Reconstruction of 3D Shape and Texture by Active Rangefinding

In this paper, a method for active rangefinding system that measures 3-D objects and reconstruct them as models with shape and color is discussed. The rangefinder “Cubicscope” utilized here takes range images together with color images within fractions of a second. It is installed at the tip of a robot manipulator and captures range images from various viewpoints. The 3-D shape reconstruction was made by integrating range images in the measurement space. In order to search the next best viewpoint to observe unmeasured areas on the object surface, jump edges are detected, because there must exist unmeasured area between jump edges on the integrated object surface. This follows the texture mapping from color intensity images onto the object surface which provides high-quality realistic 3-D models for the computer graphic applications. In this paper some experimental results are also represented.