Quality Enhancement of 3D Models Reconstructed By RGB-D Camera Systems

Low-cost RGB-D cameras like Microsoft\u27s Kinect capture RGB data for each vertex while reconstructing 3D models from objects with obvious drawbacks of poor mesh and texture qualities due to their hardware limitations. In this thesis we propose a combined method that enhances geometrically and chromatically 3D models reconstructed by RGB-D camera systems. Our approach utilizes Butterfly Subdivision and Surface Fitting techniques to generate smoother triangle surface meshes, where sharp features can be well preserved or minimized by different Surface Fitting algorithms. Additionally the global contrast of mesh textures is enhanced by using a modified Histogram Equalization algorithm, in which the new intensity of each vertex is obtained by applying cumulative distribution function and calculating the accumulated normalized histogram of the texture. A number of experimental results and comparisons demonstrate that our method efficiently and effectively improves the geometric and chromatic quality of 3D models reconstructed from RGB-D cameras

Wavelet-based multiresolution data representations for scalable distributed GIS services

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-160).Demand for providing scalable distributed GIS services has been growing greatly as the Internet continues to boom. However, currently available data representations for these services are limited by a deficiency of scalability in data formats. In this research, four types of multiresolution data representations based on wavelet theories have been put forward. The designed Wavelet Image (WImg) data format helps us to achieve dynamic zooming and panning of compressed image maps in a prototype GIS viewer. The Wavelet Digital Elevation Model (WDEM) format is developed to deal with cell-based surface data. A WDEM is better than a raster pyramid in that a WDEM provides a non-redundant multiresolution representation. The Wavelet Arc (WArc) format is developed for decomposing curves into a multiresolution format through the lifting scheme. The Wavelet Triangulated Irregular Network (WTIN) format is developed to process general terrain surfaces based on the second generation wavelet theory. By designing a strategy to resample a terrain surface at subdivision points through the modified Butterfly scheme, we achieve the result: only one wavelet coefficient needs to be stored for each point in the final representation. In contrast to this result, three wavelet coefficients need to be stored for each point in a general 3D object wavelet-based representation. Our scheme is an interpolation scheme and has much better performance than the Hat wavelet filter on a surface. Boundary filters are designed to make the representation consistent with the rectangular boundary constraint.(cont.) We use a multi-linked list and a quadtree array as the data structures for computing. A method to convert a high resolution DEM to a WTIN is also provided. These four wavelet-based representations provide consistent and efficient multiresolution formats for online GIS. This makes scalable distributed GIS services more efficient and implementable.by Jingsong Wu.Ph.D

Beyond B-splines: Exponential pseudo-splines and subdivision schemes reproducing exponential polynomials

The main goal of this paper is to present some generalizations of polynomial B-splines, which include exponential B-splines and the larger family of exponential pseudo-splines. We especially focus on their connections to subdivision schemes. In addition, we generalize a well-known result on the approximation order of exponential pseudo-splines, providing conditions to establish the approximation order of nonstationary subdivision schemes reproducing spaces of exponential polynomial function

Detail Enhancing Denoising of Digitized 3D Models from a Mobile Scanning System

The acquisition process of digitizing a large-scale environment produces an enormous amount of raw geometry data. This data is corrupted by system noise, which leads to 3D surfaces that are not smooth and details that are distorted. Any scanning system has noise associate with the scanning hardware, both digital quantization errors and measurement inaccuracies, but a mobile scanning system has additional system noise introduced by the pose estimation of the hardware during data acquisition. The combined system noise generates data that is not handled well by existing noise reduction and smoothing techniques. This research is focused on enhancing the 3D models acquired by mobile scanning systems used to digitize large-scale environments. These digitization systems combine a variety of sensors – including laser range scanners, video cameras, and pose estimation hardware – on a mobile platform for the quick acquisition of 3D models of real world environments. The data acquired by such systems are extremely noisy, often with significant details being on the same order of magnitude as the system noise. By utilizing a unique 3D signal analysis tool, a denoising algorithm was developed that identifies regions of detail and enhances their geometry, while removing the effects of noise on the overall model. The developed algorithm can be useful for a variety of digitized 3D models, not just those involving mobile scanning systems. The challenges faced in this study were the automatic processing needs of the enhancement algorithm, and the need to fill a hole in the area of 3D model analysis in order to reduce the effect of system noise on the 3D models. In this context, our main contributions are the automation and integration of a data enhancement method not well known to the computer vision community, and the development of a novel 3D signal decomposition and analysis tool. The new technologies featured in this document are intuitive extensions of existing methods to new dimensionality and applications. The totality of the research has been applied towards detail enhancing denoising of scanned data from a mobile range scanning system, and results from both synthetic and real models are presented

