34 research outputs found
Planar Prior Assisted PatchMatch Multi-View Stereo
The completeness of 3D models is still a challenging problem in multi-view
stereo (MVS) due to the unreliable photometric consistency in low-textured
areas. Since low-textured areas usually exhibit strong planarity, planar models
are advantageous to the depth estimation of low-textured areas. On the other
hand, PatchMatch multi-view stereo is very efficient for its sampling and
propagation scheme. By taking advantage of planar models and PatchMatch
multi-view stereo, we propose a planar prior assisted PatchMatch multi-view
stereo framework in this paper. In detail, we utilize a probabilistic graphical
model to embed planar models into PatchMatch multi-view stereo and contribute a
novel multi-view aggregated matching cost. This novel cost takes both
photometric consistency and planar compatibility into consideration, making it
suited for the depth estimation of both non-planar and planar regions.
Experimental results demonstrate that our method can efficiently recover the
depth information of extremely low-textured areas, thus obtaining high complete
3D models and achieving state-of-the-art performance.Comment: Accepted by AAAI-202
Detail-preserving and Content-aware Variational Multi-view Stereo Reconstruction
Accurate recovery of 3D geometrical surfaces from calibrated 2D multi-view
images is a fundamental yet active research area in computer vision. Despite
the steady progress in multi-view stereo reconstruction, most existing methods
are still limited in recovering fine-scale details and sharp features while
suppressing noises, and may fail in reconstructing regions with few textures.
To address these limitations, this paper presents a Detail-preserving and
Content-aware Variational (DCV) multi-view stereo method, which reconstructs
the 3D surface by alternating between reprojection error minimization and mesh
denoising. In reprojection error minimization, we propose a novel inter-image
similarity measure, which is effective to preserve fine-scale details of the
reconstructed surface and builds a connection between guided image filtering
and image registration. In mesh denoising, we propose a content-aware
-minimization algorithm by adaptively estimating the value and
regularization parameters based on the current input. It is much more promising
in suppressing noise while preserving sharp features than conventional
isotropic mesh smoothing. Experimental results on benchmark datasets
demonstrate that our DCV method is capable of recovering more surface details,
and obtains cleaner and more accurate reconstructions than state-of-the-art
methods. In particular, our method achieves the best results among all
published methods on the Middlebury dino ring and dino sparse ring datasets in
terms of both completeness and accuracy.Comment: 14 pages,16 figures. Submitted to IEEE Transaction on image
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Combining Features and Semantics for Low-level Computer Vision
Visual perception of depth and motion plays a significant role in understanding and navigating the environment.
Reconstructing outdoor scenes in 3D and estimating the motion from video cameras are of utmost importance for applications like autonomous driving.
The corresponding problems in computer vision have witnessed tremendous progress over the last decades, yet some aspects still remain challenging today. Striking examples are reflecting and textureless surfaces or large motions which cannot be easily recovered using traditional local methods. Further challenges include occlusions, large distortions and difficult lighting conditions. In this thesis, we propose to overcome these challenges by modeling non-local interactions leveraging semantics and contextual information.
Firstly, for binocular stereo estimation, we propose to regularize over larger areas on the image using object-category specific disparity proposals which we sample using inverse graphics techniques based on a sparse disparity estimate and a semantic segmentation of the image. The disparity proposals encode the fact that objects of certain categories are not arbitrarily shaped but typically exhibit regular structures. We integrate them as non-local regularizer for the challenging object class 'car' into a superpixel-based graphical model and demonstrate its benefits especially in reflective regions.
Secondly, for 3D reconstruction, we leverage the fact that the larger the reconstructed area, the more likely objects of similar type and shape will occur in the scene. This is particularly true for outdoor scenes where buildings and vehicles often suffer from missing texture or reflections, but share similarity in 3D shape. We take advantage of this shape similarity by localizing objects using detectors and jointly reconstructing them while learning a volumetric model of their shape. This allows to reduce noise while completing missing surfaces as objects of similar shape benefit from all observations for the respective category. Evaluations with respect to LIDAR ground-truth on a novel challenging suburban dataset show the advantages of modeling structural dependencies between objects.
