RESECTION AND MONTE CARLO COVARIANCE FROM VANISHING POINTS FOR IMAGES OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN

Abstract. Photogrammetric analysis requires camera metadata (position, attitude, interior orientation, etc.), which is not available for all images. Modern commercial solutions for 3D reconstruction from images typically assume large amounts of purposefully-collected, highly-overlapping imagery. In this article, a system is demonstrated for recovering a 3D scene from images of unknown origin, by marking ground space axes, resecting a camera consistent with the markings, and then using the solved camera to collect 3D measurements. The capability works with close-range (vanishing points) and long-range (parallel axes) imagery. Monte Carlo analysis is used to propagate measurement uncertainty of the vanishing lines to uncertainty of exterior and interior camera parameters, which can then be used to quantify uncertainty of measurements in the 3D scene.