Semi-Automatic Technique for 3D Building Model Generation

SUMMARY Three Dimensional Building models are excessively used in various applications. Digital Surface Model is the back bone of the 3D building modeling. The automatic DTM generation techniques are not adequate for the built-up areas. The manual 3D digitization of the stereo images is time consuming. Establishing a semi-automatic technique for the 3D building modeling is required. The main goal of this research is to establish a new semi-automatic technique for 3D building models based on the automatic DTM generation engines and the 2D vector representation of the buildings. The aim of this paper is to assess the established semi-automatic building model generation technique. Comparing the new technique output to the manual ones are performed for accuracy assurance. This technique is applied to aerial photographs for low buildings in a village area, as well as stereo Ikonos images for high buildings in a city area in Egypt. This study shows that the Automatic DTM Extraction modules do not represent neither the terrain nor the Buildings in an appropriate manner. However, the Semi-automatic DSM generation technique that introduced in this paper is more accurate in the building representation, as well as, it has accuracy within 1.0m in height..