3-D Perspective View Of Sonar Images

This paper develops a routine which will merge or overlay imagery and terrain elevation data and create a synthetic 3-D perspective view of the ocean bottom terrain. The observer may position at various locations and see the terrain from different viewpoints. The elevation data is grouped into triangular panels and the color information is averaged from the imagery data file. The entire panel is assigned a single color equal to the average. These panels are then projected onto an image plane by using a 3-D to 2-D perspective transformation. Hidden surface removal is accomplished by a "painters" algorithm which relies on sorting the panels based on distance from the observer.