Matching two perspective views

A computational approach to image matching is described. It uses multiple attributes associated with each image point to yield a generally overdetermined system of constraints, taking into account possible structural discontinuities and occlusions. In the algorithm implemented, intensity, edgeness, and cornerness attributes are used in conjunction with the constraints arising from intraregional smoothness, field continuity and discontinuity, and occlusions to compute dense displacement fields and occlusion maps along the pixel grids. The intensity, edgeness, and cornerness are invariant under rigid motion in the image plane. In order to cope with large disparities, a multiresolution multigrid structure is employed. Coarser level edgeness and cornerness measures are obtained by blurring the finer level measures. The algorithm has been tested on real-world scenes with depth discontinuities and occlusions. A special case of two-view matching is stereo matching, where the motion between two images is known. The algorithm can be easily specialized to perform stereo matching using the epipolar constraint     

Generating octrees from object silhouettes in orthographic views

An algorithm to construct the octree representation of a three-dimensional object from silhouette images of the object is described. The images must be obtained from thirteen viewing directions corresponding to the three face views, six edge views, and four corner views of an upright cube. These views where chosen because they provide a simple relationship between pixels in the image and the octant labels in the octree, thus replacing the computation of detecting intersections between the octree space and the objects by a table lookup operation. The average ratio of the object volume to the octree volume is found to be greater than 90%. The sequential use made of the chosen viewing directions results in a coarse-to-fine acquisition of occupancy information. The number and order of the viewpoints used provides a mechanism for trading accuracy of the representation against the computational effort needed to obtain the representation     

Construction of 3D solid objects from orthographic views

An algorithm to generate three-dimensional solid objects, made up of planar surfaces, from the given three conventional engineering orthographic views is presented in this paper. Consisting of six major steps, the algorithm has been programmed in C on IRIS 1400 graphics workstation. The algorithm generates all possible solutions. The infinite space has been divided into finite subspaces by making use of the surface normals and the direction of travel of the edges that connect the faces. Classification of the probable 3D subobjects into the certain and uncertain ones has proved to be very useful in reducing the time taken by the algorithm. Several illustrative examples, simple as well as complex giving single and multiple solutions, are included.     

Polyhedral objects identification through the orthographic projection views generation

This paper presents a new method to automatic recognition of polyhedra. Given images taken from different viewpoints of designated polyhedra, algorithms are developed to interpret them as the same object. Based on the heuristic inference of the polyhedral scene regularities and the gradient space analysis, this method will restore the 3-D information of the polyhedra. The 3-D data is used for the generation of the orthographic projection views of the observed object which consist of the top view, the front view, and the side view.     

Solid reconstruction from orthographic opaque views using incremental extrusion

The reconstruction of 3-D solids from 2-D projections is an important research topic in reverse engineering. The reconstruction can be grouped into two categories: single-view approach and multiple-view approach. Each approach can be classified as wireframe, BRep or CSG. However, not many CSG approaches have been reported in the literature. The methods are also restricted to uniform-thickness objects or require user interaction. The method proposed in this paper employs the CSG approach. A 3-D solid computer model is reconstructed from 2-D line drawings of six orthographic opaque views, viz. top, front, left, right, bottom and rear views. Firstly, the six views are grouped into three pairs. For each pair of views, segmented areas from one of the two views (called g-view) is incrementally extruded according to the information in the neighbouring view (called d-view). Extrusion primitive solids are generated during the incremental extrusion. All primitive solids are then unioned into an extrusion solid. Finally, all extrusion solids are intersected to give a unique 3-D solution object.     

Estimation of three-dimensional objects from orthographic views with inconsistencies

Many algorithms to construct 3-D solid objects from orthographic views assume the bottom-up approach. This paper describes a method for identifying conflictions found in inconsistent views which improbably present complete objects and estimating solid objects. The sources of inconsistencies are extra segments, missing segments and incorrect classifications of line types (visible lines or hidden lines). In order to supply candidates for missing segments, probable segments are generated not from three views but from two views. The signs appearing in each step of the bottom-up algorithm are examined, and then the heuristic method for selecting more probable segments is developed. The estimation of solid objects and identification of incoherences are useful, for example, to detect improper input of three views and incorrect recognition of engineering drawings.     

Reconstruction of intersecting curved solids from 2D orthographic views

This paper presents a new approach to reconstruct curved solids composed of elementary volumes intersecting with one another from three-view engineering drawings. Intersection curves arising from two intersecting curved surfaces are mostly higher order spatial curves, which cannot be described exactly by 2D orthographic projections and normally represented as smooth curves passing through several key points or even simplified as arcs or lines. Approximated sketches of higher order intersection curves in 2D views result in the invalidation of existing methods that need the exact projection information as input. Based on some heuristic hints, our method is able to recover the complete and correct half-profiles of the intersecting elementary volumes using the least traces left by them, which ensure the correctness of solution solids constructed finally. Several examples are provided to show the validation of the described method.     

