Representation and segmentation of a cluttered scene using fused edge and surface data

An intermediate representation based on combined edge and surface data is proposed to support the recognition of objects in cluttered scenes. The representation is based on the premise that local structure of surface and edge (wings) can be reliably sensed without higher-level models, while global edge, surface, and part structures cannot be. A sensing system for indoor scenes is discussed which allows fusion of an intensity image and an image where depth is coded using structured light. Surface patches are detected and coarsely typed according to only the 2D structure in the stripped image together with global knowledge of the stripe projection, while edges are detected from intensity gradients or boundaries of stripe patches. A set of rules is given for describing the 3D structure corresponding to each wing constructed in the intermediate scene representation. An extended set of rules is proposed for partitioning the set of sensed wings into subsets corresponding to solid-object parts. Reasonable results are reported when these rules are applied to several complex scenes