Surface Reconstruction from Image Sequences

Abstract

This article presents a facility developed in support of image sequence procesiiiig for an autonoliious x-eliicle. As in man the success of the sequence analysis tlel?ends 011 t, he ability to operate explicitly in both space and tinic, and 011 exploiting the massive redundancy present iii the hundreds of view that can lie obtained when moving through a scene. The mechanism in our analysis that integrates the is a 3-D surrace-buildins process called the il'envzrzg Wall this paper focuses on the construction and use of siirfaces from this process In robotic navigation mork the surfaces represent the space-time evolulzon of scene images, and this rcpresen(ation, in coiijuiictioii with geometric constraints, allows us to determine tlie thrcc-dimensional structure of a scene. In other domains where there is a similar gradual evolution of data oyer a third dimension, in medical tomography or scale-space studies, for example, the surfaces constructed by the Weaving Wall are iiniiiediately of value for their topographic structure. The designs of both the surface-building and scene-rcconstriictiiig processes make them well-suited for real-time operation given appropriate hardware The principlc hehiiid tlie \Veaviiig TT.sl1 may have a dramatic impact 011 vision; medical iniagiiig, antl other fields.