模型显著域上的形状调控和处理

基于3维数字模型的显著性度量和显著域处理技术,提出一种模型显著域上的形状调控和处理方法。该方法首先基于曲面上采样顶点处局部投影高度的Gaussian加权平均双边滤波定义数字模型的表面显著性;然后利用定义在模型显著域上的形状调控函数——显著域低通形状调控函数、显著域高通形状调控函数和显著域增强形状调控函数,使模型的显著特征得到有效抑制、提升和增强,实现了针对模型表面显著特征的形状调控和处理。实验结果表明,该方法能够方便快速地实现3维数字模型的不同形状造型效果。     

体积分布的三维模型形状分析方法

针对目前形状分析方法的局限性,提出了一种融合可视化体积的网格模型形状分析方法。该方法采用ray-shooting法计算每个顶点对应的模型内部可视化体积,建立可视化体积视图,对模型进行表面及内部的形状分析。实验结果表明,基于三维模型可视化体积的方法可以描述模型的局部和全局特征,为有效地实现模型的形状分析与匹配奠定基础。     

改进的三维模型形状分布检索算法

针对传统D1距离形状分布函数获取采样点计算复杂、模型内容描述不充分和检索速率低下等问题提出了一种改进方法。该方法的关键点是：首先采用平移和缩放对模型进行标准化处理,用于减少面片之间的差异,使得采样点均匀地落在模型的表面;其次采用三角面片的索引号进行随机数的生成,并且利用三角面片的重心和质心进行有效的计算,以便用于缩短模型的处理时间和提高检索速率。利用普林斯顿大学三维模型数据库中的部分模型作为实验数据,实现结果表明：改进的方法不会降低模型的检索性能,并有效地减少了模型查询和处理时间。     

Pose normalization of 3D models via reflective symmetry on panoramic views

A novel pose normalization method, based on reflective symmetry computed on panoramic views, is presented. Qualitative and experimental investigation in 3D data-sets has led us to the observation that most objects possess a single plane of symmetry. Our approach is thus guided by this observation. Initially, through an iterative procedure, the symmetry plane of a 3D model is estimated, thus computing the first axis of the model. This is achieved by rotating the 3D model and computing reflective symmetry scores on panoramic view images. The other principal axes of the 3D model are estimated by computing the variance of the 3D model’s panoramic views. The proposed method is incorporated in a hybrid scheme, that serves as the pose normalization method in a state-of-the-art 3D object retrieval system. The effectiveness of this system, using the hybrid pose normalization scheme, is evaluated in terms of retrieval accuracy and the results clearly show improved performance against current approaches.     

Surface deformation models for nonrigid 3D shape recovery

Three-dimensional detection and shape recovery of a nonrigid surface from video sequences require deformation models to effectively take advantage of potentially noisy image data. Here, we introduce an approach to creating such models for deformable 3D surfaces. We exploit the fact that the shape of an inextensible triangulated mesh can be parameterized in terms of a small subset of the angles between its facets. We use this set of angles to create a representative set of potential shapes, which we feed to a simple dimensionality reduction technique to produce low-dimensional 3D deformation models. We show that these models can be used to accurately model a wide range of deforming 3D surfaces from video sequences acquired under realistic conditions.     

Retrieving articulated 3-D models using medial surfaces

We consider the use of medial surfaces to represent symmetries of 3-D objects. This allows for a qualitative abstraction based on a directed acyclic graph of components and also a degree of invariance to a variety of transformations including the articulation of parts. We demonstrate the use of this representation for 3-D object model retrieval. Our formulation uses the geometric information associated with each node along with an eigenvalue labeling of the adjacency matrix of the subgraph rooted at that node. We present comparative retrieval results against the techniques of shape distributions (Osada et al.) and harmonic spheres (Kazhdan et al.) on 425 models from the McGill Shape Benchmark, representing 19 object classes. For objects with articulating parts, the precision vs recall curves using our method are consistently above and to the right of those of the other two techniques, demonstrating superior retrieval performance. For objects that are rigid, our method gives results that compare favorably with these methods. A preliminary version of this article was published in EMMCVPR 2005. In this extended version we have included results on the significantly larger McGill Shape Benchmark, making a stronger case for the advantages of our method for models with articulating parts. We have also included expanded introduction, medial surface computation, matching, indexing, experimental results, and discussion sections, along with several new figures.     

