Three Dimensional Machine Vision

Three-Dimensional Machine Vision

Three-dimensional Computer Vision

This monograph by one of the world's leading vision researchers provides a thorough, mathematically rigorous exposition of a broad and vital area in computer vision: the problems and techniques related to three-dimensional (stereo) vision and motion. The emphasis is on using geometry to solve problems in stereo and motion, with examples from navigation and object recognition. Faugeras takes up such important problems in computer vision as projective geometry, camera calibration, edge detection, stereo vision (with many examples on real images), different kinds of representations and transformations (especially 3-D rotations), uncertainty and methods of addressing it, and object representation and recognition. His theoretical account is illustrated with the results of actual working programs.Three-Dimensional Computer Vision proposes solutions to problems arising from a specific robotics scenario in which a system must perceive and act. Moving about an unknown environment, the system has to avoid static and mobile obstacles, build models of objects and places in order to be able to recognize and locate them, and characterize its own motion and that of moving objects, by providing descriptions of the corresponding three-dimensional motions. The ideas generated, however, can be used indifferent settings, resulting in a general book on computer vision that reveals the fascinating relationship of three-dimensional geometry and the imaging process.

Three-Dimensional Machine Vision

Arobotmustperceivethethree-dimensionalworldifitistobeeffective there. Yet recovering 3-D information from projected images is difficult, and still remains thesubjectofbasic research. Alternatively, onecan use sensorsthatcanprovidethree-dimensionalrangeinformationdirectly. The technique ofprojecting light-stripesstartedto be used in industrialobject recognition systems asearly asthe 1970s, andtime-of-flight laser-scanning range finders became available for outdoor mobile robotnavigation in the mid-eighties. Once range data are obtained, a vision system must still describe the scene in terms of 3-D primitives such as edges, surfaces, and volumes, and recognize objeCts of interest. Today, the art of sensing, extractingfeatures, and recognizing objectsbymeans ofthree-dimensional rangedataisoneofthemostexcitingresearchareasincomputervision. Three-Dimensional Machine Vision is a collection of papers dealing withthree-dimensionalrangedata. Theauthorsarepioneeringresearchers: some are founders and others are bringingnew excitements in thefield. I have tried to select milestone papers, and my goalhas beento make this bookareferenceworkforresearchersinthree-dimensionalvision. The book is organized into four parts: 3-D Sensors, 3-D Feature Extractions, ObjectRecognitionAlgorithms, andSystemsandApplications. Part I includes four papers which describe the development of unique, capable 3-D range sensors, as well as discussions of optical, geometrical, electronic, and computational issues. Mundy and Porter describe asensor systembasedonstructuredilluminationforinspectingmetalliccastings. In order to achieve high-speed data acquisition, it uses multiple lightstripes withwavelength multiplexing. Case, Jalkio, andKim alsopresentamulti- stripe system and discuss various design issues in range sensing by triangulation. ThenumericalstereocameradevelopedbyAltschuler, Bae, Altschuler, Dijak, Tamburino, and Woolford projects space-coded grid patterns which are generated by an electro-optical programmable spatial viii PREFACE light modulator. Kanade and Fuhrman present a proximity sensor using multipleLEDswhich areconically arranged. Itcan measurebothdistance andorientationofanobject'ssurface.