Visualization of Scene Structure Uncertainty in a Multi-View Reconstruction Pipeline

Shawn Recker, Mauricio Hess-Flores, Mark A. Duchaineau, Kenneth I. Joy

Abstract: This paper presents a novel, interactive visualization tool that allows for the analysis of scene structure uncer- tainty and its sensitivity to parameters in different multi-view scene reconstruction stages. Given a set of input cameras and feature tracks, the volume rendering-based approach first creates a scalar field from angular error measurements. The obtained statistical, visual, and isosurface information provides insight into the sensitivity of scene structure at the stages leading up to structure computation, such as frame decimation, feature tracking, and self-calibration. Furthermore, user interaction allows for such an analysis in ways that have traditionally been achieved mathematically, without any visual aid. Results are shown for different types of camera configurations, where it is discussed for example how over-decimation can be detected using the proposed technique, and how feature tracking inaccuracies have a stronger impact on scene structure than the camera's intrinsic parameters.