Robust algorithm for tunnel closing in 3D volumetric objects based on topological characteristics of points

In this letter, we propose a robust, linear in time modification of Aktouf, Bertrand and Perroton’s algorithm for tunnel (3D hole) closing in 3D volumetric objects. Our algorithm is insensitive to small distortions and branches. The algorithm has been tested on various 3D images including very complicated 3D crack propagation images. The results of the tests, discussion of the algorithm properties and future research plans are also included in the paper.     

Automatic construction of 2D shape models

A procedure for automated 2D shape model design is presented. The system is given a set of training example shapes defined by contour point coordinates. The shapes are automatically aligned using Procrustes analysis and clustered to obtain cluster prototypes (typical objects) and statistical information about intracluster shape variation. One difference from previous methods is that the training set is first automatically clustered and shapes considered to be outliers are discarded. In this way, cluster prototypes are not distorted by outliers. A second difference is in the manner in which registered sets of points are extracted from each shape contour. We propose a flexible point matching technique that takes into account both pose/scale differences and nonlinear shape differences. The matching method is independent of the objects' initial relative position/scale and does not require any manually tuned parameters. Our shape model design method was used to learn 11 different shapes from contours that were manually traced in MR brain images. The resulting model was then employed to segment several MR brain images that were not included in the shape-training set. A quantitative analysis of our shape registration approach, within the main cluster of each structure, demonstrated results that compare very well to those achieved by manual registration; achieving an average registration error of about 1 pixel. Our approach can serve as a fully automated substitute to the tedious and time-consuming manual 2D shape registration and analysis     

3D anatomical shape atlas construction using mesh quality preserved deformable models

3D anatomical shape atlas construction has been extensively studied in medical image analysis research, owing to its importance in model-based image segmentation, longitudinal studies and populational statistical analysis, etc. Among multiple steps of 3D shape atlas construction, establishing anatomical correspondences across subjects, i.e., surface registration, is probably the most critical but challenging one. Adaptive focus deformable model (AFDM) [1] was proposed to tackle this problem by exploiting cross-scale geometry characteristics of 3D anatomy surfaces. Although the effectiveness of AFDM has been proved in various studies, its performance is highly dependent on the quality of 3D surface meshes, which often degrades along with the iterations of deformable surface registration (the process of correspondence matching). In this paper, we propose a new framework for 3D anatomical shape atlas construction. Our method aims to robustly establish correspondences across different subjects and simultaneously generate high-quality surface meshes without removing shape details. Mathematically, a new energy term is embedded into the original energy function of AFDM to preserve surface mesh qualities during deformable surface matching. More specifically, we employ the Laplacian representation to encode shape details and smoothness constraints. An expectation–maximization style algorithm is designed to optimize multiple energy terms alternatively until convergence. We demonstrate the performance of our method via a set of diverse applications, including a population of sparse cardiac MRI slices with 2D labels, 3D high resolution CT cardiac images and rodent brain MRIs with multiple structures. The constructed shape atlases exhibit good mesh qualities and preserve fine shape details. The constructed shape atlases can further benefit other research topics such as segmentation and statistical analysis.     

Building optimal 2D statistical shape models

Statistical shape models are used widely as a basis for segmenting and interpreting images. A major drawback of the approach is the need, during training, to establish a dense correspondence across a training set of segmented shapes. We show that model construction can be treated as an optimisation problem, automating the process and guaranteeing the effectiveness of the resulting models. This is achieved by optimising an objective function with respect to the correspondence. We use an information theoretic objective function that directly promotes desirable features of the model. This is coupled with an effective method of manipulating correspondence, based on re-parameterising each training shape, to build optimal statistical shape models. The method is evaluated on several training sets of shapes, showing that it constructs better models than alternative approaches.     

Hole filling in 3D volumetric objects

The construction of hole filling (or hole segmentation) method for 3D volumetric images is a new challenging issue in computer science. It needs a geometrical approach since from a topological point of view 3D holes (tunnels) are not well-delimited subsets of three dimensional space. In this paper, the authors propose an original, efficient, flexible algorithm of hole filling for volumetric objects. The algorithm has been tested on artificial objects and very complicated crack propagation tomography images. The qualitative results, quantitative results and features of proposed approach are presented in the paper. According to our knowledge it is the first algorithm of hole filling for volumetric objects.     

