An ultrahigh-speed digitizer for the Harvard College Observatory astronomical plates

A machine capable of digitizing two 8 inch by 10 inch (203 mm by 254 mm) glass astrophotographic plates or a single 14 inch by 17 inch (356 mm by 432 mm) plate at a resolution of 11 microns per pixel or 2309 dots per inch (dpi) in 92 seconds is described. The purpose of the machine is to digitize the \~500,000 plate collection of the Harvard College Observatory in a five year time frame. The digitization must meet the requirements for scientific work in astrometry, photometry, and archival preservation of the plates. This paper describes the requirements for and the design of the subsystems of the machine that was developed specifically for this task.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, 1 table; presented at SPIE (July, 2006) and published in Proceeding

Metrology Enabled Reflection Transformation Imaging to Reconstruct Local Detail in Manufactured Surfaces

Understanding the performance of large high performance manufactured structures can require highly accurate dimensional measurement across large volumes with the often conflicting capability to record critical parts of the structure in fine detail. Examples include turbine blades, aircraft wings and off-site manufactured modular structures assembled on-site for city, energy and transport infrastructure. Established large-volume industrial metrology systems such as laser trackers and photogrammetry partially meet the need through the measurement of targets and reflectors, but are limited in capability to record high density local detail needed to capture the finest manufactured features. Whilst large-volume surface sensing is possible with laser radar, photogrammetric pattern projection and contact probing for example, the detail required at a local level typically demands local sensing which generally takes the form of a tracked sensor such as a triangulation laser scanner or hand held touch probe. Local sensing systems face challenges where surfaces have fine detail of similar magnitude to the local sensing system sampling capability and particularly for optical sensors where the light reflected back to the sensor by the surface includes specular reflections compounded by local geometry. This paper investigates how Reflection Transformation Imaging (RTI) with a dome camera and lighting system might be calibrated, characterised and tracked as an alternative technology that is more robust to material surface properties and capable of very fine surface detail capture. Laboratory results demonstrate the capability to characterise and locate the dome to sub-millimetric accuracy within a large-volume tracked space to achieve local surface sampling at the 30 μm × 30 μm level. A method utilising sparse touch probe points to seed conversion of low and high frequency normal maps into a common 3D surface is explored with local agreement with laser tracker surface probe check points to the order of 30 μm

Modeling and Calibration of Coupled Fish-Eye CCD Camera and Laser Range Scanner for Outdoor Environment Reconstruction

International audiencePrecise and realistic models of outdoor environments such as cities and roads are useful for various applications. In order to do so, geometry and photography of environments must be captured. We present in this paper a coupled system , based on a fish-eye lens CCD camera and a laser range scanner, aimed at capturing color and geometry in this context. To use this system, a revelant model and a accurate calibration method are presented. The calibration method uses a simplified fish-eye model; the method uses only one image for fish-eye parameters, and avoids the use of large calibration pattern as required in others methods. The validity and precision of the method are assessed and example of colored 3D points produced by the system is presented

Fuentes de color mejoradas para el modelado tridimensional de artefactos arqueológicos de tamaño medio localizados in situ.

