President: Hans - Gerd Maas

Secretary: Danilo Schneider

1 State of Science and Technology of Commission Topics

ISPRS Commission V deals with optical 3D measurement techniques in fields such as industrial production and quality control, cultural heritage recording, terrestrial laser scanning, virtual reality data acquisition, 3D motion analysis, robotics and quantitative biomedical imaging. Driven by progress in sensor technology, algorithms and data processing capabilities, the focus of ISPRS Commission V has propagated into a wide range of new application fields. A central issue in many developments is the integration of sensor technology with reliable data processing schemes to generate highly automated online or real-time photogrammetric measurement systems. Here we often find the term 'image engineering'; standing for custom-made solutions based on active and passive sensing and illumination devices combined with task-specific image analysis techniques.

The progress in the work of Commission V is currently mainly stimulated by the following developments:

· Terrestrial laser scanning adds a new dimension to applications such as cultural heritage recording, as-built documentation and facility management. At the same time, it forms a bridge between Photogrammetry and engineering geodesy, between ISPRS and IAG/FIG. While the instrument design and calibration strategies show similarities to geodetic instruments, techniques for automated point cloud processing are mostly derived from photogrammetric image analysis techniques. Many developments in ISPRS deal with automatic point cloud referencing techniques, the extraction of geometric and semantic information from point clouds and the fusion of point cloud and image data.

· Omni-directional vision sensors (panoramic cameras, hemispheric systems) allow for flexible image recording schemes and necessitate the development of suitable camera models and calibration strategies.

· Novel 3D-cameras have opened new possibilities of mono-sensorial 3D image sequence acquisition. Unlike most triangulation-based systems, they can be considered true real-time 3D data acquisition systems with application fields ranging from robotics over car safety to human motion analysis.

Commission V has seen a large number of successful research projects passing into practical application, providing efficient solutions for new measurement tasks. These developments have opened immense new markets for Photogrammetry (and jobs for photogrammeters), which have only rudimentarily been exhausted by now.

2 Accomplishments of Commission during the current year

The most important event for Commission V in 2006 was the midterm symposium, which took place in the Wechselbad-Theater in Dresden from 25-27 September. With 72 oral and 40 poster presentations, the symposium gave an overview on the state of the art and recent developments in image engineering and vision metrology based on image and laser scanner data. The symposium was accompanied by an exhibition with 21 companies, comprising camera and laser scanner manufacturers, industrial measurement system suppliers, medical Photogrammetry system providers, software developers, service providers and consultants. Despite timing competition with between ISPRS symposia and with other ISPRS sponsored events, symposium and exhibition together were attended by more than 250 participants from 28 countries. The symposium proceedings can be obtained from the Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing webpage (http://www.tu-dresden.de/ipf/photo/).

3 Working Group Activities During the current year

3.1 WG V/1: Industrial vision metrology systems and applications (Luhmann, van den Heuvel)

3.1.1 Progress, needs, and developments

WG V/1 covers a wide range of topics that reach from digital imaging sensors, mathematical modelling, and image analysis to application-oriented issues and standardizations. Consequently, the working group has links with other ISPRS working groups and non-photogrammetric groups as well. As a significant trend during the past 10 years one can recognize a decreasing interest of industrial users in the work of ISPRS. Hence, it is one objective of our working group to intensify contacts to industry and system suppliers.

The recent technical development is characterized by a number of technological progresses. Digital imaging sensors are available with up to 40 Mpixel for still-video cameras, and more than 1.5 Mpixel for digital video cameras. New data interfaces (e.g. CameraLink) with higher data rates offer new chances for real-time applications. Special digital sensor systems like high-speed cameras, panorama cameras, stereo-cameras, CMOS cameras, intelligent cameras etc. enable new applications but new demands on photogrammetric processing and software as well. Hybrid sensor solutions (e.g. fringe projections, laser, GPS/INS) are of increasing interest especially in the field of large-scale metrology. Here photogrammetric solutions are combined with different sensor data, e.g. laser trackers and laser scanners.

Automation is obviously one of the most challenging tasks in industry. Successful systems of today usually work with coded targets that can be identified and located in 3D fully automatically. Non-targeted objects and object parts are much more difficult to measure, e.g. contours and edges. Although numerous algorithms are known, a high level of reliability and accuracy is often not achieved.

3.1.2 Accomplishments of the working group

WG V/1 activities have concentrated on establishing a closer cooperation between CMSC (Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference, USA) and our WG. Thomas Luhmann has attended the conference in July 2006 (Orlando, Florida) where he had the opportunity to deliver ISPRS Comm. V flyers and where he could present Dresden as the city of the next symposium.

