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<TITLE>3d Stereo Imaging the open source way. (OSSIM, OpenSceneGraph, GRASS)</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Hey folks,</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">At last nights meeting interest was brought up concerning 3d stereo imaging using open source solutions. So why not research it a bit. If you can contribute comment please feel free.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Well I started this search at OSSIM, cause, well it made sense. For more info on the project check out: </FONT><A HREF="http://www.ossim.org/OSSIM/Welcome.html"><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">http://www.ossim.org/OSSIM/Welcome.html</FONT></U></A></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">These folks are mainly interested in imagery and image maipulation wihtin a geomatics context.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Next I searched for Open Source and various keywords with 3d imaging, stereo imaging and the like.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Well journal articles are always exciting and boring at the same time. But one in particular jumped out that looked like it might be a similar application of what we discussed.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Check out The article "</FONT> <FONT SIZE=5 FACE="Times New Roman">Interactive Stereo Electron Microscopy Enhanced with Virtual Reality</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial"> " here: </FONT><A HREF="http://www-vis.lbl.gov/Publications/2002/LBNL-48336-StereoEM.pdf"><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">http://www-vis.lbl.gov/Publications/2002/LBNL-48336-StereoEM.pdf</FONT></U></A></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">So if you take the principles here and replace the exlectron microscope imagery with stereo air photos you may achieve the same benefits. Notice how the images look like that red and blue cartoon outlines we used to find in shredy boxes with the funky glasses. Basicaly it interlaces the two images (form my understanding)</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">So what software did they use?... Well they reference a project called</FONT> <FONT FACE="Arial">OpenRM</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">. Check out the overview of the project here: </FONT><A HREF="http://www.openrm.org/overview.shtml"><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial">http://www.openrm.org/overview.shtml</FONT></U></A></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial">Now I'll have to research this feature more but they mention:</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Arial">*</FONT> <FONT FACE="Arial">Support for binocular analglyph and multibuffered stereo. </FONT>
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<P><FONT FACE="Arial">Now before you download OpenRM and expect results, notice this is a libray and API… it is NOT an application.</FONT>
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<P><FONT FACE="Arial">So what do we use to exploit the library?.... Well Check out Open Scene Graph at: </FONT><A HREF="http://www.openscenegraph.org/"><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial">http://www.openscenegraph.org/</FONT></U></A>
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<P><FONT FACE="Arial">And is it also coincidence that OSSIM uses open scene graph? Which brings us back to the circle.</FONT>
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<P><FONT FACE="Arial">So now you have a 3d stereo imaging library, a graphical environment and a geomatics package.</FONT>
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<P><FONT FACE="Arial">Now how close is this to production quality. No idea, but it would be interesting to hear how people fare by piecing it together.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial">Any missing pieces of the puzzle or other alternatives would probably help answer the original question.</FONT>
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<P><FONT FACE="Arial">Now another option is using GRASS and their stereo package. It is unmaintained since 1998 but might be a good starting point if another stereo project starts up. The source is still available.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial">Check out this small tutorial for a run through. Not sure if this is eaxactly what we want but might be interesting.</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Arial">Check it out: </FONT><A HREF="http://grass.itc.it/gdp/stereo-grass/index.html"><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial">http://grass.itc.it/gdp/stereo-grass/index.html</FONT></U></A>
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<P><FONT FACE="Arial">Markus from GRASS used to work with stereo imagery and GRASS so he might be a good resource:</FONT>
<BR><A HREF="http://grass.itc.it/pipermail/grassuser/2001-April/004577.html"><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial">http://grass.itc.it/pipermail/grassuser/2001-April/004577.html</FONT></U></A>
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<P><FONT FACE="Arial">There is the TINA project: </FONT><A HREF="http://www.tina-vision.net/"><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial">http://www.tina-vision.net/</FONT></U></A>
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<P><FONT FACE="Arial">"</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">The TINA libraries can be used in one of two ways. They have been designed to be<BR>
69 highly modular, allowing users to strip out parts of the functionality to use in<BR>
70 their own code (under the terms of the licence). However, they also include code<BR>
71 for interfaces to the algorithms. This code is in the form of a set of "tools",<BR>
72 each of which appears as a window on the screen, and which collect together related<BR>
73 functionality applicable to a certain task (loading single images, stereo image<BR>
74 pairs, temporal sequences or medical image volumes; stereo vision; medical image<BR>
75 segmentation; registration; blood flow analysis etc. etc. ). In order to use this<BR>
76 interface, you must build a "toolkit", a program that includes the tools you want<BR>
77 to access.</FONT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">"</FONT>
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<P><FONT FACE="Arial">AND Finaly check out this page:</FONT>
<BR><A HREF="http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~cil/v-source.html"><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial">http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~cil/v-source.html</FONT></U></A>
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<P><FONT FACE="Arial">It lists a bunch of projects and software dealing with various vision packages… a scattering of open source options.</FONT>
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<P><FONT FACE="Arial">If you have anything to add or have experience with these packages feel free to let the group know.</FONT>
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<P><FONT FACE="Arial">Cheers and Goble Goble.</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Arial"> </FONT>
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