3D reconstruction of a collapsed historical site from sparse set of photographs and photogrammetric map

Abstract

This paper deals with the challenge of city-scale 3D reconstruction using computer vision techniques. Our method combines the photogrammetric map created from aerial photographs with photographs taken by the general public. The former gives the surface, while the latter gives the texture, and we make a 3D model step-by-step based on a semi-automatic process. We applied this method to the 3D reconstruction of the citadel of Bam, which is a collapsed historical site by the earthquake. Available photographs are limited because new images cannot be captured after the collapse, but we successfully produced a 3D model of the site with texture taken from the photograph. Our system is based on 3ds Max software with several MAXScript tools, such as automatic tools for generating mesh surface from wireframe by assuming walls, slopes and grounds, and assistance tools for a semi-automatic process of estimating camera parameters and transformation matrix. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.