ProFORMA : 3d Modeling from Video

Similar to Strata’s Foto3D CX tool, ProFORMA can reconstruct a virtual model of a physical object from live video and then augment the live video with the wireframe version.  Created by Qi Pan, Gerhard Reitmayr and Tom Drummond of the Cambridge University Engineering Department, the project is the winner of the ISMAR 2009 Best Demo Prize.

The generation of 3D models is very useful for many computer vision applications. This paper introduces ProFORMA, a system designed to enable on-line reconstruction of textured 3D objects rotated by a user's hand. Partial models are created very rapidly and displayed to the user to aid view planning, as well as used by the system to robustly track the object pose. The system works by calculating the Delaunay tetrahedralisation of a point cloud obtained from on-line structure from motion estimation which is then carved using a recursive and probabilistic algorithm to rapidly obtain the surface mesh.

See a demonstration video after the break.

via Cambridge University Engineering Department – Qi Pan.

This story written by Randall Hand

Randall Hand is a visualization scientist working for a federal research lab, aiding researchers to discover the insights buried within their terabyte datasets generated on some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. He also runs VizWorld.com .

Science 3d, algorithm, cambridge, modeling