Modeling 3D textured objects by fusion of multiple views

For modeling 3D objects, the object geometry is often not sufficient. Better appearance can be obtained by texture mapping which efficiently combines good appearance resolution with small geometric complexity. This paper presents a way to create such texture mapped 3D models of free-form objects, by integrating textured views obtained from range images. The three main steps consist of the following: first, texture-mapped views of the object are obtained from a 3D scanner. Then, the different views are registered, considering geometric and color information of overlapping grids. Finally, meshes can be fused by using a new overlap-removing method that keeps most of the existing triangulation and texture mapping unchanged.