Method, apparatus, and system for estimating the quality of camera pose data using ground control points of known quality

Abstract

An approach is provided for determining the quality of camera pose data. The approach, for example, involves identifying camera pose data for a camera used to capture an image. The approach further involves processing the image to determine a pixel location of features visible in the image, wherein each feature has a known physical location (e.g., obtained using survey techniques or equivalent). The approach further involves determining a camera physical location of the camera based on the camera pose data. The approach further involves determining an physical location of the image plane based on the camera pose data and/or camera parameters (e.g., intrinsic camera parameters). The approach further involves projecting a ray from the camera physical location thorough the image plane physical location corresponding to the pixel location determined for each feature, and computing a minimum distance between the projected ray and the known physical location of each feature. The approach further involves providing an aggregation of the minimum distances as an output indicating a quality of the camera pose data.