The CMSC conference 2006 has gathered about 350 participants and more than 30 exhibitors. For our working group this is probably the most interesting place besides the German Control Fair and the Optical 3-D conference. Due to changes in the CMSC board, the joint activities planned for 2006 and future years have not been accomplished to the desired extend (see annual report 2005).

Around XXX papers and abstracts have been submitted to the Dresden symposium for WG V/1. Two technical sessions with oral presentations have been presented during the conference.

Th. Luhmann could attend the international workshop on "Traceability in Large Scale Metrology", held in Braunschweig, Germany, 14./15. November 2006, and present a paper on "Accuracy Limits in Photogrammetry". The topic is of significant interest for industrial users. Since several papers in Dresden have presented non-standardized accuracy and quality measures for photogrammetric projects, it is the objective of WG V/1 to set up a standardized test data set for the evaluation of photogrammetric accuracy in close-range configurations. Recently the data sets are configured; a download from the WG webpage will be established as soon as possible in early 2007.

3.1.3 Forthcoming activities

Meetings:

· Participation on CMSC, Reno, Nevada, 2007.

· Participation on Optical 3-D Measurement Techniques, Zurich

· Closer cooperation with WG V/5 in sensor and panorama technology

3.2 WG V/2: Cultural heritage documentation (Grussenmeyer, Hanke)

3.2.1 Accomplishments during 2005

ISPRS WG V/2 chairs participated:

· At ISPRS Com. V Symposium, 'Image engineering and vision metrology', Dresden, Sept. 25-27, Germany

· At Joint event CIPA/VAST/EG/EuroMed 2006, The e-volution of Information Communication Technology in Cultural Heritage, Hilton Nicosia, Oct.30- Nov.4, Cyprus (organizer: Marinos Ioannidis)

· At CIPA Executice board meeting in Nicosia (during the congress): Grussenmeyer, Hanke, Takase.

3.2.2 Working Group News and Proposed Future Program

ISPRS WG V/2 will assist with the technical program and participate in:

· June: ISPRS WG V/2 workshop in Strasbourg (to be confirmed in January 2007)

· October 1-6: CIPA 2007 symposium in Athens

The current web site will be expanded with additional links to resources available on the Internet. The list of active members of ISPRS WG V/2 will be completed and published on the web site. The participants of the CIPA symposium in Torino will be contacted. Links with CIPA WG chairs will be done.

3.3 WG V/3: Terrestrial laserscanning (Pfeifer, Lichti)

3.3.1 State of Science and Technology of Working Group Topics

Perhaps the most significant tend in the state of the science is the marked increase in research activity. At the recent ISPRS Commission V Symposium in Dresden, the largest number of papers in terms of the combined refereed and non-refereed streams was for terrestrial laser scanning. Several manufacturers were present in the exhibition to display their systems. Two main research themes featured prominently: Registration by iterative closest point type algorithms and feature extraction, with several papers devoted to each. Interesting advances were also presented in TLS system calibration and deformation monitoring. In terms of applications, the most prominent was cultural heritage recording.

An important emerging technology is focal plane array range cameras, which can capture a complete 3D scene simultaneously, as there are no moving parts, at data rates up to 50 Hz. Array size is small (>1k pixels) and range limited (~7.5 m), but the technology is impressive and its applications can be expected to grow as its operational parameters improve in the coming years. Two manufacturers of such systems were present at the exhibition and there was one paper presented.

3.3.2 Accomplishments of Working Group

· Members: We have again been very active in recruiting members for the WG, trying to capture the interest of researchers outside the photogrammetric community. We have members from forestry, civil engineering, mechanical engineering and geology whose applications are of interest to us. Excluding the WG executive (Chair, etc.) there are in total 40 members, up from 30 at this time in 2005.

· LAS 2.0 WG: Both Chairs have contributed to the LAS 2.0 format working group, which is chaired by Lewis Graham of GeoCue Corp, USA. The new LAS format is intended to accommodate both ALS and TLS.

3.3.3 Working Group News

· WG Dataset: We have had more than a dozen requests for the Agia Sanmarina, Greece, dataset (Leica HDS 2500 point clouds and imagery) that is available through the WG website.

· Next Workshop: The next laser scanning workshop, Workshop on Laser Scanning - LS2007, will be held in Espoo, Finland, 12-14 Sept 2007. It is again a joint effort with WGs from other Commissions (WGs III/3, III/4 and VIII/11). Both Chairs of V/3 are Organising Committee members and Norbert Pfeifer will be a Keynote speaker. There will be two paper submission streams: refereed and non-refereed. See http://www.foto.hut.fi/ls2007/ls2007.html for full details.

