Generation of a dense point cloud of a physical object

An image processing device for generating a dense point cloud, DPC, of a physical object, the image processing device comprising processing circuitry, the processing circuitry being configured to cause the image processing device to:

• obtain two-dimensional, 2D, digital images of the physical object, wherein each 2D digital image is comprised of pixels, and wherein some, but not all the pixels in each of the 2D digital images, represent the physical object;
• define object extractors, wherein the object extractors are defined to separate a first set of the pixels in the 2D digital images representing the physical object from a second set of the pixels in the 2D digital images not representing the physical object;
• create a sparse point cloud, SPC, from the 2D digital images, wherein the SPC is comprised of datapoints, and wherein some, but not all the datapoints, represent the physical object;
• obtain a modified SPC by first applying the object extractors to the 2D digital images to exclude pixels from the 2D digital images and then excluding the datapoints in the SPC that correspond to the pixels that have been excluded from the 2D digital images, whereby the datapoints of the SPC that do not represent the object are excluded from being included in the modified SPC;
• and
• generate the DPC by integrating information obtained from the pixels in the 2D digital images with the modified SPC.

A computer program product for generating a dense point cloud, DPC, of a physical object, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer code which, when run on processing circuitry of an image processing device, causes the image processing device to:

• obtain two-dimensional, 2D, digital images of the physical object, wherein each 2D digital image is comprised of pixels, and wherein some, but not all the pixels in each of the 2D digital images, represent the physical object;
• define object extractors, wherein the object extractors are defined to separate a first set of the pixels in the 2D digital images representing the physical object from a second set of the pixels in the 2D digital images not representing the physical object;
• create a sparse point cloud, SPC, from the 2D digital images, wherein the SPC is comprised of datapoints, and wherein some, but not all the datapoints, represent the physical object;
• obtain a modified SPC by first applying the object extractors to the 2D digital images to exclude pixels from the 2D digital images and then excluding the datapoints in the SPC that correspond to the pixels that have been excluded from the 2D digital images, whereby the datapoints of the SPC that do not represent the object are excluded from being included in the modified SPC;
• and
• generate the DPC by integrating information obtained from the pixels in the 2D digital images with the modified SPC.