MODELING GREY LEVEL SURFACES USING 3-DIMENSIONAL POINT DISTRIBUTION MODELS

Point Distribution Models (PDM) allow a compact description of an obje ct's shape to be found from a set of example images. This paper invest igates adding a third dimension, intensity, to the PDM. Models are der ived which include modes of variation in intensity, and mention is mad e of more recent work that has extended this work to colour. The inclu sion of intensity complicates the task of fitting the model by adding new dimensions to the objective function. A two-stage fitting strategy is used to overcome this problem. Nine images were analysed successfu lly with this strategy. The resulting improvement in fit enables a cle ar distinction to be made between objects that are animals and those t hat are not.