[EN] The paper describes a color enhanced processing system - applied as case study on an artifact of the Pompeii archaeological area - developed in order to enhance different techniques for reality-based 3D models construction and visualization of archaeological artifacts. This processing allows rendering reflectance properties with perceptual fidelity on a consumer display and presents two main improvements over existing techniques: a. the color definition of the archaeological artifacts; b. the comparison between the range-based and photogrammetry-based pipelines to understand the limits of use and suitability to specific objects.[ES] El documento describe un sistema mejorado de procesamiento de color, aplicado como caso de estudio sobre un artefacto de la zona arqueológica de Pompeya. Este sistema se ha desarrollado con la finalidad de mejorar las diferentes técnicas para la construcción de modelos 3D basados sobre datos de la realidad y para la visualización de artefactos arqueológicos. Este proceso permite visualizar las propiedades de reflectancia con fidelidad perceptible en una pantalla de usuario y presenta dos mejoras principales respecto a las técnicas existentes:a. la definición del color de los artefactos arqueológicos;b. la comparación entre los flujos de trabajo basados en range-based-modeling y en fotogrametría, para entender los límites de uso y la adecuación a los objetos específicos.Apollonio, FI.; Ballabeni, M.; Gaiani, M. (2014). Color enhanced pipelines for reality-based 3D modeling of on site medium sized archeological artifacts. Virtual Archaeology Review. 5(10):59-76. https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2014.4218OJS5976510AGISOFT PHOTOSCAN (2014), http://www.agisoft.ru.ALLEN P., FEINER S., et al. 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(2005): "A framework to build and visualize 3D models from real world data for historical architecture and archaeology as a base for a 3D information system", in Forte M. (a cura di), The reconstruction of Archaeological Landscapes through Digital Technologies, BAR International series, 1379, pp. 103-125.GAIANI M., ROSSI M., RIZZI A. (2003): "Percezione delle immagini virtuali", in M. Gaiani (ed.), Metodi di Prototipazione Digitale e Visualizzazione per il Disegno Industriale, l'Architettura degli Interni e i Beni Culturali, Polidesign, Milano, 2003.GAIANI M., BENEDETTI B., REMONDINO F. (eds) (2010): Modelli digitali 3D in archeologia: il caso di Pompei, Edizioni della Normale, Pisa, 2010.GAŠPAROVIC M., MALARIC I. (2012): "Increase of readability and accuracy of 3D models using fusion of Close Range Photogrammetry and Laser Scanning", in ISPRS Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens., Vol. XXXIX-B5, pp. 93-98.GODIN G., BORGEAT L., et al. 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(2006): "Digital photogrammetry and TLS data fusion applied to Cultural Heritage 3D modeling", in ISPRS Arch., Vol. XXXVI/W6, pp. 6.HAPPA J., BASHFORD-ROGERS T., et al. (2012): "Cultural Heritage Predictive Rendering", in Computer Graphics Forum, Vol. 31, N. 6, 2012, pp. 1823-1836. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8659.2012.02098.xHIRSCHMÜLLER H. (2005): "Accurate and efficient stereo processing by semi-global matching and mututal information", in CVPR 2005 proceedings, Vol. 2, pp. 807-814.HIRSCHMUELLER H. (2008): "Stereo processing by semi- global matching and mutual information", in IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol. 30, N. 2, pp. 328-41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TPAMI.2007.1166KARSIDAG G., ALKAN R.M. 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Extrinsic Calibration and Ego-Motion Estimation for Mobile Multi-Sensor Systems

Autonomous robots and vehicles are often equipped with multiple sensors to perform vital tasks such as localization or mapping. The joint system of various sensors with different sensing modalities can often provide better localization or mapping results than individual sensor alone in terms of accuracy or completeness. However, to enable improved performance, two important challenges have to be addressed when dealing with multi-sensor systems. Firstly, how to accurately determine the spatial relationship between individual sensor on the robot? This is a vital task known as extrinsic calibration. Without this calibration information, measurements from different sensors cannot be fused. Secondly, how to combine data from multiple sensors to correct for the deficiencies of each sensor, and thus, provides better estimations? This is another important task known as data fusion. The core of this thesis is to provide answers to these two questions. We cover, in the first part of the thesis, aspects related to improving the extrinsic calibration accuracy, and present, in the second part, novel data fusion algorithms designed to address the ego-motion estimation problem using data from a laser scanner and a monocular camera. In the extrinsic calibration part, we contribute by revealing and quantifying the relative calibration accuracies of three common types of calibration methods, so as to offer an insight into choosing the best calibration method when multiple options are available. Following that, we propose an optimization approach for solving common motion-based calibration problems. By exploiting the Gauss-Helmert model, our approach is more accurate and robust than classical least squares model. In the data fusion part, we focus on camera-laser data fusion and contribute with two new ego-motion estimation algorithms that combine complementary information from a laser scanner and a monocular camera. The first algorithm utilizes camera image information to guide the laser scan-matching. It can provide accurate motion estimates and yet can work in general conditions without requiring a field-of-view overlap between the camera and laser scanner, nor an initial guess of the motion parameters. The second algorithm combines the camera and the laser scanner information in a direct way, assuming the field-of-view overlap between the sensors is substantial. By maximizing the information usage of both the sparse laser point cloud and the dense image, the second algorithm is able to achieve state-of-the-art estimation accuracy. Experimental results confirm that both algorithms offer excellent alternatives to state-of-the-art camera-laser ego-motion estimation algorithms

Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) System for Ancient Documentary Artefacts

This tutorial summarises our uses of reflectance transformation imaging in archaeological contexts. It introduces the UK AHRC funded project reflectance Transformation Imaging for Anciant Documentary Artefacts and demonstrates imaging methodologies

A review of three-dimensional imaging technologies for pavement distress detection and measurements

With the ever-increasing emphasis on maintaining road assets to a high standard, the need for fast accurate inspection for road distresses is becoming extremely important. Surface distresses on roads are essentially three dimensional (3-D) in nature. Automated visual surveys are the best option available. However, the imaging conditions, in terms of lighting, etc., are very random. For example, the challenge of measuring the volume of the pothole requires a large field of view with a reasonable spatial resolution, whereas microtexture evaluation requires very accurate imaging. Within the two extremes, there is a range of situations that require 3-D imaging. Three-dimensional imaging consists of a number of techniques such as interferometry and depth from focus. Out of these, laser imagers are mainly used for road surface distress inspection. Many other techniques are relatively unknown among the transportation community, and industrial products are rare. The main impetus for this paper is derived from the rarity of 3-D industrial imagers that employ alternative techniques for use in transportation. In addition, the need for this work is also highlighted by a lack of literature that evaluates the relative merits/demerits of various imaging methods for different distress measurement situations in relation to pavements. This overview will create awareness of available 3-D imaging methods in order to help make a fast initial technology selection and deployment. The review is expected to be helpful for researchers, practicing engineers, and decision makers in transportation engineering

Virtual 3D Reconstruction of Archaeological Pottery Using Coarse Registration

The 3D reconstruction of objects has not only improved visualisation of digitised objects, it has helped researchers to actively carry out archaeological pottery. Reconstructing pottery is significant in archaeology but is challenging task among practitioners. For one, excavated potteries are hardly complete to provide exhaustive and useful information, hence archaeologists attempt to reconstruct them with available tools and methods. It is also challenging to apply existing reconstruction approaches in archaeological documentation. This limitation makes it difficult to carry out studies within a reasonable time. Hence, interest has shifted to developing new ways of reconstructing archaeological artefacts with new techniques and algorithms. Therefore, this study focuses on providing interventions that will ease the challenges encountered in reconstructing archaeological pottery. It applies a data acquisition approach that uses a 3D laser scanner to acquire point cloud data that clearly show the geometric and radiometric properties of the object’s surface. The acquired data is processed to remove noise and outliers before undergoing a coarse-to-fine registration strategy which involves detecting and extracting keypoints from the point clouds and estimating descriptions with them. Additionally, correspondences are estimated between point pairs, leading to a pairwise and global registration of the acquired point clouds. The peculiarity of the approach of this thesis is in its flexibility due to the peculiar nature of the data acquired. This improves the efficiency, robustness and accuracy of the approach. The approach and findings show that the use of real 3D dataset can attain good results when used with right tools. High resolution lenses and accurate calibration help to give accurate results. While the registration accuracy attained in the study lies between 0.08 and 0.14 mean squared error for the data used, further studies will validate this result. The results obtained are nonetheless useful for further studies in 3D pottery reassembly