3D Shape Descriptor for Segmenting Point Cloud Data

Object recognition belongs to high-level processing that is one of the difficult and challenging tasks in computer vision. Digital photogrammetry based on the computer vision paradigm has begun to emerge in the middle of 1980s. However, the ultimate goal of digital photogrammetry - intelligent and autonomous processing of surface reconstruction - is not achieved yet. Object recognition requires a robust shape description about objects. However, most of the shape descriptors aim to apply 2D space for image data. Therefore, such descriptors have to be extended to deal with 3D data such as LiDAR(Light Detection and Ranging) data obtained from ALS(Airborne Laser Scanner) system. This paper introduces extension of chain code to 3D object space with hierarchical approach for segmenting point cloud data. The experiment demonstrates effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method for shape description and point cloud data segmentation. Geometric characteristics of various roof types are well described that will be eventually base for the object modeling. Segmentation accuracy of the simulated data was evaluated by measuring coordinates of the corners on the segmented patch boundaries. The overall RMSE(Root Mean Square Error) is equivalent to the average distance between points, i.e., GSD(Ground Sampling Distance).