Finally, motivated by the success of deep learning techniques in matching problems, we present a method for learning context-aware features for solving optical flow using discrete optimization. Towards this goal, we present an efficient way of training a context network with a large receptive field size on top of a local network using dilated convolutions on patches. We perform feature matching by comparing each pixel in the reference image to every pixel in the target image, utilizing fast GPU matrix multiplication. The matching cost volume from the network's output forms the data term for discrete MAP inference in a pairwise Markov random field. Extensive evaluations reveal the importance of context for feature matching.Die visuelle Wahrnehmung von Tiefe und Bewegung spielt eine wichtige Rolle bei dem VerstĂ€ndnis und der Navigation in unserer Umwelt. Die 3D Rekonstruktion von Szenen im Freien und die SchĂ€tzung der Bewegung von Videokameras sind von gröĂter Bedeutung fĂŒr Anwendungen, wie das autonome Fahren.
Die Erforschung der entsprechenden Probleme des maschinellen Sehens hat in den letzten Jahrzehnten enorme Fortschritte gemacht, jedoch bleiben einige Aspekte heute noch ungelöst. Beispiele hierfĂŒr sind reflektierende und texturlose OberflĂ€chen oder groĂe Bewegungen, bei denen herkömmliche lokale Methoden hĂ€ufig scheitern. Weitere Herausforderungen sind niedrige Bildraten, Verdeckungen, groĂe Verzerrungen und schwierige LichtverhĂ€ltnisse. In dieser Arbeit schlagen wir vor nicht-lokale Interaktionen zu modellieren, die semantische und kontextbezogene Informationen nutzen, um diese Herausforderungen zu meistern.
FĂŒr die binokulare Stereo SchĂ€tzung schlagen wir zuallererst vor zusammenhĂ€ngende Bereiche mit objektklassen-spezifischen DisparitĂ€ts VorschlĂ€gen zu regularisieren, die wir mit inversen Grafik Techniken auf der Grundlage einer spĂ€rlichen DisparitĂ€tsschĂ€tzung und semantischen Segmentierung des Bildes erhalten. Die DisparitĂ€ts VorschlĂ€ge kodieren die Tatsache, dass die GegenstĂ€nde bestimmter Kategorien nicht willkĂŒrlich geformt sind, sondern typischerweise regelmĂ€Ăige Strukturen aufweisen. Wir integrieren sie fĂŒr die komplexe Objektklasse 'Auto' in Form eines nicht-lokalen Regularisierungsterm in ein Superpixel-basiertes grafisches Modell und zeigen die Vorteile vor allem in reflektierenden Bereichen.
Zweitens nutzen wir fĂŒr die 3D-Rekonstruktion die Tatsache, dass mit der GröĂe der rekonstruierten FlĂ€che auch die Wahrscheinlichkeit steigt, Objekte von Ă€hnlicher Art und Form in der Szene zu enthalten. Dies gilt besonders fĂŒr Szenen im Freien, in denen GebĂ€ude und Fahrzeuge oft vorkommen, die unter fehlender Textur oder Reflexionen leiden aber Ă€hnlichkeit in der Form aufweisen. Wir nutzen diese Ă€hnlichkeiten zur Lokalisierung von Objekten mit Detektoren und zur gemeinsamen Rekonstruktion indem ein volumetrisches Modell ihrer Form erlernt wird. Dies ermöglicht auftretendes Rauschen zu reduzieren, wĂ€hrend fehlende FlĂ€chen vervollstĂ€ndigt werden, da Objekte Ă€hnlicher Form von allen Beobachtungen der jeweiligen Kategorie profitieren. Die Evaluierung auf einem neuen, herausfordernden vorstĂ€dtischen Datensatz in Anbetracht von LIDAR-Entfernungsdaten zeigt die Vorteile der Modellierung von strukturellen AbhĂ€ngigkeiten zwischen Objekten.
