Automated texture mapping for 3D modeling of objects with complex shapes --- a case study of archaeological ruins

Recently, the ground-based laser profiler is used for acquisition of 3D spatial information of a rchaeological objects. However, it is very difficult to measure complicated objects, because of a relatively low-resolution. On the other hand, texture mapping can be a solution to complement the low resolution, and to generate 3D model with higher fidelity. But, a huge cost is required for the construction of textured 3D model, because huge labor is demanded, and the work depends on editor's experiences and skills . Moreover, the accuracy of data would be lost during the editing works. In this research, using the laser profiler and a non-calibrated digital camera, a method is proposed for the automatic generation of 3D model by integrating these data. At first, region segmentation is applied to laser range data to extract geometric features of an object in the laser range data. Various information such as normal vectors of planes, distances from a sensor and a sun-direction are used in this processing. Next, an image segmentation is also applied to the digital camera images, which include the same object. Then, geometrical relations are determined by corresponding the features extracted in the laser range data and digital camera’ images. By projecting digital camera image onto the surface data reconstructed from laser range image, the 3D texture model was generated automatically.