Abstract
Abstract. In this contribution, we propose a versatile image-based methodology for 3D reconstructing underwater scenes of high fidelity and integrating them into a virtual reality environment. Typically, underwater images suffer from colour degradation (blueish images) due to the propagation of light through water, which is a more absorbing medium than air, as well as the scattering of light on suspended particles. Other factors, such as artificial lights, also, diminish the quality of images and, thus, the quality of the image-based 3D reconstruction. Moreover, degraded images have a direct impact on the user perception of the virtual environment, due to geometric and visual degenerations. Here, it is argued that these can be mitigated by image pre-processing algorithms and specialized filters. The impact of different filtering techniques on images is evaluated, in order to eliminate colour degradation and mismatches in the image sequences. The methodology in this work consists of five sequential pre-processes; saturation enhancement, haze reduction, and Rayleigh distribution adaptation, to de-haze the images, global histogram matching to minimize differences among images of the dataset, and image sharpening to strengthen the edges of the scene. The 3D reconstruction of the models is based on open-source structure-from-motion software. The models are optimized for virtual reality through mesh simplification, physically based rendering texture maps baking, and level-of-details. The results of the proposed methodology are qualitatively evaluated on image datasets captured in the seabed of Santorini island in Greece, using a ROV platform.
Highlights
In the past few years, there has been a massive adaptation of the Virtual Reality (VR) technology on a variety of application fields, but even more in the entertainment and cultural heritage domains
VR offers to the public, and to the scientific community, an unprecedented way of accessing environments that are typically inaccessible to common people without specialized equipment and, at some cases, huge budget
The ground truth data for underwater images are almost impossible to get, image datasets that contain original and enhanced images are based on subjective relative qualitative assessment (Chen et al, 2014)
Summary
In the past few years, there has been a massive adaptation of the Virtual Reality (VR) technology on a variety of application fields, but even more in the entertainment and cultural heritage domains. The radical hardware advancements made it possible for the VR applications to run efficiently and with high quality graphics. It is, widely accepted that VR offers a much better understanding of a represented scene and creates a higher and more immersive user experience than conventional 3D environments. VR offers to the public, and to the scientific community, an unprecedented way of accessing environments that are typically inaccessible to common people without specialized equipment and, at some cases, huge budget. Underwater environments are a significant user scenario for VR technologies to demonstrate the potentials of immersive experiences since the underwater world hosts an incredible treasure of cultural and marine biodiversity. Underwater VR can assist in interactive and immersive education and training of public and experts
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