Industrial inspection to spacecraft navigation: a tour de force of computer vision in Austria

This paper presents an overview of past and current activities in the field of computer vision at Joanneum Research. Joanneum Research is a non-profit research organization covering most of its revenues from contract research with industrial partners and international agencies in the area of space research (e.g., the European Space Agency). The focus on industrial real-time image processing started with the development of a 2D inspection system for wooden surfaces, and has expanded to the development of a 3D vision system for spacecraft navigation and elevation modeling. In this presentation the major projects in this area of research are outlined.