Abstract: A 3D modeling system for automatically generating fully-textured 3D models of objects from a sequence of images taken around the objects is disclosed. There are several processes developed to facilitate the operation of the 3D modeling system by an ordinary skilled person. One of the processes is the automatic calibration of a camera using only a portion of a calibration disc to essentially provide a larger effective field of view of the camera. Another process is a space carving process that subdivides volumetric cells recursively to fit to a 3D object using a tree structure that encodes the entire process. Still another process is a 3D mesh model generation process that begins with the tree structure and generates self-constraint and interconnected triangles, in a sense that all triangles intersect with each other either not at all or at common boundary faces, to represent the shape of the 3D object.

Abstract: Techniques for generating a 3D region from a surrounding imagery are disclosed. The surrounding imagery comprising a sequence of side view images taken respectively at a known position around an object. The images are preprocessed to generate corresponding sequence of mask images. To accelerate the subsequent space carving process, each of the mask images is encoded uniquely using what is called herein a Maximal Area Encoding scheme. In the space carving process, volumetric cells or cubes representing the object are recursively subdivided to gradually fit the object by “carving” away those cubes that are not occupied by any of the object. All cubes are encoded and indexed using an octree structure.