Zuletzt, motiviert durch den Erfolg von Deep Learning Techniken bei der Mustererkennung, prĂ€sentieren wir eine Methode zum Erlernen von kontextbezogenen Merkmalen zur Lösung des optischen Flusses mittels diskreter Optimierung. Dazu stellen wir eine effiziente Methode vor um zusĂ€tzlich zu einem Lokalen Netzwerk ein Kontext-Netzwerk zu erlernen, das mit Hilfe von erweiterter Faltung auf Patches ein groĂes rezeptives Feld besitzt. FĂŒr das Feature Matching vergleichen wir mit schnellen GPU-Matrixmultiplikation jedes Pixel im Referenzbild mit jedem Pixel im Zielbild. Das aus dem Netzwerk resultierende Matching Kostenvolumen bildet den Datenterm fĂŒr eine diskrete MAP Inferenz in einem paarweisen Markov Random Field. Eine umfangreiche Evaluierung zeigt die Relevanz des Kontextes fĂŒr das Feature Matching
Viewpoint-Free Photography for Virtual Reality
Viewpoint-free photography, i.e., interactively controlling the viewpoint of a photograph after capture, is a standing challenge. In this thesis, we investigate algorithms to enable viewpoint-free photography for virtual reality (VR) from casual capture, i.e., from footage easily captured with consumer cameras. We build on an extensive body of work in image-based rendering (IBR). Given images of an object or scene, IBR methods aim to predict the appearance of an image taken from a novel perspective. Most IBR methods focus on full or near-interpolation, where the output viewpoints either lie directly between captured images, or nearby. These methods are not suitable for VR, where the user has significant range of motion and can look in all directions. Thus, it is essential to create viewpoint-free photos with a wide field-of-view and sufficient positional freedom to cover the range of motion a user might experience in VR. We focus on two VR experiences: 1) Seated VR experiences, where the user can lean in different directions. This simplifies the problem, as the scene is only observed from a small range of viewpoints. Thus, we focus on easy capture, showing how to turn panorama-style capture into 3D photos, a simple representation for viewpoint-free photos, and also how to speed up processing so users can see the final result on-site. 2) Room-scale VR experiences, where the user can explore vastly different perspectives. This is challenging: More input footage is needed, maintaining real-time display rates becomes difficult, view-dependent appearance and object backsides need to be modelled, all while preventing noticeable mistakes. We address these challenges by: (1) creating refined geometry for each input photograph, (2) using a fast tiled rendering algorithm to achieve real-time display rates, and (3) using a convolutional neural network to hide visual mistakes during compositing. Overall, we provide evidence that viewpoint-free photography is feasible from casual capture. We thoroughly compare with the state-of-the-art, showing that our methods achieve both a numerical improvement and a clear increase in visual quality for both seated and room-scale VR experiences
A real-time low-cost vision sensor for robotic bin picking
This thesis presents an integrated approach of a vision sensor for bin picking. The vision system that has been devised consists of three major components. The first addresses the implementation of a bifocal range sensor which estimates the depth by measuring the relative blurring between two images captured with different focal settings. A key element in the success of this approach is that it overcomes some of the limitations that were associated with other related implementations and the experimental results indicate that the precision offered by the sensor discussed in this thesis is precise enough for a large variety of industrial applications. The second component deals with the implementation of an edge-based segmentation technique which is applied in order to detect the boundaries of the objects that define the scene. An important issue related to this segmentation technique consists of minimising the errors in the edge detected output, an operation that is carried out by analysing the information associated with the singular edge points. The last component addresses the object recognition and pose estimation using the information resulting from the application of the segmentation algorithm. The recognition stage consists of matching the primitives derived from the scene regions, while the pose estimation is addressed using an appearance-based approach augmented with a range data analysis. The developed system is suitable for real-time operation and in order to demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach it has been examined under varying real-world scenes
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Camera positioning for 3D panoramic image rendering
This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University London.Virtual camera realisation and the proposition of trapezoidal camera architecture are the two broad contributions of this thesis. Firstly, multiple camera and their arrangement constitute a critical component which affect the integrity of visual content acquisition for multi-view video. Currently, linear, convergence, and divergence arrays are the prominent camera topologies adopted. However, the large number of cameras required and their synchronisation are two of prominent challenges usually encountered. The use of virtual cameras can significantly reduce the number of physical cameras used with respect to any of the known
