A representation for the orientation-dependent appearance of 3-D objects

A technique is presented for matching 3-D object models to a segmented region of an image taken from an unknown viewer direction. An appearance graph is defined to capture the appearance variations with viewpoint. The appearance graphs are created at multiple levels of abstraction, allowing for orientation determination from noisy images. The method for searching the appearance graphs for the most appropriate viewpoint consists of reducing feature differences between a given aspect and the segmented region at a given level of abstraction. Both the representation techniques and the search method are described, as well as a system implementing these methods