RI: Small: Modeling Cities by Integrating 3D and 2D Data

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。城市环境的自动三维重建和建模问题是计算机视觉和图形学领域的一个重要研究课题。这是因为准确的3D城市模型在各个领域的进一步发展中至关重要。该项目通过最新一代的激光扫描技术和高分辨率相机获取大量数据，以实现3D城市建模的目标。这些数据记录在基于现有技术的共同参考框架中，这些技术经过改进，以促进大量的点云。其中一个主要的挑战是所获取的数据集的复杂性，需要对其进行简化，以实现高效的渲染和更高级别的识别算法。目前的简化方法产生了缺乏高阶标签的简化三角形集。本项目将数据细分为粗细的城市元素（如立面、窗户、植被等），发现元素之间的对称性，填补缺失的数据。它还集成了基于图像和基于激光的模型，以增强所获得的几何形状，并产生无缝的可视化结果。以上还将有助于识别过程，替代可视化和真正逼真的3D场景表示。这项工作是通过与亨特地理和电影和媒体部门以及其他机构（如博物馆）的合作来传播的。它对城市规划、建筑和考古应用，以及街道地图可视化等系统，以及电影和建筑行业都有重大影响。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The problem of automated 3D reconstruction and modeling of urban environments is of great interest and importance in the fields of computer vision and graphics. This is due to the fact that accurate 3D city models are paramount in the further development of a variety of fields. This project acquires vast amounts of data via the latest generation in laser scanning technology and high-resolution cameras in order to achieve the goal of 3D city modeling. That data is registered in a common frame of reference based on current techniques that are improved in order to facilitate voluminous point clouds. One of the major challenges is the complexity of the acquired dataset that needs to be simplified for efficient rendering and higher-level recognition algorithms. Current simplified methods produce reduced sets of triangles that lack higher-order labels. This project segments and classifies the data into coarse and fine urban elements (such as facades, windows, vegetation, etc.), discovers symmetries among the elements, and fills missing data. It also integrates image-based and laser-based models in order to enhance the acquired geometry, and to produce a seamless visualization result. The above will also aid recognition processes, alternative visualizations and truly photorealistic representation of the 3D scene. This work is disseminated through collaborations with the geography and film-and-media departments of Hunter, as well as other agencies (such as museums). It has significant impact for urban planning, architecture, and archeology applications, and in systems such as street map visualization, as well as in film and construction industries.