Automatic Extraction of Generic House Roofs from High Resolution Aerial Imagery

We present a technique to extract complex suburban roofs from sets of aerial images. Because we combine 2-D edge information, photometric and chromatic attributes and 3-D information, we can deal with complex houses. Neither do we assume the roofs to be flat or rectilinear nor do we require parameterized building models. From only one image, 2-D edges and their corresponding attributes and relations are extracted. Using a segment stereo matching based on all available images, the 3-D location of these edges are computed. The 3-D segments are then grouped into planes and 2-D enclosures are extracted, thereby allowing to infer adjoining 3-D patches describing roofs of houses. To achieve this, we have developed a hierarchical procedure that effectively pools the information while keeping the combinatorics under control. Of particular importance is the tight coupling of 2-D and 3-D analysis.