A vision system for fast 3D model reconstruction

A desktop vision system is presented for complete 3D model acquisition. It is fast, low-cost, and accurate. Partial 3D shapes and texture information are acquired from multiple viewing directions using rotational stereo and shape from focus (SFF). The resulting range images are registered to a common coordinate system and a surface representation is created for each range image. The resulting surfaces are integrated using a new algorithm named Region-of-Construction. Unlike previous approaches, the Region-of-Construction algorithm directly exploits the structure of the raw range images. The algorithm determines regions in range images corresponding to non-redundant surfaces which can be stitched along the boundaries to construct the complete 3D surface model. The algorithm is computationally efficient and less sensitive to registration error. It also has the ability to construct complete 3D models of complex objects with holes. A photo realistic 3D model is obtained by mapping texture information onto the complete surface model representing 3D shape. Experimental results for several real objects are presented.