Three dimensional modeling of large-scale real environment by fusing range data, texture images, and airborne altimetry data

Construction of large-scale virtual environment is gaining more attention for its applications in virtual malls, virtual sightseeing, tele-presence, etc. We introduce a framework to construct a realistic large-scale virtual environment by fusing range data, texture images, and airborne altimetry data. First, realistic and high-precision 3-D models of buildings are created from range data and texture images, which are taken by long-range laser scanner and digital camera, respectively. Next, rough 3-D models of buildings in wide area are created using altimetry data acquired by airborne laser profiler. Finally, these models are integrated to build a large-scale realistic walk-through system. This paper describes the proposed system, issues related to the system, part of its implementations, as well as future work that still has to be done.