Digital processing of stereo images and 3-D reconstruction techniques

The main problems involved in the reconstruction of threedimensional (3-D) profiles are related to the definition and resolution of a suitable equation set for the calibration of the whole system, and to the selection of proper criteria to discriminate whether matched points are confident or not. A complete system capable of extracting data and measurements from digital stereo images, obtained from aircraft or space sensors, is presented. Both area-based and feature-based techniques have been investigated. In order to perform an efficient point matching, the system makes use of criteria based on a modified test, taking into account the shape of the correlation function in a neighbourhood of its maximum. Some experimental results of automatic point matching are reported for different values of the characteristic parameters.