Automatic interpretation of laser scanner data for building detection and map updating was studied. Digital surface and terrain models (DSM and DTM) and an intensity image were created using a helicopter-borne TopEye system recording with 2–3 pulses per m. The DSM was segmented into homogeneous regions using a region-based segmentation method, and the segments were classified as `building ́, `tr...

This paper presents an automatic building detection approach exploiting colour infrared (CIR) imagery. A Digital Surface Model (DSM) is first extracted by photogrammetry with a proprietary development including multiple views. Then a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) is derived from the DSM by selecting the lowest regions with slowly varying elevation. A normalised DSM, difference of the DSM and deri...

Classical shape from shading (SFS) is based on the analysis of the intensity values of a single digital image in order to derive three dimensional information of the depicted scene. It involves the orthographic projection for the transformation from object to image space and has been successfully applied to weakly textured images. In general the illumination conditions must be known, Lambertian...

Pléiades 1A and 1B are twin optical satellites of Optical and Radar Federated Earth Observation (ORFEO) program jointly running by France and Italy. They are the first satellites of Europe with sub-meter resolution. Airbus DS (formerly Astrium Geo) runs a MyGIC (formerly Pléiades Users Group) program to validate Pléiades images worldwide for various application purposes. The authors conduct thr...

New interferometric radar data of the TanDEM-X space mission have become recently available as a global digital elevation model providing 0.4 arc second spatial resolution (ca. 12 meters). The dataset brings new options into geoscientific research across multiple scales. However, accuracy and suitability this not been evaluated in such an extensive manner as, for example, widely used SRTM which...

With the emergence of more and more satellites delivering very high resolution (VHR) imagery with ground sampling distances in the range of one meter or below the generation of three dimensional urban models directly from space may become possible. Such models are required for many applications in areas where no up-to-date detailed urban mapping exists like in developing countries. Besides the ...

The automatic detection and 3D modeling of objects at airports is an important issue for the EU FP6 project PEGASE. PEGASE is a feasibility study of a new 24/7 navigation system, which could either replace or complement existing systems and would allow a three-dimensional truly autonomous aircraft landing and take-off primarily for airplanes and secondary for helicopters. In this work, we focus...

An approach was developed for automatic building extraction from high resolution stereo satellite images. The approach utilizes the spectral properties of the pan-sharpened multispectral bands and the elevation model generated from the stereo panchromatic bands. First, the pan-sharpened multispectral bands are classified using the Maximum Likelihood Classifier (MLC) to separate the buildings fr...

We present a semiautomatic approach to generate high quality digital terrain models (DTM) from digital surface models (DSM). A DTM is a model of the earths surface, where all man made objects and the vegetation have been removed. In order to achieve this, we use a variational energy minimization approach. The proposed energy functional incorporates Huber regularization to yield piecewise smooth...