Study on Making City Model with Image and Laser Range Data

[ABSTRACT] Photogrammetry is a current method of the data acquisition. However, as a matter of fact, a large manpower and expenditure for making detailed 3D spatial information is required especially in urban areas where various buildings exist. There are no photogrammetric systems which can automatic a process of spatial information acquisition completely. On the other hand, laser range finder has high potential of automating 3D spatial data acquisition because it can directly measure 3D coordinates of objects, though the resolution is so limited at this moment. With this background, the authors believe that it is very advantageous to integrate laser scanner data and stereo CCD images for more efficient and automated acquisition of the 3D spatial data with higher resolution. Laser scanner can measure coordinate values of an object directly, but it is rather difficult to recognize the object with only laser data, for its low resolution. On the other hand, CCD image represent detailed texture information on the object’s surface and has potential of detailed 3D data generation as long as careful manual operation is applied. In this research, by using laser scanner data as an initial 3D data to determine the search range and to detect possibility of occlusions, a method to enable more reliable and detailed stereo matching method for CCD images is examined.