Direct 3-D drawing by employing camera view constraints

A method comprising:

• providing a 3-D drawing based on 2-D camera views of a scene taken from multiple different views, wherein the 3-D drawing has a plurality of 3-D drawing primitives, and the 2-D camera views comprise at least a first 2-D camera view comprising a first point of the scene from a first view and a second 2-D camera view comprising the first point of the scene from a second view, different from the first view;
• permitting the 3-D drawing primitives to be drawn on a computer screen as a polygonal mesh and the polygonal mesh is overlaid on the 2-D camera views;
• using a computer, allowing a user to manipulate a 3-D drawing primitive in a view-locked mode, wherein in the view-locked mode, altering of an appearance of the 3-D drawing primitive occurs without changing its appearance on a selected input image;
• allowing the user to move the 3-D drawing primitive in 3-D under a locked constraint to match its appearance to corresponding features on other 2-D camera views;
• allowing view-locking of the 3-D drawing primitive on one 2-D camera view while aligning on the another 2-D camera view;
• allowing moving of the 3-D drawing primitive on a 3-D plane parallel to a current viewing camera to match its appearance to the corresponding features on other images;
• and
• allowing display on the computer screen a surface corresponding to the polygonal mesh of the 3-D drawing primitive, without a 2-D image overlay.

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• providing a 3-D drawing based on 2-D images of a scene taken from multiple different views, wherein the 3-D drawing has a plurality of 3-D drawing primitives, and the 2-D images comprise at least a first 2-D image comprising a first point of the scene from a first view and a second 2-D image comprising the first point of the scene from a second view, different from the first view;
• permitting the 3-D drawing primitives to be drawn on a computer screen as a polygonal mesh and the polygonal mesh is overlaid on the 2-D images;
• using a computer, allowing a user to manipulate a 3-D drawing primitive in a view-locked mode, wherein in the view-locked mode, altering of an appearance of the 3-D drawing primitive occurs without changing its appearance on a selected input image;
• specifying a projection of the 3-D drawing primitive on at least one of the first 2-D image or second 2-D image, wherein the 3-D drawing primitive comprises a geometric primitive;
• allowing the user to move the 3-D drawing primitive in 3-D under a locked constraint to match its appearance to corresponding features on other 2-D images;
• allowing view-locking of the 3-D drawing primitive on one 2-D image while aligning on the another 2-D image;
• allowing moving of the 3-D drawing primitive on a 3-D plane parallel to a current viewing camera to match its appearance to the corresponding features on other images;
• allowing reconstructing smooth surfaces of the 3-D drawing primitives through the use of color consistency in the view-locked mode;
• allowing automatic alignment of primitives to the edges on the 2-D images through a search for the best primitive along which an edge strength is maximum, wherein the primitives comprise smooth curves;
• and
• allowing display on the computer screen a surface corresponding to the polygonal mesh of the 3-D drawing primitive, without a 2-D image overlay.