Detecting changes of buildings from aerial images using shadow and shading model

We propose a method for detecting changes of buildings by comparing aerial images which are taken at different times. In the proposed method, we consider the shadow and shading model. The model is derived from a relation between incident light of the Sun and 3D shapes of buildings which intercept the incident light. The advantage of the proposed method is that we only compare 2D aerial images based on the model without estimating 3D shapes of buildings. When we compare the aerial images, we have the problem that changes of shadows and buildings are observed simultaneously in the images. To solve this problem, we propose criteria for distinguishing the changes of shadows and buildings. Our experiments have shown that the proposed method can distinguish the changes of shadows and buildings in real aerial images