Solid reconstruction using recognition of quadric surfaces from orthographic views

The reconstruction of 3D objects from 2D orthographic views is crucial for maintaining and further developing existing product designs. A B-rep oriented method for reconstructing curved objects from three orthographic views is presented by employing a hybrid wire-frame in place of an intermediate wire-frame. The Link-Relation Graph (LRG) is introduced as a multi-graph representation of orthographic views, and quadric surface features (QSFs) are defined by special basic patterns of LRG as well as aggregation rules. By hint-based pattern matching in the LRGs of three orthographic views in an order of priority, the corresponding QSFs are recognized, and the geometry and topology of quadric surfaces are recovered simultaneously. This method can handle objects with interacting quadric surfaces and avoids the combinatorial search for tracing all the quadric surfaces in an intermediate wire-frame by the existing methods. Several examples are provided.     

Using motion from orthographic views to verify 3-D point matches

The specific problem addressed by the authors is how to detect the true match of a fourth point from among candidate matches in a situation in which three points have already been matched. The two sets of points to be matched are both subject to measurement errors. The depth error is more dominant than errors in the other two coordinates; however, the exact statistical distribution of the measurement errors is not known. The authors present a new method for solving the problem. The method is based on the technique of motion analysis using orthographic views. It discards the noisy z (depth) coordinates and uses only the x and y coordinates of the points to verify the match. The effect of depth errors on the motion estimate is completely prevented. Results show that this method is substantially more effective than previous methods that use all three coordinates     

Motion and structure from two perspective views: algorithms, erroranalysis, and error estimation

Deals with estimating motion parameters and the structure of the scene from point (or feature) correspondences between two perspective views. An algorithm is presented that gives a closed-form solution for motion parameters and the structure of the scene. The algorithm utilizes redundancy in the data to obtain more reliable estimates in the presence of noise. An approach is introduced to estimating the errors in the motion parameters computed by the algorithm. Specifically, standard deviation of the error is estimated in terms of the variance of the errors in the image coordinates of the corresponding points. The estimated errors indicate the reliability of the solution as well as any degeneracy or near degeneracy that causes the failure of the motion estimation algorithm. The presented approach to error estimation applies to a wide variety of problems that involve least-squares optimization or pseudoinverse. Finally the relationships between errors and the parameters of motion and imaging system are analyzed. The results of the analysis show, among other things, that the errors are very sensitive to the translation direction and the range of field view. Simulations are conducted to demonstrate the performance of the algorithms and error estimation as well as the relationships between the errors and the parameters of motion and imaging systems. The algorithms are tested on images of real-world scenes with point of correspondences computed automatically     

Reconstruction of 3D interacting solids of revolution from 2D orthographic views

3D CAD is replacing 2D CAD to improve efficiency of product design and manufacturing. Therefore, converting legacy 2D drawings into 3D solid models is required. CSG based approaches reconstruct solid models from orthographic views more efficiently than traditional B-rep based approaches. A major limitation of CSG based approaches has been the limited domain of objects that can be handled. This paper aims at extending the capabilities of CSG based approaches by proposing a hint-based recognition of interacting solids of revolution. This approach can handle interacting solids of revolution as well as isolated solids of revolution.     

Octree generation from object silhouettes in perspective views

Octrees are useful for object representation when fast access to coarse spatial occupancy information is necessary. This paper presents an efficient algorithm for generating octrees from multiple perspective views of an object. The algorithm first obtains a polygonal approximation of the object silhouette. This polygon is then decomposed into convex components. For each convex component, a pyramid is formed treating the view point as its apex and the convex components as a cross section. The octree representation of each of these pyramids is obtained by performing intersection detection of the object with the cubes corresponding to octree nodes. The intersection detection step is made efficient by decomposing it into a coarse-to-fine sequence of intersection tests. The octree for one silhouette is obtained by taking the union of octrees obtained for each component. An intersection of octrees corresponding to different viewing directions gives the final octree of the object. An implementation of the algorithm is given. The accuracy of the octree representation of the objects is evaluated. The ratio of the actual volume of the object to the volume of the object reconstructed from the octree representation is used as a performance index of the algorithm.     

Effectiveness of applying 2D static depictions and 3D animations to orthographic views learning in graphical course

This study provides experiment results as an educational reference for instructors to help student obtain a better way to learn orthographic views in graphical course. A visual experiment was held to explore the comprehensive differences between 2D static and 3D animation object features; the goal was to reduce the possible misunderstanding factors in the learning process. This empirical study provided one hundred and twenty Taiwanese freshmen four types of visualization, which includes two 2D static depictions (2DT, 2DR), and two 3D animations (3DT, 3DR), to meet five surface styles on orthographic views. The responses to views ability test and interviews illustrated that applying 3D animations shows better performance in understanding the appearances and features of objects constructed by oblique and double-curved surfaces. The application of 3D animations results also demonstrates a better visual comprehension for students, especially when objects are constructed by the complicated features.     

