AN OBJECT-ORIENTED STEREO SYSTEM FOR 3D-MEASUREMENT

A stereo system designed and used for the measurement of 3D-coordinates within metric stereo image pairs will be presented. First, the motivation for the development allowing to evaluate stereo images is shown. As the use and availability of digital metric images rapidly increases corresponding equipment for the evaluation and measuring process is needed. Systems which have been developed up to now are either very special ones, founded on high end graphics workstations with an according pricing or simple ones with restricted measuring functionality. A new conception will be shown, avoiding special high end graphics hardware but providing the measuring functionality required. The presented stereo system is based on PC-hardware equipped with a graphic board, uses an object-oriented programming technique and allows a connection to CAD packages like AutoCAD®. The specific conception of the system are shown. The key role of OpenGL TM is described, which supplies some elementary graphic functions, being directly supported by graphic boards and thus provides the performance needed. Further important aspects as modularity and hardware independence and their value for the solution are shown. Finally some sample functions concerned with image display and handling are presented in more detail.