Recovery of an unknown axis of rotation from the profiles of a rotating surface

Giblin, P. J., Pollick, F.E. and Rycroft, J. E. (1994) Recovery of an unknown axis of rotation from the profiles of a rotating surface. Journal of the Optical Society of America A: Optics Image Science and Vision, 11(7), pp. 1976-1984. (doi: 10.1364/JOSAA.11.001976)

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Abstract

We consider a surface (semitransparent or opaque) in space, viewed by orthogonal projection to a view plane that is rotating uniformly about an unknown axis (equivalently, a surface rotating about an unknown axis and viewed by orthogonal projection to a fixed view plane). We consider profiles of this surface (also known as apparent contours, occluding contours, and outlines), and we do not track marked points or curves nor assume that a correspondence problem has been solved. We show that, provided the angular speed is known, the location of the axis, and hence the surface, can be recovered from measurements on the profiles over an interval of time. If the angular speed is unknown, then there is a one-parameter family of solutions similar to the bas-relief ambiguity. The results are obtained by use of frontier points on the surface, which can also be viewed as points of epipolar tangency. Results of a numerical experiment showed that the performance was best with larger extents of rotation or when the axis was nearly perpendicular to the view direction.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Pollick, Professor Frank
Authors: Giblin, P. J., Pollick, F.E., and Rycroft, J. E.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Psychology
Journal Name:Journal of the Optical Society of America A: Optics Image Science and Vision
Publisher:Optical Society of America
ISSN:1084-7529
ISSN (Online):1520-8532

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