisy environment, and the proposed 3D object recognition algorithm is quite robust and accurate.     

基于空间透视不变量的摄象机标定方法

本文给出了一种以空间不变量的数据来计算摄象机外部参数的方法．空间透视不变量是指在几何变换中如投影或改变观察点时保持不变的形状描述．由于它可以得到一个相对于外界来讲独立的物体景物的特征描述，故可以很广泛的应用到计算机视觉等方面．摄象机标定是确定摄象机摄取的２Ｄ图象信息及其３Ｄ实际景物的信息之间的变换关系，它包括内部参数和外部参数两个部分．内部参数表征的是摄象机的内部特征和光学特征参数，包括图象中心（Ｃｘ，Ｃｙ）坐标、图象尺度因子Ｓｘ、有效的焦距长度ｆ和透镜的畸变失真系数Ｋ；外部参数表示的是摄象机的位置和方向在世界坐标中的坐标参数，它包括平移矩阵Ｔ和旋转矩阵Ｒ３×３，一般情况下可以写成一个扩展矩阵［ＲＴ］３×４．本文基于空间透视不变量的计算数据，给出了一种标定摄象机外部参数的方法，实验结果表明该方法具有很强的鲁棒性．     

A Geometric Approach for the Theory and Applications of 3D Projective Invariants

A central task of computer vision is to automatically recognize objects in real-world scenes. The parameters defining image and object spaces can vary due to lighting conditions, camera calibration and viewing position. It is therefore desirable to look for geometric properties of the object which remain invariant under such changes in the observation parameters. The study of such geometric invariance is a field of active research. This paper presents the theory and computation of projective invariants formed from points and lines using the geometric algebra framework. This work shows that geometric algebra is a very elegant language for expressing projective invariants using n views. The paper compares projective invariants involving two and three cameras using simulated and real images. Illustrations of the application of such projective invariants in visual guided grasping, camera self-localization and reconstruction of shape and motion complement the experimental part.     

Implicit Moment Invariants

The use of traditional moment invariants in object recognition is limited to simple geometric transforms, such as rotation, scaling and affine transformation of the image. This paper introduces so-called implicit moment invariants. Implicit invariants measure the similarity between two images factorized by admissible image deformations. For many types of image deformations traditional invariants do not exist but implicit invariants can be used as features for object recognition. In the paper we present implicit moment invariants with respect to polynomial transform of spatial coordinates, describe their stable and efficient implementation by means of orthogonal moments, and demonstrate their performance in artificial as well as real experiments.     

Uniform Distribution, Distance and Expectation Problems for Geometric Features Processing

Complex geometric features such as oriented points, lines or 3D frames are increasingly used in image processing and computer vision. However, processing these geometric features is far more difficult than processing points, and a number of paradoxes can arise. We establish in this article the basic mathematical framework required to avoid them and analyze more specifically three basic problems: (1) what is a random distribution of features, (2) how to define a distance between features, (3) and what is the “mean feature” of a number of feature measurements? We insist on the importance of an invariance hypothesis for these definitions relative to a group of transformations that models the different possible data acquisitions. We develop general methods to solve these three problems and illustrate them with 3D frame features under rigid transformations. The first problem has a direct application in the computation of the prior probability of a false match in classical model-based object recognition algorithms. We also present experimental results of the two other problems for the statistical analysis of anatomical features automatically extracted from 24 three-dimensional images of a single patient's head. These experiments successfully confirm the importance of the rigorous requirements presented in this article.     

Model-based recognition of 3D objects from single images

In this work, we treat major problems of object recognition which have received relatively little attention lately. Among them are the loss of depth information in the projection from a 3D object to a single 2D image, and the complexity of finding feature correspondences between images. We use geometric invariants to reduce the complexity of these problems. There are no geometric invariants of a projection from 3D to 2D. However, given certain modeling assumptions about the 3D object, such invariants can be found. The modeling assumptions can be either a particular model or a generic assumption about a class of models. Here, we use such assumptions for single-view recognition. We find algebraic relations between the invariants of a 3D model and those of its 2D image under general projective projection. These relations can be described geometrically as invariant models in a 3D invariant space, illuminated by invariant “light rays,” and projected onto an invariant version of the given image. We apply the method to real images     

基于空间六点不变量的道路立体目标识别方法

城市道路中常设置具有3D效果的平面路障或标志物,其具有高度的立体性和真实性,导致行人和辅助驾驶系统误判而造成严重事故,因此需要对道路立体目标进行识别,以获得真实路面情况.常见的射影不变量如交比是基于共面五点计算的,存在局限性,论文提出一种基于空间点元素的几何不变量计算方法,把空间元素的共点和共线用具有物理意义的量来表示...     

