<title>Three-dimensional feature extraction using data fusion method</title>

Abstract

As range images, obtained by active laser radar (LADAR), contain the 3-D information necessary for 3-D environment understanding, great attention has been attracted, in the field of computer vision, to the processing of the range images in order to get the 3-D features of the environment. Unfortunately, most of the already proposed processing methods of range images are extensively time-consuming. Therefore, the use of range images to obtain 3-D information about environment is largely limited. This presentation proposes a method, based on data fusion, to obtain 3-D features of polyhedrons using co-registered range and intensity images. First, feature points and edges of the candidate planes of the objects in the intensity image are acquired by analyzing the intensity variation. Then, the candidate 3-D vertices, edges, and planes in range image can be gotten using the correspondence of the two co- registered images. Next, the candidate planes are verified by computing and analyzing the curvatures and normals at some feature points and edges on the candidate planes in the range image. Finally, the verified candidates are regarded as actual planes of the sensed object, and are used to construct a hierarchical representation of the object. Experiment results on simulated data have been given to show the feasibility of the proposed approach.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.