The book addresses the range image registration problem for automatic 3D
model construction. We focus on obtaining highly precise alignments between
different view pairs of the same object to avoid 3D model distortions.
In contrast to most prior work, the view pairs may exhibit relatively little
overlap and need not be prealigned. To this end, we define a novel effective
evaluation metric for registration, the Surface Interpenetration Measure
(SIM). This measure quantifies the interleaving of two surfaces as their
alignment is refined, putting the qualitative evaluation of “splotchiness”,
often used in reference to renderings of the aligned surfaces, onto a solid
mathematical footing. The SIM is shown to be superior to mean squared
error (i.e. more sensitive to fine scale changes) in controlling the final stages
of the alignment process.