Development of 3D image measurement system and stereo‐matching method, and its archaeological measurement

Three‐dimensional measurement and modeling systems with digital cameras on PCs are now making progress and increasingly felt to be desirable in terrestrial (close‐range) photogrammetry for such sectors as cultural heritage preservation, architecture, civil engineering, manufacturing, measurement, etc. Therefore, we have developed a system to improve the accuracy of stereo‐matching, which is the very core of 3D measurement. As a stereo‐matching method, in order to minimize mismatch and to be robust in geometric distortions, occlusion, as well as brightness change, we invented the Coarse‐to‐Fine Strategy Method by integrating OCM (orientation code matching) with LSM (least squares matching). This system could attain an accuracy of 0.26 mm in experiments on a mannequin. In real‐world experiments on archaeological ruins in Greece and Turkey, the accuracy was within 1 cm, compared with their blueprint plan. Formerly, workers required at least 1.5 months for this kind of survey operation with existing methods, but now only 3 or 4 days is needed. This conrmed the practicality and eciency of the new method. Herein we demonstrate our new system of 3D measurement and stereo‐matching and present some concrete examples of its practical application. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 96(6): 9–21, 2013; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ecj.11459