Automatic 3D reconstruction: An exploration of the state of the art

Abstract

Presented here in the form of case study examples
are the results from a number of practical exercises to explore
the state of the art of automatic 3D reconstructions. That is,
deriving the underlying geometry of an object or place based
only upon photographs. There is a wide range of applications
for this technology; traditionally it has been used for
landscape/terrain modeling, geology and by the mining
industry. The interest here is in capturing geometric data in
archaeology, providing a new data format suited to a richer
exploration compared to the more traditional photography.
Examples of the use of this 3D geometric representation
include the population of virtual worlds and gaming engines.
The manual generation of such assets is normally both time
consuming and can involve an element interpretation on the
part of a human modeler.