Automatic images translation to 3d model

Question

I'm quite interested in automatic images translation to 3d models. Not really for commercial product, but from the point of possible academic research and implementation.

What I'd like to achieve is almost transparent for user process of transformation series of images (fewer is better) to 3d model which might be shown in flash/silverlight/javafx or similar.

Consider online furniture store with 3d models of all items in stock. Kinda cool to have ability to see the product in 3d before purchasing it.

I managed to find a few pieces of software, like insight3d, but it couldn't be used in my case I guess.

So, are there any similar projects or tips for me? If it would require to write that piece of software - I'd really love to dig into research on this field.

Answer 1

This is an extremely difficult problem to solve. That's why you can't find a general purpose program that will do this.

Answer 2

As was mentioned by David, this is a very hard problem. For a use case like the online furniture store, you're far better off asking for the 3D models from the manufacturer. That said, you can find some results immediately on Google by searching for things like "3D reconstruction" (but you get tomography results too), or "model generation from images". Here are some examples:

• Make3D - Used for scene understanding for robotic navigation.
• urbanscape - Reconstruction of buildings from street view video.
• youtube video of PhotoScult - Commercial product.

The Youtube video has lots of related videos to commercial products, and I suggest looking at references in the papers, since this is still an actively researched topic.