一种新的几何约束结构及其射影不变量

几何不变量,特别是射影不变量,是基于单视点灰度图像识别三维物体的一条有效途径．但理论研究表明,只有特定的几何约束结构,才具有射影不变量．所以,研究并发现这种几何约束结构就具有十分重要的意义．该文提出了一种新的由相邻3平面上5条直线组成的几何约束结构及其所具有的射影不变量．该结构较Sugimoto提出的几何约束结构简单,可从结构同样复杂的物体中获得更多的几何不变量,有利于提高物体识别的稳定性;同时,由于该结构大量存在于由多面体组合而构成的人造物体及地面建筑物中,因此它非常适合这类物体的识别．实验验证了文中提出的几何约束结构具有不随物体成像视点改变的射影不变量．     

Covariant-Conics Decomposition of Quartics for 2D Shape Recognition and Alignment

This paper outlines a new geometric parameterization of 2D curves where parameterization is in terms of geometric invariants and parameters that determine intrinsic coordinate systems. This new approach handles two fundamental problems: single-computation alignment, and recognition of 2D shapes under Euclidean or affine transformations. The approach is model-based: every shape is first fitted by a quartic represented by a fourth degree 2D polynomial. Based on the decomposition of this equation into three covariant conics, we are able, in both the Euclidean and the affine cases, to define a unique intrinsic coordinate system for non-singular bounded quartics that incorporates usable alignment information contained in the polynomial representation, a complete set of geometric invariants, and thus an associated canonical form for a quartic. This representation permits shape recognition based on 11 Euclidean invariants, or 8 affine invariants. This is illustrated in experiments with real data sets.     

Catadioptric camera calibration using geometric invariants

Central catadioptric cameras are imaging devices that use mirrors to enhance the field of view while preserving a single effective viewpoint. In this paper, we propose a novel method for the calibration of central catadioptric cameras using geometric invariants. Lines and spheres in space are all projected into conics in the catadioptric image plane. We prove that the projection of a line can provide three invariants whereas the projection of a sphere can only provide two. From these invariants, constraint equations for the intrinsic parameters of catadioptric camera are derived. Therefore, there are two kinds of variants of this novel method. The first one uses projections of lines and the second one uses projections of spheres. In general, the projections of two lines or three spheres are sufficient to achieve catadioptric camera calibration. One important conclusion in this paper is that the method based on projections of spheres is more robust and has higher accuracy than that based on projections of lines. The performances of our method are demonstrated by both the results of simulations and experiments with real images.     

采用计算机视觉进行室内飞艇定位的方法研究

采用单个摄像机进行定位时,需要设定图像中的特征点和实际物体特征点间的几何约束关系,建立数学方程,来获取摄像机坐标系中物体位置的封闭解,通过求解该方程获得物体在世界坐标下的三维位置。提出了利用单摄像机视觉定位技术于科技馆室内飞艇定位中,解决了科技馆室内飞艇自主航行的定位问题。实验表明,该方法简单易行,可用于工程实际应用中,具有较高的实用价值。     

Model-Based Recognition of 3D Curves From One View

It is well known that there are no geometric invariants of a projection from 3D to 2D. However, given some modeling assumptions about the 3D object, such invariants can be found. The modeling assumptions should be sufficiently strong to enable us to find such invariants, but not stronger than necessary. In this paper we find such modeling assumptions for general 3D curves under affine projection. We show, for example, that if one of the two affine curvatures is known along the 3D curve, the other can be found from the curve's 2D image. We can also derive the point correspondence between the curve and its image. We also deal with point sets and direction vectors.     

Active Object Recognition Integrating Attention and Viewpoint Control

We present an active object recognition strategy which combines the use of an attention mechanism for focusing the search for a 3D object in a 2D image, with a viewpoint control strategy for disambiguating recovered object features. The attention mechanism consists of a probabilistic search through a hierarchy of predicted feature observations, taking objects into a set of regions classified according to the shapes of their bounding contours. We motivate the use of image regions as a focus-feature and compare their uncertainty in inferring objects with the uncertainty of more commonly used features such as lines or corners. If the features recovered during the attention phase do not provide a unique mapping to the 3D object being searched, the probabilistic feature hierarchy can be used to guide the camera to a new viewpoint from where the object can be disambiguated. The power of the underlying representation is its ability to unify these object recognition behaviors within a single framework. We present the approach in detail and evaluate its performance in the context of a project providing robotic aids for the disabled.     

