Persepolis: Recovering history with a handheld camera

Abstract

In this paper we present new improvements to our novel pipeline for image based modeling of objects using a camcorder. Our system takes an uncalibrated sequence of images recorded around a scene, it automatically recovers the underlying 3D structure and camera path and then a volumetric scene reconstruction is performed using a hardware accelerated voxel carving approach. Finally a triangular mesh is obtained and the available information from the images is combined to generate a full 3D photo-realistic reconstruction. As an application, we use this system to reconstruct parts of the archeological site of Persepolis (Iran).