Surface registration by matching oriented points

For registration of 3-D free-form surfaces we have developed a representation which requires no knowledge of the transformation between views. The representation comprises descriptive images associated with oriented points on the surface of an object. Constructed using single point bases, these images are data level shape descriptions that are used for efficient matching of oriented points. Correlation of images is used to establish point correspondences between two views; from these correspondences a rigid transformation that aligns the views is calculated. The transformation is then refined and verified using a modified iterative closest point algorithm. To demonstrate the generality of our approach, we present results from multiple sensing domains.