Highly Dense 3D Surface Generation Using Multi-image Matching

摘要

This study presents an automatic matching method for generating a dense, accurate, and discontinuity-preserved digital surface model (DSM) using multiple images acquired by an aerial digital frame camera. The proposed method consists of two main procedures: area-based multi-image matching (AMIM) and stereo-pair epipolar line matching (SELM). AMIM evaluates the sum of the normalized cross correlation of corresponding image points from multiple images to determine the optimal height of an object point. A novel method is introduced for determining the search height range and incremental height, which are necessary for the vertical line locus used in the AMIM. This procedure also includes the means to select the best reference and target images for each strip so that multi-image matching can resolve the common problem over occlusion areas. The SELM extracts densely positioned distinct points along epipolar lines from the multiple images and generates a discontinuity-preserved DSM using geometric and radiometric constraints. The matched points derived by the AMIM are used as anchor points between overlapped images to find conjugate distinct points using epipolar geometry. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated for several different test areas, including urban areas.