2,253 research outputs found
InLoc: Indoor Visual Localization with Dense Matching and View Synthesis
We seek to predict the 6 degree-of-freedom (6DoF) pose of a query photograph
with respect to a large indoor 3D map. The contributions of this work are
three-fold. First, we develop a new large-scale visual localization method
targeted for indoor environments. The method proceeds along three steps: (i)
efficient retrieval of candidate poses that ensures scalability to large-scale
environments, (ii) pose estimation using dense matching rather than local
features to deal with textureless indoor scenes, and (iii) pose verification by
virtual view synthesis to cope with significant changes in viewpoint, scene
layout, and occluders. Second, we collect a new dataset with reference 6DoF
poses for large-scale indoor localization. Query photographs are captured by
mobile phones at a different time than the reference 3D map, thus presenting a
realistic indoor localization scenario. Third, we demonstrate that our method
significantly outperforms current state-of-the-art indoor localization
approaches on this new challenging data
Neighbourhood Consensus Networks
We address the problem of finding reliable dense correspondences between a
pair of images. This is a challenging task due to strong appearance differences
between the corresponding scene elements and ambiguities generated by
repetitive patterns. The contributions of this work are threefold. First,
inspired by the classic idea of disambiguating feature matches using semi-local
constraints, we develop an end-to-end trainable convolutional neural network
architecture that identifies sets of spatially consistent matches by analyzing
neighbourhood consensus patterns in the 4D space of all possible
correspondences between a pair of images without the need for a global
geometric model. Second, we demonstrate that the model can be trained
effectively from weak supervision in the form of matching and non-matching
image pairs without the need for costly manual annotation of point to point
correspondences. Third, we show the proposed neighbourhood consensus network
can be applied to a range of matching tasks including both category- and
instance-level matching, obtaining the state-of-the-art results on the PF
Pascal dataset and the InLoc indoor visual localization benchmark.Comment: In Proceedings of the 32nd Conference on Neural Information
Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2018
Benchmarking 6DOF Outdoor Visual Localization in Changing Conditions
Visual localization enables autonomous vehicles to navigate in their
surroundings and augmented reality applications to link virtual to real worlds.
Practical visual localization approaches need to be robust to a wide variety of
viewing condition, including day-night changes, as well as weather and seasonal
variations, while providing highly accurate 6 degree-of-freedom (6DOF) camera
pose estimates. In this paper, we introduce the first benchmark datasets
specifically designed for analyzing the impact of such factors on visual
localization. Using carefully created ground truth poses for query images taken
under a wide variety of conditions, we evaluate the impact of various factors
on 6DOF camera pose estimation accuracy through extensive experiments with
state-of-the-art localization approaches. Based on our results, we draw
conclusions about the difficulty of different conditions, showing that
long-term localization is far from solved, and propose promising avenues for
future work, including sequence-based localization approaches and the need for
better local features. Our benchmark is available at visuallocalization.net.Comment: Accepted to CVPR 2018 as a spotligh
High-Precision Localization Using Ground Texture
Location-aware applications play an increasingly critical role in everyday
life. However, satellite-based localization (e.g., GPS) has limited accuracy
and can be unusable in dense urban areas and indoors. We introduce an
image-based global localization system that is accurate to a few millimeters
and performs reliable localization both indoors and outside. The key idea is to
capture and index distinctive local keypoints in ground textures. This is based
on the observation that ground textures including wood, carpet, tile, concrete,
and asphalt may look random and homogeneous, but all contain cracks, scratches,
or unique arrangements of fibers. These imperfections are persistent, and can
serve as local features. Our system incorporates a downward-facing camera to
capture the fine texture of the ground, together with an image processing
pipeline that locates the captured texture patch in a compact database
constructed offline. We demonstrate the capability of our system to robustly,
accurately, and quickly locate test images on various types of outdoor and
indoor ground surfaces
Appearance-based indoor localization: a comparison of patch descriptor performance
Vision is one of the most important of the senses, and humans use it
extensively during navigation. We evaluated different types of image and video
frame descriptors that could be used to determine distinctive visual landmarks
for localizing a person based on what is seen by a camera that they carry. To
do this, we created a database containing over 3 km of video-sequences with
ground-truth in the form of distance travelled along different corridors. Using
this database, the accuracy of localization - both in terms of knowing which
route a user is on - and in terms of position along a certain route, can be
evaluated. For each type of descriptor, we also tested different techniques to
encode visual structure and to search between journeys to estimate a user's
position. The techniques include single-frame descriptors, those using
sequences of frames, and both colour and achromatic descriptors. We found that
single-frame indexing worked better within this particular dataset. This might
be because the motion of the person holding the camera makes the video too
dependent on individual steps and motions of one particular journey. Our
results suggest that appearance-based information could be an additional source
of navigational data indoors, augmenting that provided by, say, radio signal
strength indicators (RSSIs). Such visual information could be collected by
crowdsourcing low-resolution video feeds, allowing journeys made by different
users to be associated with each other, and location to be inferred without
requiring explicit mapping. This offers a complementary approach to methods
based on simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms.Comment: Accepted for publication on Pattern Recognition Letter
A mosaic of eyes
Autonomous navigation is a traditional research topic in intelligent robotics and vehicles, which requires a robot to perceive its environment through onboard sensors such as cameras or laser scanners, to enable it to drive to its goal. Most research to date has focused on the development of a large and smart brain to gain autonomous capability for robots. There are three fundamental questions to be answered by an autonomous mobile robot: 1) Where am I going? 2) Where am I? and 3) How do I get there? To answer these basic questions, a robot requires a massive spatial memory and considerable computational resources to accomplish perception, localization, path planning, and control. It is not yet possible to deliver the centralized intelligence required for our real-life applications, such as autonomous ground vehicles and wheelchairs in care centers. In fact, most autonomous robots try to mimic how humans navigate, interpreting images taken by cameras and then taking decisions accordingly. They may encounter the following difficulties
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