Semi-automatic tool for aligning a parameterized CAD model to stereo imagepairs

Fully automatic reconstruction of 3D models from images is well-known to be a difficult problem. For many applications, a limited amount of human assi stance is allowed and can greatly reduce the complexity of the 3D reconstru ction problem. In this paper, we present an easy-to-use method for aligning a parameterized 3D CAD model to images taken from different views. The sha pe parameters of the 3D CAD model can be recovered accurately. Our work is composed of two parts. In the first part, we developed an interactive tool which allows the user to associate the features in the CAD model to the fea tures in the 2D images. This interactive tool is designed to achieve effici ency and accuracy. In the second part, 3D information extracted from differ ent stereo views are integrated together by using an optimization technique to obtain accurate shape parameters. Some experimental results have been s hown to demonstrate the accuracy and usefulness of the recovered CAD model.