From Surfaces to Objects: Computer Vision and Three Dimensional Scene Analysis

"Three dimensional scene analysis has reached a turning point. Though researchers have been investigating object recognition and scene understanding since the late 1960’s, a new excitement can be felt in the field. I attribute this to four converging activities: (1) the increasing popularity and successes of stereo and active range sensing systems, (2) the set of emerging tools and competences concerned with three dimensional surface shape and its meaningful segmentation and description, (3) Marr’s attempt to place three dimensional vision into a more integrated and scientific context and (4) Brooks’ demonstration of what a more intelligent three dimensional scene understander might entail. It is the convergence of these that has led to the problem considered in this book: “Assuming that we have easily accessible surface data and can segment it into useful patches, what can we then do with it?”. The work presented here takes an integrated view of the problems and demons...

• Authors: Robert B. Fisher
• Keywords: Computer Vision, Recognition