Recognition Of 3D Curves Based On Curvature And Torsion

Abstract

Various range sensors are being used as part of a machine vision system to capture the surface of a 3D object. Significant structural changes on the surface, such as zero gaussian curvature contours, can be detected and regarded as 3D curves using differential geometry tools. In this paper, we present a technique for recognition of partially visible 3D curves which can be employed to identify 3D objects. A local/global represenation of a 3D curve is obtained by decomposing it into a number of invariant 3D curve segments. Based on curvature and torsion functions, feature vectors are assigned to the curve segments. A distance measure is then defined between two decomposed 3D curves using their corresponding feature vectors. The recognition of an occluded curve among known reference curves is achieved by obtaining the smallest distance measure. Experimental results on both simulated and real data are presented.