Structured Light-Based 3D Reconstruction System for Plants.

Camera-based 3D reconstruction of physical objects is one of the most popular computer vision trends in recent years. Many systems have been built to model different real-world subjects, but there is lack of a completely robust system for plants. This paper presents a full 3D reconstruction system that incorporates both hardware structures (including the proposed structured light system to enhance textures on object surfaces) and software algorithms (including the proposed 3D point cloud registration and plant feature measurement). This paper demonstrates the ability to produce 3D models of whole plants created from multiple pairs of stereo images taken at different viewing angles, without the need to destructively cut away any parts of a plant. The ability to accurately predict phenotyping features, such as the number of leaves, plant height, leaf size and internode distances, is also demonstrated. Experimental results show that, for plants having a range of leaf sizes and a distance between leaves appropriate for the hardware design, the algorithms successfully predict phenotyping features in the target crops, with a recall of 0.97 and a precision of 0.89 for leaf detection and less than a 13-mm error for plant size, leaf size and internode distance

Genetic Stereo Matching Algorithm with Fuzzy Fitness

This paper presents a genetic stereo matching algorithm with fuzzy evaluation function. The proposed algorithm presents a new encoding scheme in which a chromosome is represented by a disparity matrix. Evolution is controlled by a fuzzy fitness function able to deal with noise and uncertain camera measurements, and uses classical evolutionary operators. The result of the algorithm is accurate dense disparity maps obtained in a reasonable computational time suitable for real-time applications as shown in experimental results

GPGPU Implementation of a Genetic Algorithm for Stereo Refinement

During the last decade, the general-purpose computing on graphics processing units Graphics (GPGPU) has turned out to be a useful tool for speeding up many scientific calculations. Computer vision is known to be one of the fields with more penetration of these new techniques. This paper explores the advantages of using GPGPU implementation to speedup a genetic algorithm used for stereo refinement. The main contribution of this paper is analyzing which genetic operators take advantage of a parallel approach and the description of an efficient state- of-the-art implementation for each one. As a result, speed-ups close to x80 can be achieved, demonstrating to be the only way of achieving close to real-time performance

Computational intelligence approaches to robotics, automation, and control [Volume guest editors]

No abstract available

GPU-based Parallelization of a Sub-pixel Highresolution Stereo Matching Algorithm for Highthroughput Biomass Sorghum Phenotyping

To automate high-throughput phenotyping for infield biomass sorghum morphological traits characterization, a capable 3D vision system that can overcome challenges imposed by field conditions including variable lighting, strong wind and extreme plant height is needed. Among all available 3D sensors, traditional stereo cameras offer a viable solution to obtaining high-resolution 3D point-cloud data with the use of high-accuracy (sub-pixel) stereo matching algorithms, which, however, are inevitably highly computational. This paper reports a GPU-based parallelized implementation of the PatchMatch Stereo algorithm which reconstructs highly slanted leaf and stalk surfaces of sorghum at high speed from high-resolution stereo image pairs. Our algorithm enhanced accuracy and smoothness by using L2 norm for color distance calculation instead of L1 norm and speeded up convergence by testing the plane of the lowest cost within a local window in addition to the original spatial propagation. To better handle textureless regions, after left-right consistency check, the disparity of an occluded pixel is assigned to that of a nearby non-occluded pixel with the most similar pattern. Some of these occluded pixels in textureless region would survive a following left-right consistency check. Therefore more valid pixels would exist in textureless regions for occlusion filling. Accuracy and performance were evaluated on Middlebury datasets as well as our sorghum datasets. It achieved a high ranking in Middlebury table of subpixel precision and revealed subtle details on leaf and stalk surfaces. The output disparity maps were used to estimate stalk diameters of different varieties and growth stages. The results showed high correlation to hand measurement

A Method for the Perceptual Optimization of Complex Visualizations

A common problem in visualization applications is the display of one surface overlying another. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to do this clearly and effectively. Stereoscopic viewing can help, but in order for us to be able to see both surfaces simultaneously, they must be textured, and the top surface must be made partially transparent. There is also abundant evidence that all textures are not equal in helping to reveal surface shape, but there are no general guidelines describing the best set of textures to be used in this way. What makes the problem difficult to perceptually optimize is that there are a great many variables involved. Both foreground and background textures must be specified in terms of their component colors, texture element shapes, distributions, and sizes. Also to be specified is the degree of transparency for the foreground texture components. Here we report on a novel approach to creating perceptually optimal solutions to complex visualization problems and we apply it to the overlapping surface problem as a test case. Our approach is a three-stage process. In the first stage we create a parameterized method for specifying a foreground and background pair of textures. In the second stage a genetic algorithm is applied to a population of texture pairs using subject judgments as a selection criterion. Over many trials effective texture pairs evolve. The third stage involves characterizing and generalizing the examples of effective textures. We detail this process and present some early results