Dynamic integration of height maps into a 3-D world representation from range image sequences

An approach is presented for building a 3-D world model from range image sequences derived from road scenes including moving objects. First, a range image is transformed into a height map representing the height information from the assumed ground plane, and then it is segmented into the ground plane and objects on it. In order to capture the resolution and accuracy of the range information and to represent the consistency of the height information between different height maps, the authors define a reliability of the height information for each point on the height map. Using the reliability, the system finds the correspondences of both static and moving objects between different observations, and successively refines the height information and its reliability with newly acquired data, dealing with inconsistent data. The authors show the results obtained using landscape models and a range finder based on the structured light