Multi-source texture reconstruction and fusion

Abstract

Information extracted from two or more images of a scene is composited into a single texture image for each surface of a computer-generated model of the scene thus providing, view-independent rectangular textures over standard geometries. In conjunction with a photogrammetric modeling system, the texture information may be extracted from a variety of images, which may be taken from a variety of different angles, with different cameras and under different lighting conditions. The fusion of the texture information is preferably performed during a preprocessing step, eliminating the need for further texture processing. Perspective projection artifacts in the final texture is reduced or eliminated. Further, visible seams between partial textures from different images (which may otherwise be caused by misregistration or differences in illumination) are reduced or avoided. The method uses the “best” available source information from each image, where “best” usually means highest resolution, but in practice a variety of measures can be used. Further, lighting information present in the source images can be extracted and eliminated to start with an “unlit” or “evenly lit” scene which can then be re-lit synthetically with different lights. Similarly, the true lighting information from the original images can be extracted and applied to unlit synthetic textures, thus simulating the actual lighting conditions without the need to model the lighting virtually. Given enough images of the same surface, view-dependent obstructions which may partially obscure the surface in various views can be automatically removed.