Registration of multiple point sets

Registering 3D point sets subject to rigid body motion is a common problem in computer vision. The optimal transformation is usually specified to be the minimum of a weighted least squares cost. The case of 2 point sets has been solved by several authors using analytic methods such as SVD. In this paper we present a numerical method for solving the problem when there are more than 2 point sets. Although of general applicability the new method is particularly aimed at the multiview surface registration problem. To date almost all authors have registered only two point sets at a time. This approach discards information and we show in quantitative terms the errors caused.