Geo-Registered Mosaicing and Stereo Mosaicing for Environmental Monitoring
Project Status: Complete (Years: 1998 – 2001)
Research Description
We have presented a novel method for automatically and efficiently generating stereoscopic mosaics by seamless registration of optical data collected by a video camera mounted on an airborne platform that mainly undergoes translating motion. The resultant mosaics are seamless and will exhibit correct three-dimensional (3D) views. The basic idea is to construct stereo mosaics before 3D recovery for applications such as image-based rendering and environmental monitoring. Four critical issues will be discussed : (1) Under what kinds of motion can we construct a pair of 2D stereo mosaics before we recover any 3D information? (2) How to make stereo mosaics seamless in the presence of motion parallax and for rather arbitrary scenes? (3) What is the epipolar geometry of multi-perspective stereo mosaics generated under rather general motion? (4) What are the benefits of generating stereo mosaics in computation, storage, 3D resolution and 3D visualization? The software package of geo-mosaics and stereo mosaics is being used in multiple projects at UMass with aerial video, ground video and under-vehicle video, and by our collaborators, such as UCSB, The Nature Conservancy, Harvard Forest and other major environmental groups.
Sponsors
National Science Foundation (Grant Number EIA- 9726401), Automatic Interpretation of High-Altitude Image Data for Eco-System Modeling, 02/01/98 – 01/31/01