camera structures, hence adequately reducing some of the other implementation issues. This thesis explores to use image-based rendering with and without geometry in the implementations leading to the realisation of virtual cameras. The virtual camera implementation was carried out from the perspective of depth map (geometry) and use of multiple image samples (no geometry). Prior to the virtual camera realisation, the generation of depth map was investigated using region match measures widely known for solving image point correspondence problem. The constructed depth maps have been compare with the ones generated
using the dynamic programming approach. In both the geometry and no geometry approaches, the virtual cameras lead to the rendering of views from a textured depth map, construction of 3D panoramic image of a scene by stitching multiple image samples and performing superposition on them, and computation
of virtual scene from a stereo pair of panoramic images. The quality of these rendered images were assessed through the use of either objective or subjective analysis in Imatest software. Further more, metric reconstruction of a scene was performed by re-projection of the pixel points from multiple image samples with
a single centre of projection. This was done using sparse bundle adjustment algorithm. The statistical summary obtained after the application of this algorithm provides a gauge for the efficiency of the optimisation step. The optimised data was then visualised in Meshlab software environment, hence providing the reconstructed scene. Secondly, with any of the well-established camera arrangements, all cameras are usually constrained to the same horizontal plane. Therefore, occlusion becomes an extremely challenging problem, and a robust camera set-up is required in order to resolve strongly the hidden part of any scene objects.
To adequately meet the visibility condition for scene objects and given that occlusion of the same scene objects can occur, a multi-plane camera structure is highly desirable. Therefore, this thesis also explore trapezoidal camera structure for image acquisition. The approach here is to assess the feasibility and potential
of several physical cameras of the same model being sparsely arranged on the edge of an efficient trapezoid graph. This is implemented both Matlab and Maya. The quality of the depth maps rendered in Matlab are better in Quality
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Robust hand pose recognition from stereoscopic capture
Hand pose is emerging as an important interface for human-computer interaction. The problem of hand pose estimation from passive stereo inputs has received less attention in the literature compared to active depth sensors. This thesis seeks to address this gap by presenting a data-driven method to estimate a hand pose from a stereoscopic camera input, with experimental results comparable to more expensive active depth sensors. The frameworks presented in this thesis are based on a two camera stereo rig capture as it yields a simpler and cheaper set-up and calibration. Three frameworks are presented, describing the sequential steps taken to solve the problem of depth and pose estimation of hands.
The first is a data-driven method to estimate a high quality depth map of a hand from a stereoscopic camera input by introducing a novel regression framework. The method first computes disparity using a robust stereo matching technique. Then, it applies a machine learning technique based on Random Forest to learn the mapping between the estimated disparity and depth given ground truth data. We introduce Eigen Leaf Node Features (ELNFs) that perform feature selection at the leaf nodes in each tree to identify features that are most discriminative for depth regression. The system provides a robust method for generating a depth image with an inexpensive stereo camera.
The second framework improves on the task of hand depth estimation from stereo capture by introducing a novel superpixel-based regression framework that takes advantage of the smoothness of the depth surface of the hand. To this end, it introduces Conditional Regressive Random Forest (CRRF), a method that combines a Conditional Random Field (CRF) and a Regressive Random Forest (RRF) to model the mapping from a stereo RGB image pair to a depth image. The RRF provides a unary term that adaptively selects different stereo-matching measures as it implicitly determines matching pixels in a coarse-to-fine manner. While the RRF makes depth prediction for each super-pixel independently, the CRF unifies the prediction of depth by modeling pair-wise interactions between adjacent superpixels.
The final framework introduces a stochastic approach to propose potential depth solutions to the observed stereo capture and evaluate these proposals using two convolutional neural networks (CNNs). The first CNN, configured in a Siamese network architecture, evaluates how consistent the proposed depth solution is to the observed stereo capture. The second CNN estimates a hand pose given the proposed depth. Unlike sequential approaches that reconstruct pose from a known depth, this method jointly optimizes the hand pose and depth estimation through Markov-chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling. This way, pose estimation can correct for errors in depth estimation, and vice versa.
Experimental results using an inexpensive stereo camera show that the proposed system measures pose more accurately than competing methods. More importantly, it presents the possibility of pose recovery from stereo capture that is on par with depth based pose recovery