A FLEXIBLE AND AUTOMATIC 3D RECONSTRUCTION METHOD

This paper proposes a flexible and automatic technique of 3D modeling from images captured by a handheld camera. The camera used here is a metric digital camera. This method is well suited for use without specialized knowledge of 3D geometry or computer vision. The technique only requires the camera to take photos around the object to be measured. The camera can be freely moved. But, the distance of neighboring image station should not be too far. Then the taken photos are processed and the procedure consists of relative orientation and connection of consecutive photos and a rigid bundle adjustment, followed by a robust image matching technique and TIN generation and texture mapping. At this time 3D model is produced. Several sets of real data have been used to test the proposed technique, and very good results have been obtained. Compared with classical techniques which use some special equipment or have some special requirement, the proposed technique is easy to use and flexible, even can be automatic. It advances 3D computer vision one step from laboratory environments to real world use.