Range Image Registration with Edge Detection in Spherical Coordinates.

In this study, we focus on model reconstruction for 3D objects using range images. We propose a crude range image alignment method to overcome the initial estimation problem of the iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm using edge points of range images. Different from previous edge detection methods, we first obtain a function representation of the range image in spherical coordinates. This representation allows detecting smooth edges on the object surface easily by a zero crossing edge detector. We use ICP on these edges to align patches in a crude manner. Then, we apply ICP to the whole point set and obtain the final alignment. This dual operation is performed extremely fast compared to directly aligning the point sets. We also obtain the edges of the 3D object model while registering it. These edge points may be of use in 3D object recognition and classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]