Modelado jerárquico de objetos 3D con superficies de subdivisión

Las SSs (Superficies de Subdivisión) son un potente paradigma de modelado de objetos 3D (tridimensionales) que establece un puente entre los dos enfoques tradicionales a la aproximación de superficies, basados en mallas poligonales y de parches alabeados, que conllevan problemas uno y otro. Los esquemas de subdivisión permiten definir una superficie suave (a tramos), como las más frecuentes en la práctica, como el límite de un proceso recursivo de refinamiento de una malla de control burda, que puede ser descrita muy compactamente. Además, la recursividad inherente a las SSs establece naturalmente una relación de anidamiento piramidal entre las mallas / NDs (Niveles de Detalle) generadas/os sucesivamente, por lo que las SSs se prestan extraordinariamente al AMRO (Análisis Multiresolución mediante Ondículas) de superficies, que tiene aplicaciones prácticas inmediatas e interesantísimas, como la codificación y la edición jerárquicas de modelos 3D. Empezamos describiendo los vínculos entre las tres áreas que han servido de base a nuestro trabajo (SSs, extracción automática de NDs y AMRO) para explicar como encajan estas tres piezas del puzzle del modelado jerárquico de objetos de 3D con SSs. El AMRO consiste en descomponer una función en una versión burda suya y un conjunto de refinamientos aditivos anidados jerárquicamente llamados "coeficientes ondiculares". La teoría clásica de ondículas estudia las señales clásicas nD: las definidas sobre dominios paramétricos homeomorfos a R" o (0,1)n como el audio (n=1), las imágenes (n=2) o el vídeo (n=3). En topologías menos triviales, como las variedades 2D) (superficies en el espacio 3D), el AMRO no es tan obvio, pero sigue siendo posible si se enfoca desde la perspectiva de las SSs. Basta con partir de una malla burda que aproxime a un bajo ND la superficie considerada, subdividirla recursivamente y, al hacerlo, ir añadiendo los coeficientes ondiculares, que son los detalles 3D necesarios para obtener aproximaciones más y más finas a la superficie original. Pasamos después a las aplicaciones prácticas que constituyen nuestros principal desarrollo original y, en particular, presentamos una técnica de codificación jerárquica de modelos 3D basada en SSs, que actúa sobre los detalles 3D mencionados: los expresa en un referencial normal loscal; los organiza según una estructura jerárquica basada en facetas; los cuantifica dedicando menos bits a sus componentes tangenciales, menos energéticas, y los "escalariza"; y los codifica dinalmente gracias a una técnica similar al SPIHT (Set Partitioning In Hierarchical Tress) de Said y Pearlman. El resultado es un código completamente embebido y al menos dos veces más compacto, para superficies mayormente suaves, que los obtenidos con técnicas de codificación progresiva de mallas 3D publicadas previamente, en las que además los NDs no están anidados piramidalmente. Finalmente, describimos varios métodos auxiliares que hemos desarrollado, mejorando técnicas previas y creando otras propias, ya que una solución completa al modelado de objetos 3D con SSs requiere resolver otros dos problemas. El primero es la extracción de una malla base (triangular, en nuestro caso) de la superficie original, habitualmente dada por una malla triangular fina con conectividad arbitraria. El segundo es la generación de un remallado recursivo con conectividad de subdivisión de la malla original/objetivo mediante un refinamiento recursivo de la malla base, calculando así los detalles 3D necesarios para corregir las posiciones predichas por la subdivisión para nuevos vértices

Integration between Creativity and Engineering in Industrial Design

The objective of the paper is to illustrate which are the key issues today in the industrial design workflow, paying particular attention to the most creative part of the workflow, highlighting those nodes which still make hard the styling activities and giving a brief survey of the researches aimed at smoothing the transfer of the design intent along the whole design cycle and at providing tools even more adhering at the mentality of creative people. Based on the experience gained working in two different European projects, through the collaboration with industrial designers in the automotive and the household supplies fields, a general industrial design workflow will be depicted, highlighting the main differences between the automotive and non-automotive sectors; the problems still present in the design activity will be also illustrated. The paper includes short surveys, in relation to the aesthetic design, in matter of research activities aimed at - identifying the links between shape characteristics of a product and the transmitted emotions - better supporting, in a digital way, the 2D sketching phase and the automatic interpretation and transfer of the 2D sketches into a 3D surface model - improving the 3D Modeling phase