Measurement Of The 3D Radius Of Curvature Using The Facet Approach

In this paper the facet model approach is used to calculate the local radius of curvature at each pixel in simulated range imagery. Previous work with the facet model emphasized the interpretation of a 2D image as a surface in three dimensions. This interpretation is complicated by illumination and reflectance of the scene. Range imagery is ideally suited for interpretation under this model since the raw data consists of a sampling of the range to points on surfaces in three dimensions. The images studied consisted of cylinders and planes in which various amounts of noise have been introduced. The effects of varying the window size used in the facet fit is also investigated. The results not only show that accurate curvature measurements can be made in the presence of significant noise but also indicate that the curvature values provide for a rich description of the scene.