Piecewise-planar reconstruction using two views

The article describes a reconstruction pipeline that generates piecewise-planar models of man-made environments using two calibrated views. The 3D space is sampled by a set of virtual cut planes that intersect the baseline of the stereo rig and implicitly define possible pixel correspondences across views. The likelihood of these correspondences being true matches is measured using signal symmetry analysis [1], which enables to obtain profile contours of the 3D scene that become lines whenever the virtual cut planes intersect planar surfaces. The detection and estimation of these lines cuts is formulated as a global optimization problem over the symmetry matching cost, and pairs of reconstructed lines are used to generate plane hypotheses that serve as input to PEARL clustering [2]. The PEARL algorithm alternates between a discrete optimization step, which merges planar surface hypotheses and discards detections with poor support, and a continuous optimization step, which refines the plane poses taking into account surface slant. The pipeline outputs an accurate semi-dense Piecewise-Planar Reconstruction of the 3D scene. In addition, the input images can be segmented into piecewise-planar regions using a standard labeling formulation for assigning pixels to plane detections. Extensive experiments with both indoor and outdoor stereo pairs show significant improvements over state-of-the-art methods with respect to accuracy and robustness.     

Geometric assistance for visual reasoning and construction of solids with curved surfaces from 2D orthographic views

As the extensive use of solid models becomes widespread, it is important to have a mechanism by which existing engineering drawings can be converted into solid models. Therefore, a geometric assistance that can aid in visual reasoning and constructing of solid models is beneficial. In this paper, we present key operations for a system called the Assistant for Reasoning and Construction of Solids (ARCS), which provides this assistance given a set of two orthographic views. The geometric domain of ARCS encompasses curved solids with cylindrical and spherical surfaces, such as those found in typical mechanical parts. We have devised the Cylindrical and Spherical Warping operations to create cylindrical and spherical surfaces, which use interactive computer graphics that guide a human user to curved faces of a solid. These operations are then illustrated with examples using ARCS to create the solid models of typical mechanical parts from their orthographic projections.     

Conic reconstruction and correspondence from two views

Conics are widely accepted as one of the most fundamental image features together with points and line segments. The problem of space reconstruction and correspondence of two conics from two views is addressed in this paper. It is shown that there are two independent polynomial conditions on the corresponding pair of conics across two views, given the relative orientation of the two views. These two correspondence conditions are derived algebraically and one of them is shown to be fundamental in establishing the correspondences of conics. A unified closed-form solution is also developed for both projective reconstruction of conics in space from two uncalibrated camera views and metric reconstruction from two calibrated camera views. Experiments are conducted to demonstrate the discriminality of the correspondence conditions and the accuracy and stability of the reconstruction both for simulated and real images     

A program for perspective views of three-dimensional surfaces

A numerical method is proposed for solving linear differential equations of second order without first derivatives. The new method is superior to de Vogelaere's for this class of equations, and for non-linear equations it becomes an implicit extension of de Vogelaere's method. The global truncation error at a fixed steplength h is bounded by a term of order h⁴, and the interval of absolute stability is [?2.4, 0]. The work of Coleman and Mohamed (1978) is readily adapted to provide truncation error estimates which can be used for automatic error control. It is suggested that the new method should be used in preference to de Vogelaere's for linear equations, and in particular to solve the radial Schrödinger equation. the radial Schrödinger equation.     

Identification of space curves from two-dimensional perspective views

This paper describes a new method to be used for matching three-dimensional objects with curved surfaces to two-dimensional perspective views. The method requires for each three-dimensional object a stored model consisting of a closed space curve representing some characteristic connected curved edges of the object. The input is a two-dimensional perspective projection of one of the stored models represented by an ordered sequence of points. The input is converted to a spline representation which is sampled at equal intervals to derive a curvature function. The Fourier transform of the curvature function is used to represent the shape. The actual matching is reduced to a minimization problem which is handled by the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm [3].     

Matching perspective views of a polyhedron using circuits

We present a novel approach for finding corresponding points between two line drawings extracted from perspective views of a moving object whose surface is composed of planar polygons. In our approach, each circuit of the drawings is encoded with a boundary shape code which we call the RLCC code (run length code of convex and concave strings), then a clustering technique is used to obtain the matching result recursively. A series of measures are taken to make the algorithm tolerate considerable dissimilarities which may exist between the two drawings, such as missing lines, scale differences, rotation, perspective shape distortions, etc. Experimental results are presented.