Prof. Wolberg's grants

Both grants deal with different aspects of the problem of importing 3D geometry of existing large-scale urban scenes into the computer using laser range scanners and ordinary digital cameras.

Though the benefits of computer modeling are well-known, the bottleneck in this process has always been the difficulty in achieving rapid, seamless, data gathering and fusion to the model. Recent developments in range sensing have made possible the acquisition of accurate 3D scans of large scenes.

The complexity of the acquired data sets, the large volumes of data collected, and the integration of 3D range data with conventional 2D color images is what drives this research.

Our goal is to minimize the effort of building models of high geometric and photometric accuracy that are suitable for efficient rendering, manipulation, and analysis.

This work has obvious applications in any area where voluminous range scans and photographs must be acquired to produce complex 3D models. Major applications of this work include fire/police/military/urban planning, urban design, disaster prevention, electronic journalism, architecture, archeology, historical preservation, and entertainment.