Surface reconstruction from feature based stereo

We describe an approach to recovering surface models of complex scenes from the quasisparse data returned by a feature based stereo system. The method can be used to merge stereo results obtained from different viewpoints into a single coherent surface mesh. The technique proceeds by exploiting the freespace theorem which provides a principled mechanism for reasoning about the structure of the scene based on quasisparse correspondences in multiple image. Effective methods for overcoming the difficulties posed by missing features and outliers are discussed. Results obtained by applying this approach to actual images are presented.