Model-driven active visual tracking

We have previously demonstrated that the performance of tracking algorithms can be improved by integrating information from multiple cues in a model-driven Bayesian reasoning framework. Here we extend our work to active vision tracking, with variable camera geometry. Many existent active tracking algorithms avoid the problem of variable camera geometry by tracking view independent features, such as corners and lines. However, the performance of algorithms based on those single features will greatly deteriorate in the presence of specularities and dense clutter. We show, by integrating multiple cues and updating the camera geometry on-line, that it is possible to track a complicated object moving arbitrarily in three-dimensional (3D) space.We use a four degree-of-freedom (4-DoF) binocular camera rig to track three focus features of an industrial object, whose complete model is known. The camera geometry is updated by using the rig control commands and kinematic model of the stereo head. The extrinsic parameters are further refined by interpolation from a previously sampled calibration of the head work space.The 2D target position estimates are obtained by a combination of blob detection, edge searching and gray-level matching, with the aid of model geometrical structure projection using current estimates of camera geometry. The information is represented in the form of a probability density distribution, and propagated in a Bayes Net. The Bayesian reasoning that is performed in the 2D image is coupled by the rigid model geometry constraint in 3D space.An αβ filter is used to smooth the tracking pursuit and to predict the position of the object in the next iteration of data acquisition. The solution of the inverse kinematic problem at the predicted position is used to control the position of the stereo head.Finally, experiments show that the target undertaking arbitrarily 3D motion can be successfully tracked in the presence of specularities and dense clutter.     

Polynomial-Time Geometric Matching for Object Recognition

This paper considers the task of recognition and position determination, by computer, of a 2D or 3D object where the input is a single 2D brightness image, and a model of the object is known a priori. The primary contribution of this paper is a novel formulation and methods for local geometric feature matching. This formulation is based on analyzing geometric constraints on transformations of the model features which geometrically align it with a substantial subset of image features. Specifically, the formulation and algorithms for geometric feature matching presented here provide a guaranteed method for finding all feasible interpretations of the data in terms of the model. This method is robust to measurement uncertainty in the data features and to the presence of spurious scene features, and its time and space requirements are only polynomial in the size of the feature sets. This formulation provides insight into the fundamental nature of the matching problem, and the algorithms commonly used in computer vision for solving it.     

Improved eye-vergence visual servoing system in longitudinal direction with RM-GA

Visual servoing is a control method to manipulate the motion of the robot using visual information, which aims to realize “working while watching.” However, the visual servoing towards moving target with hand–eye cameras fixed at hand is inevitably affected by hand dynamical oscillation. To overcome this defect of the hand–eye fixed camera system, an eye-vergence system has been put forward, where the pose of the cameras could be rotated to observe the target object. The visual servoing controllers of hand and eye-vergence are installed independently, so that it can observe the target object at the center of camera images through eye-vergence function. In this research, genetic algorithm (GA) is used as a pose tracking method, which is called “Real-Time Multi-step GA(RM-GA),” solves on-line optimization problems for 3D visual servoing. The performances of real-time object tracking using eye-vergence system and “RM-GA” method have been examined, and also the pose tracking accuracy has been verified.     

Radial Hahn Moment Invariants for 2D and 3D Image Recognition

Recently, orthogonal moments have become efficient tools for two-dimensional and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) image not only in pattern recognition, image vision, but also in image processing and applications engineering. Yet, there is still a major difficulty in 3D rotation invariants. In this paper, we propose new sets of invariants for 2D and 3D rotation, scaling and translation based on orthogonal radial Hahn moments. We also present theoretical mathematics to derive them. Thus, this paper introduces in the first case new 2D radial Hahn moments based on polar representation of an object by one-dimensional orthogonal discrete Hahn polynomials, and a circular function. In the second case, we present new 3D radial Hahn moments using a spherical representation of volumetric image by one-dimensional orthogonal discrete Hahn polynomials and a spherical function. Further 2D and 3D invariants are derived from the proposed 2D and 3D radial Hahn moments respectively, which appear as the third case. In order to test the proposed approach, we have resolved three issues: the image reconstruction, the invariance of rotation, scaling and translation, and the pattern recognition. The result of experiments show that the Hahn moments have done better than the Krawtchouk moments, with and without noise. Simultaneously, the mentioned reconstruction converges quickly to the original image using 2D and 3D radial Hahn moments, and the test images are clearly recognized from a set of images that are available in COIL-20 database for 2D image, and Princeton shape benchmark (PSB) database for 3D image.