· ISPRS Journal Theme Issue: The Call for Papers for the ISPRS Journal theme issue on Terrestrial Laser scanning was released. The paper submission deadline is 30 November 2006 and the anticipated publication date is (northern) autumn 2007. Both Chairs of WG V/3 and Hans-Gerd Maas are the Guest Editors. See http://www.itc.nl/isprsjournal/ for full details.

· Registration Test: A PhD student from the Technical University of Vienna has kindly volunteered to perform the registration test using a number of datasets.

· 2008 Beijing Congress: WGs V/2 and V/3 have planned a theme session on TLS for Cultural Heritage Recording for the 2008 ISPRS Congress in Beijing. The WG V/3 Chairs are also planning a one-day introductory workshop on TLS to take place the day before an already-planned workshop on Heritage Recording.

· Executive: A new person responsible for maintaining the WG website, Dr Kwang-Ho Bae, started in 2006. He has just recently completely revised the website so it conforms to the ISPRS template.

3.4 WG V/4: Virtual reality and computer animation (El-Hakim, Remondino)

3.4.1 State of Science and Technology

Some advances in increasing the realism of image-based techniques have been reported, mainly through increasing the level of fine geometric details. Techniques such as automatic and reliable dense stereo matching have exhibited significant improvement. Finding suitable and intuitive methods for model and data representation and interaction, particularly for 4D models (time varying), is an active research area. The use of laser scanners for 3D data acquisition for VR applications has also increased significantly due to advances in commercially available hardware and software tools. Enhanced VR displays, as well as visualization and animation methods, although very active in the computer graphics community, have not shown noticeable interest within Commission V presented research activities. As in the past few years, virtual heritage remains the most active reported application.

3.4.2 Accomplishments of the Working Group

No workshops in 2006. The working group maintains a web site with links to the member's web pages, extensive links to relevant sites, and important events. There are also sets of test data each consists of a group of images of an object or site, and camera calibration information.

3.4.3 Working Group News and Future Plans

The group is planning two workshops in 2007. The first is Videometrics IX, San Jose, California, 28 January - 1 February, 2007 (the program with about 40 papers is now available). The second is the 2^nd International Workshop on 3D Virtual Reconstruction and Visualization of Complex Architecture (3D-Arch'2007), Zurich, Switzerland, 12-13 July, 2007 (Jointly with the 8^th Optical 3D Measurements Techniques).

3.5 WG V/5: Development in image sensor technology (Reulke, Zheltov)

3.5.1 State of the Science and Technology

In 2006 several important developments were made which are related to the WGs terms of reference. The most interesting trends are the development of camera systems based on the time-of-flight principle and the ongoing increases of the spatial resolution of imaging sensors. In accordance to the objectives of WG V/5, two workshops have been organized in 2006.

3.5.2 Recent developments

3D camera: Recently, camera systems are available which provide distance and image data without using mechanical parts. Different vendors developed all solid-state 3D cameras based on the time-of-flight (TOF) principle. Such cameras are able to acquire distance and image data simultaneously. CSEM Swiss Ranger and PMD Technologies GmbH are two manufacturers of such camera systems. The typical spatial resolution is 160 x 120 pixels. Efforts are made to combine PMD with higher resolution RGB cameras to meet the requirements of applications such as robot vision. In 2006 different papers were published about evaluation, calibration, and application of the PMD camera.

Large format cameras: Different vendors provide digital camera backs with high resolution matrices from DALSA (Jenoptik, Imacon, Leaf, PhaseOne, Sinar). Today, PHASE ONE'S 39 Mio. pixel (7216 x 5412 pixel) digital back is the highest resolution camera available. Combinations of two cameras with 33 Mpixel digital backs from ALPA (Swiss) are available as well.

3.5.3 Accomplishments of the WG

· DIN-Workshop, Requirements on fusion techniques: The "High-tech Strategy for Germany" emphasizes the significance of standardization in promoting a faster dissemination of new technologies. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology is financing the long-term project "Innovation through standards (INS)". DIN has set up a program of three research projects and 27 standards projects. One of the projects includes the development of a concept for the fusion of digital mapping data with data from different sensors. DIN and the Humboldt University organized a workshop which was supported by the ISPRS on the 20^th November 2006. At the workshop, emphasis was put on recent developments in camera, radar, hyperspectral, and lidar imaging technologies. Especially, several contributions addressed the fusion of different types of image data.

