This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project seeks to develop a comprehensive 3D photography toolkit for importing the geometry of existing large-scale urban structures into the computer. The goal of the project is to minimize the effort of building models of high geometric and photometric accuracy that are suitable for efficient rendering, manipulation, and analysis. The proposed Phase II work will build upon the feasibility study conducted in Phase I. The Phase I effort introduced a novel algorithm that successfully integrated multiview geometry with automated 3D registration to produce realistic visualizations of complex, reconstructed, real-world 3D models with minimal human interaction. The goal is to build approximate lightweight 3D models directly from a collection of photographs of the scene. The proposed workflow treats a photograph as tracing paper upon which 2D shapes are defined prior to extruding them into 3D models.
The commercial application of this Phase II project is the introduction of a comprehensive software toolkit for 3D photography. The ultimate goal is the reconstruction and visualization of detailed models of urban sites, i.e. digital cities. The creation of digital cities drives other areas of research as well: visualization of very large data sets, creation of model databases for GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and combination of reconstructed areas with existing digital maps. Other applications include video game development, entertainment, architecture, virtual tourism, fire/police/urban planning, urban design, disaster prevention, archaeology, and historical preservation.
This SBIR project has developed a unique photo-centric modeling tool that builds approximate lightweight 3D models directly from a collection of photographs of the scene. The system workflow treats a photograph as tracing paper upon which 2D shapes are defined prior to extruding them into 3D models. The very photographs that serve as the basis for the models automatically serve as the texture elements for them as well, thereby facilitating photorealistic visualization. This intuitive workflow is made possible by the camera calibration module that we featured in Phase I, which facilitates the automatic matching of a 3D model to its image in the photograph. The commercial application of this project is the introduction of a comprehensive software toolkit for 3D photography. The ultimate goal is the reconstruction and visualization of detailed models of urban sites, i.e. digital cities. The creation of digital cities drives other areas of research as well: visualization of very large data sets, creation of model databases for GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and combination of reconstructed areas with existing digital maps. Other applications include video game development, entertainment, architecture, virtual tourism, fire/police/urban planning, urban design, disaster prevention, archaeology, and historical preservation. Brainstorm is currently licensing the software to customers and service providers in the entertainment, architecture, realty, and urban planning markets. The technical results of this SBIR work are encapsulated in the PhotoSketch plugin for Google SketchUp that we launched in July 2009. PhotoSketch is a drawing tool that operates directly on photographs. The PhotoSketch application targets mainstream consumers who feel at ease to draw upon photographs to create 3D models. In order to furnish an intuitive user interface experience, PhotoSketch is able to accept a user's free-form sketches (footprints) drawn in perspective upon a photograph. Indeed, the photograph now serves as tracing paper upon which the user can outline the 3D primitives to be fitted into the scene. The user generates an approximate 3D model by sketching a 2D footprint on the photograph and extruding it to the proper height of the object. A push-pull graphical interface is used for this purpose. More details of this work, including a free 30-day trial version of the PhotoSketch plugin for Google SketchUp, is available from www.brainstormllc.com.
