Image mosaicking applied to three-dimensional surfaces

Image mosaicking consists in fusing images acquired from different places to build a global view of a scene. In this paper we present a method to mosaic images lying on three-dimensional surfaces. A rough model of the surface and the parameters of the projection permit images to be flattened. Then images are merged with a 2D technique of mosaicking. We propose to apply corrections on original images or on Laplacian images. The resulting image is mapped on an approximated elevation model to allow 3D visualization. Such an approach allows to take into account the perspective distortions and to reduce discontinuities along the junction line. This method is available for various domains (microscopy, paintings, satellite, etc.). Here we illustrate our method with paintings on a vault