Spatial information recovery from aerial images using a factorization method with constrained camera motion
Isao Miyagawa, Shigeru Nagai, Tomohiko Arikawa · Electronics and Communications in Japan (Part II Electronics) · 2006
Abstract In this paper we propose a method for recovering spatial information from aerial images using a factorization method based on constraining camera motion. First we focus on sample points located at ground level on the aerial images and we recover the camera motion using a factorization given spatial positions of these points. Then we recover 3D coordinate values of feature points on the images using a factorization to which we provide the recovered camera motion. The feature points that we use are points located at ground level and points that form contours located on buildings. In addition, we recover the spatial information of feature points using the geometrical transform that maps between the geographic coordinates corresponding to the ground points and the coordinate values obtained using the factorization. Aerial images are obtained using a high‐definition camera fitted to a helicopter. In experiments, we have confirmed that this method could faithfully recover camera motion as measured by orientation sensors attached to the fuselage. In addition, the proposed method is shown to be practical and effective experimentally, being able to recover accurately the height of each building with values close to those obtained from a laser range scanner. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 2, 89(10): 57–66, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/ecjb.20309