Abstract
This work presents a new measure for radial symmetry and an algorithm for its computation. This measure identifies radially symmetric blobs as locations with contributions from all orientations at some scale. Hence, at a given scale, radial symmetry is computed as the product of the responses of a set of even symmetric feature detectors, with different orientations. This operator presents low sensitivity to shapes lacking radial symmetry, is robust to noise, contrast changes and strong perspective distortions, and shows a narrow point spread function. A multi-resolution measure is provided, computed as the maximum of the symmetry measure evaluated over a set of scales. We have applied this measure in the field of photogrammetry for the detection of circular coded fiducial targets. The detection of local maxima of multi-resolution radial symmetry is combined with a step of false-positive rejection, based on elliptical model fitting. In our experiments, the efficiency of target detection with this method is improved regarding a well-known commercial system, which is expected to improve the performance of bundle adjustment techniques. In order to fulfill all steps previous to bundle adjustment, we have also developed our own method for recognition of coded targets. This is accomplished by a standard procedure of segmentation and decoding of the ring sequence. Nevertheless, we have included a step for the verification of false positives of decoding based on correlation with reference targets. As far as we know, this approach cannot be found in literature.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahn SJ, Rauh W, Recknagel M (1999) Circular coded landmark for optical 3D-measurement and robot vision. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS’99), pp 1128–1133. DOI 10.1109/IROS.1999.812831
Chen Z, Ye Z, Chan DTW, Peng G (2007) Target recognition based on mathematical morphology. CAD/Graphics’07, pp 457–460. DOI 10.1109/CADCG.2007.4407929
Otepka JO, Hanley HB, Fraser CS (2002) Algorithm developments for automated off-line vision metrology. Int Arch Photogramm Remote Sens 5:60–67
Shortis MR, Clarke TA (1994) Comparison of some techniques for the subpixel location of discrete target images. Proc SPIE Videometrics III 2350:239–250
Knyaz VA, Sibiryakov AV (1998) The development of new coded targets for automated point identification and non-contact 3D surface measurements. Int Arch Photogramm Remote Sens 32(5):80–85
Lowe DG (2004) Distinctive image features from scale-invariant keypoints. Int J Comput Vis 60(2):91–110
Loy G, Zelinsky A (2003) Fast radial symmetry for detecting points of interest. PAMI 25:959–973
Nixon MS, Aguado AS (2008) Feature Extraction and Image Processing. Academic Press, Oxford
Field DJ (1993) Scale–invariance and self-similar “wavelet” transforms: an analysis of natural scenes and mammalian visual systems. In: Farge M et al. (eds) Wavelets, fractals and Fourier Transforms, Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp 151–193
Kovesi P (1996) Invariant measures of image features from phase information. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Western Australia
Eberly D (2004) Distance from a point to an ellipse in 2D. Geometric Tools, LLC, http://www.geometrictools.com
Dosil R, Pardo XM, Fdez-Vidal XR, Garcia-Diaz A, Leborán V (2010) A New Multiresolution Blob Detector Applied to Photogrammetry. In: Pérez JC (ed.) III Congreso Español de Informática, Ibergarceta, Madrid, pp 109–116
Gutierrez JA, Armstrong BSR (2008) Precision Landmark Location for Machine Vision and Photogrammetry. Springer, London
Halir R, Flusser J (2000) Numerically Stable Direct Least Squares Fitting of Ellipses. Department of Software Engineering, Charles University, Czech Republic
van Rijsbergen CJ (1979) Information Retrieval. Butterworth, USA
Acknowledgments
This work has been developed in the framework of the projects Alexandria (Ref. PSE-020000-2009-10) and DICON (Ref: IPT-2011-1191-020000), funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, under the programs Proyectos Singulares Estratégicos and INNPACTO respectively. We also acknowledge the Laboratorio Oficial de Metroloxía de Galicia for providing test images and ground truth data.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dosil, R., Pardo, X.M., Fdez-Vidal, X.R. et al. A new radial symmetry measure applied to photogrammetry. Pattern Anal Applic 16, 637–646 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10044-012-0281-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10044-012-0281-y