· Workshop "Ego-Localization": The workshop "Ego-Localization" was organized by Prof. Burkhard (HU), Prof. Nebiker (FHNW) and Prof. Reulke (DLR). It was held in DLR / Berlin on 5^th December 2006. The workshop topics ranged from marker-less ego-localization for augmented reality, localization aspects for a moving CCD-line camera, the improvement of inertial navigation systems with camera images, georeferencing using data from a 3D GIS to different applications in robotics.

3.6 WG V/6: Medical Image analysis, human motion and body measurement (Patias)

3.6.1 State of the Science and Technology

Techniques and systems for analysis and 3D reconstruction are extensively used in the medical field. Medical image analysis is an established and efficient technology for diagnosis in different medical disciplines. Classical data sources such as CT and NMR are continuously refined and the technology is moving forward to a automated segmentation of 3D volume data. 3D computer vision techniques and VR/AR are used more and more in the medical and tele-medical fields. Photogrammetric 3D tracking systems can also be considered as classical analysis and diagnosis tools used, for example, for motion capture and gate analysis. The same technology is applied also in other field as for example 3D tracking of surgical instruments. Technologies for 3D surface measurement are increasingly applied in various medical fields, such as, forensic medicine, orthodontics, prosthetics, orthopedics, otolaryngology, reconstructive and plastic surgery; and not to forget are the applications in biometry research and security applications.

3.6.2 Activities and accomplishments in 2006

· Realization of a summer school on "Advances in Medical Imaging", from April 24th to 29th in Aghios Nikolaos, Crete, Greece. The School brought together young scientists and developers from different disciplines (medical doctors, radiologists, computer graphics and 3D modelling engineers, photogrammetrists, digital image analysts, etc), to study and discuss the latest developments in digital imaging, recording and modelling in medical applications. The material of the held presentations is available at the WG web page.

· The working group has now 31 members.

3.6.3 Plans for 2007

· Participation and plan of sessions within the 8^th Conference on Optical 3D Measurement Techniques (Zurich).

· Preparation of a tutorial for the ISPRS Congress Beijing 2008.

3.7 IC WG V/I: Integrated systems for mobile mapping (El-Sheimy, Vettore)

3.7.1 State of Science and Technology of Working Group Topics

· Applanix launched POSTrack, the first fully integrated, real-time direct georeferencing and flight management system designed for the airborne geospatial community.

3.7.2 Accomplishments of Working Group during the current year

· Dr. Naser El-Sheimy was the General Chair of the US Institute of Navigation (ION) National Technical Meeting (NTM) which took take place on January 18-20, 2006 - Monterey, California. The ISPRS WG I/2 on "SAR and LIDAR Systems" were invited to organize a session on "Rapid Geointelligence Acquisition From Airborne Platforms" during the meeting.

· Dr. Mohamed Mostafa organized two technical sessions and panel discussions at the ASPRS annual conference that will be held in Tampa, FL, May 1-5, 2007. These sessions are on Airborne GPS for Photogrammetry and Image Georeferencing.

· Dr. Mohamed Mostafa taught an 8 hour course in the International MSc. in Airborne Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing at the Institute De Geomatica, in Spain on Integrated Systems Orientation

· Dr. Mohamed Mostafa serves as the Editor, PE&RS - Direct Georeferencing Column.

· On the 108th meeting of EuroSDR in Stockholm (5/2006) Dr. Skaloud presented the first report on the Reliability of direct georeferencing entitled 'An overview of current approaches and possibilities'. On the 109th meeting of EuroSDR in Lisabon (10/2006) Dr. Skaloud presented second report on the Reliability of direct georeferencing entitled 'A case study on practical problems and solutions'. These reports conclude the initial investigations of the EuroSDR Commission 1 into the subject and will become part of the EuroSDR 51th publication (book) in 2007.

3.7.3 Planned meetings, workshops and tutorials

· The WG lunches the web page for The 5th International Symposium on Mobile Mapping Technology (MMT'07) which will take place in Padua, Italy, 28-31 MAY 2007 http://www.cirgeo.unipd.it/cirgeo/convegni/mmt2007/index.aspx

3.8 IC WG I/V: Autonomous vehicle navigation (Li, Everaerts)

See Com. I report.

3.9 IC WG III/V: Image sequence analysis (Pollefeys, Nister)

See Com. III report.

4 Other Relevant Information

5 Commission Officer Address Updates

See enclosed list. The webpage is being kept up-to-date.