A new accurate and flexible model based multi-corner detector for measurement and recognition

This paper introduces a new parametric model capable of the modeling and identification of a certain class of characteristic intensity variations described by polygonal structures of a depicted 3D scene. We propose a new parametric corner modeling based on a Unit Step Edge Function (USEF) that defines a straight line edge. The USEF function is a distribution function, which models the optical and physical characteristics found in digital imaging systems. The simplicity of the model definition provides the flexibility and generality useful in modeling complex corners. Based on our model, we have been able to create a multi-corner detector using simple operations as addition and multiplication. Once we have built a detector, it is possible to retrieve the information useful in other machine vision tasks. An example of retrieving the position of a projected L-corner is developed. A new criterion for high-accurate L-corner localization is introduced, and a comparison with five previous corner criteria is made. 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.