Computer Perception of Three-Dimensional Objects

Abstract

We first pose the following problem: to develop a program which takes line-drawings as input and constructs three-dimensional objects as output, such that the output objects are the same as the ones we see when we look at the input line-drawing. We then introduce the principle of minimum standard-deviation of angles (MSDA) and discuss a program based on MSDA. We present the results of testing this program with a variety of line- drawings and show that the program constitutes a solution to the stated problem over the range of line-drawings tested. Finally, we relate this work to its historical antecedents in the psychological and computer-vision literature.