Robotic sightseeing-a method for automatically creating virtual environments

Abstract
This paper describes the fully automatic creation of an environment's description using an image-based representa- tion. This representation is a collection of cylindrical sample images combined into an \image-based virtual reality". The locations at which the environment will be sampled are cho- sen automatically using an operator inspired by models of human visual attention and saccadic motion. The image acquisition is performed by a mobile robot. The selection of vantage points is based on an analysis of the edge structure of sampled panoramic images. In order to trade o the optimality of the generated description of the navigation eort required in solving the on-line problem, a concept referred to as alpha-backtracking is introduced. The paper illustrates sample data acquired by the procedure.

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