Unlocking the Urban Photographic Record Through 4D Scene Understanding and Modeling

人们越来越需要新的方式来访问呈指数增长的历史图像档案。必须超越编目，索引和关键字驱动的数据库，到一个范例，其中计算机至少部分地理解图像的内容。推动场景理解和3D建模的最新技术将使人们能够以全新的方式查看和体验历史和/或时间变化的图像。这项研究旨在构建随时间变化的3D模型，这些模型可以用于将大量图像集合在一起，这些图像与一个地方或人工制品随时间的外观，演变和事件有关，例如“4D城市”项目：全自动构建4D数据库，展示单个城市随时间的演变。在智力价值方面，该项目将在以下方面推进最新技术水平：（1）单视图图像解释，以匹配空间和时间上的场景结构;（2）基于模型的概率推理和随机语法，以编码高级先验知识;（3）引入时间作为额外的推理对象。该项目预计将在城市规划、历史教育、研究和保护领域产生广泛的社会影响。此外，新开发的算法可以应用于其他应用领域，如取证和情报收集。最后，计划中的传播工作将集中在亚特兰大4D城市项目的实例化上，并将通过基于网络的交付和亚特兰大历史中心的信息亭安装触及许多人。http://4d-cities.cc.gatech.edu

There is a growing need for novel ways to access the exponentially growing archives of historical imagery. It is imperative to go beyond cataloging, indexing, and keyword driven databases, to a paradigm where the computer at least partially understands the content of images. Pushing the state of the art in scene understanding and 3D modeling will enable radical new ways to view and experience historical and/or temporally varying imagery. This research aims at building time-varying 3D models that can serve to pull together large collections of images pertaining to the appearance, evolution, and events surrounding one place or artifact over time, as exemplified by the "4D City" project: the completely automatic construction of a 4D database showing the evolution over time of a single city.In terms of intellectual merits, the project will advance the state of the art in (1) single-view image interpretation for matching scene structure across space and time; (2) model-based, probabilistic inference and stochastic grammars to encode high-level prior knowledge; and (3) introducing time as an additional object of inference.The project is expected to broadly impact society in the areas of urban planning, historical education, research, and preservation. In addition, the newly developed algorithms can be applied in other application areas such as forensics and intelligence gathering. Finally, the planned dissemination efforts will center on an instantiation of the 4D City project in Atlanta, and will touch many through web-based delivery and a kiosk installation in the Atlanta History Center. http://4d-cities.cc.gatech.edu