Automating 3D reconstruction pipeline by surf-based alignment

In this work, we automate a 3D reconstruction pipeline using two SURF-based approaches. The first approach uses SURF correspondences to pre-align multiple 3D scans from a same object without requiring manual labor. The second approach uses SURF correspondences to calibrate high resolution color images to 3D scans in order to improve the texture quality of the final 3D model. Both approaches succeeded in more than 95% of the test cases and were able to automatically identify incorrect results. Our pipeline has been widely used in several projects of cultural heritage and the proposed improvements are very important to allow its use in large collections. The proposed approaches were favorably compared to other methods and have been successfully applied in cultural heritage preservation of sculptures located in a UNESCO World Heritage site.