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Katsuyuki KAMEI Wayne HOY Takashi TAMADA Kazuo SEO
In many fields such as city administration and facilities management, there are an increasing number of requests for a Geographic Information System (GIS) that provides users with automated mapping functions. A mechanism which displays 3D views of an urban scene is particularly required because it would allow the construction of an intuitive and understandable environment for managing objects in the scene. In this paper, we present a new urban modeling system utilizing both image-based and geometry-based approaches. Our method is based on a new concept in which a wide urban area can be displayed with natural photo-realistic images, and each object drawn in the view can be identified by pointing to it. First, to generate natural urban views from any viewpoint, we employ an image-based rendering method, Image Walkthrough, and modify it to handle aerial images. This method can interpolate and generate natural views by assembling several source photographs. Next, to identify each object in the scene, we recover its shape using computer vision techniques (a geometry-based approach). The rough shape of each building is reconstructed from various aerial images, and then its drawn position on the generated view is also determined. This means that it becomes possible to identify each building from an urban view. We have combined both of these approaches yielding a new style of urban information management. The users of the system can enjoy an intuitive understanding of the area and easily identify their target, by generating natural views from any viewpoint and suitably reconstructing the shapes of objects. We have made a prototype system of this new concept of GIS, which have shown the validity of our method.