Optimal Camera Network Design for 3d Modeling of Cultural Heritage

Abstract. Digital cultural heritage documentation in 3D is subject to research and practical applications nowadays. Image-based modeling is a technique to create 3D models, which starts with the basic task of designing the camera network. This task is – however – quite crucial in practical applications because it needs a thorough planning and a certain level of expertise and experience. Bearing in mind todays computational (mobile) power we think that the optimal camera network should be designed in the field, and, therefore, making the preprocessing and planning dispensable. The optimal camera network is designed when certain accuracy demands are fulfilled with a reasonable effort, namely keeping the number of camera shots at a minimum. In this study, we report on the development of an automatic method to design the optimum camera network for a given object of interest, focusing currently on buildings and statues. Starting from a rough point cloud derived from a video stream of object images, the initial configuration of the camera network assuming a high-resolution state-of-the-art non-metric camera is designed. To improve the image coverage and accuracy, we use a mathematical penalty method of optimization with constraints. From the experimental test, we found that, after optimization, the maximum coverage is attained beside a significant improvement of positional accuracy. Currently, we are working on a guiding system, to ensure, that the operator actually takes the desired images. Further next steps will include a reliable and detailed modeling of the object applying sophisticated dense matching techniques.