Robust normal estimation and region growing segmentation of infrastructure 3D point cloud models

Modern remote sensing technologies such as three-dimensional (3D) laser scanners and image-based 3D scene reconstruction are in increasing demand for applications in civil infrastructure design, maintenance, operation, and as-built construction verification. The complex nature of the 3D point clouds these technologies generate, as well as the often massive scale of the 3D data, make it inefficient and time consuming to manually analyze and manipulate point clouds, and highlights the need for automated analysis techniques. This paper presents one such technique, a new region growing algorithm for the automated segmentation of both planar and non-planar surfaces in point clouds. A core component of the algorithm is a new point normal estimation method, an essential task for many point cloud processing algorithms. The newly developed estimation method utilizes robust multivariate statistical outlier analysis for reliable normal estimation in complex 3D models, considering that these models often contain regions of varying surface roughness, a mixture of high curvature and low curvature regions, and sharp features. An adaptation of Mahalanobis distance, in which the mean vector and covariance matrix are derived from a high-breakdown multivariate location and scale estimator called Deterministic MM-estimator (DetMM) is used to find and discard outlier points prior to estimating the best local tangent plane around any point in a cloud. This approach is capable of more accurately estimating point normals located in highly curved regions or near sharp features. Thereafter, the estimated point normals serve a region growing segmentation algorithm that only requires a single input parameter, an improvement over existing methods which typically require two control parameters. The reliability and robustness of the normal estimation subroutine was compared against well-known normal estimation methods including the Minimum Volume Ellipsoid (MVE) and Minimum Covariance Determinant (MCD) estimators, along with Maximum Likelihood Sample Consensus (MLESAC). The overall region growing segmentation algorithm was then experimentally validated on several challenging 3D point clouds of real-world infrastructure systems. The results indicate that the developed approach performs more accurately and robustly in comparison with conventional region growing methods, particularly in the presence of sharp features, outliers and noise.     

Customizing 3D garments based on volumetric deformation

Improving the reusability of design results is very important for garment design industry, since designing an elegant garment is usually labor-intensive and time-consuming. In this paper, we present a new approach for customizing 3D garment models. Our approach can transfer garment models initially dressed on a reference human model onto a target human model. To achieve this goal, firstly a spatial mapping between the two human models is established with the shape constraints of cross-sections. Secondly, the space around the clothed reference human model is tetrahedralized into five tetrahedral meshes each of which either can be worked dependently with its adjacent ones or can be worked independently. The clothed reference human model is parametrically encoded in the tetrahedral meshes. Thirdly, these tetrahedral meshes are deformed by fitting the reference human model onto the target human model by using constrained volumetric graph Laplacian deformation. The updated garment models are finally decoded from the deformed tetrahedral meshes. As a result, the updated garment models are fitted onto the target human model. Experiments show that our approach performs very well and has the potential to be used in the garment design industry.     

Automatic acquisition and initialization of articulated models

Tracking, classification and visual analysis of articulated motion is challenging because of the difficulties involved in separating noise and variabilities caused by appearance, size and viewpoint fluctuations from task-relevant variations. By incorporating powerful domain knowledge, model-based approaches are able to overcome these problem to a great extent and are actively explored by many researchers. However, model acquisition, initialization and adaptation are still relatively under-investigated problems, especially for the case of single-camera systems. In this paper, we address the problem of automatic acquisition and initialization of articulated models from monocular video without any prior knowledge of shape and kinematic structure. The framework is applied in a human-computer interaction context where articulated shape models have to be acquired from unknown users for subsequent limb tracking. Bayesian motion segmentation is used to extract and initialize articulated models from visual data. Image sequences are decomposed into rigid components that can undergo parametric motion. The relative motion of these components is used to obtain joint information. The resulting components are assembled into an articulated kinematic model which is then used for visual tracking, eliminating the need for manual initialization or adaptation. The efficacy of the method is demonstrated on synthetic as well as natural image sequences. The accuracy of the joint estimation stage is verified on ground truth data.Correspondence to: N. Krahnstoever     

3D pose estimation for articulated vehicles using Kalman-filter based tracking

Knowledge about relative poses within a tractor/trailer combination is a vital prerequisite for kinematic modelling and trajectory estimation. In case of autonomous vehicles or driver assistance systems, for example, the monitoring of an attached passive trailer is crucial for operational safety. We propose a camerabased 3D pose estimation system based on a Kalman-filter. It is evaluated against previously published methods for the same problem.