Optimizing a Triangular Mesh for Shape Reconstruction from Images

In reconstructing 3-D from images based on feature points, one usually defines a triangular mesh that has these feature points as vertices and displays the scene as a polyhedron. If the scene itself is a polyhedron, however, some of the displayed edges may be inconsistent with the true shape. This paper presents a new technique for automatically eliminating such inconsistencies by using a special template. We also present a technique for removing spurious occluding edges. All the procedures do not require any thresholds to be adjusted. Using real images, we demonstrate that our method has high capability to correct inconsistencies. key words: triangular mesh generation, Delaunay triangulation, polyhedral representation, mesh optimization, 3-D reconstruction