For this particular research effort, one vital, important prerequsite to developing a 3D reconstruction algorithm is having the test data in which to benchmark the algorithm with. For automatic 3D reconstruction of urban and residential structures, the following requirements of a given test set must be met:

1. LiDAR point cloud data with accuracies of approximately .5 to 1.5 meter spacing resolutions
2. Aerial imagery of 8 to 15 cm pixel resolution (preferably tiff format)
3. Both of the above depict the same scene, preferabbly of both urban and residential building structures containing some simple, some complex construction styles. 

Other nice perks the data could potentially have, have been enumerated in the first progress report entry on this website, at the following url - Data Test Set Wish List

To contract an Aerial Surveying company to fly a plane out to procure new data approximately starts at $5,000.  The cost then increases accordingly based on the data requested. The purchase of existing data, if available, of both LiDAR and Aerial Imagery (meeting the above mentioned specifications), approximately costs $1,000 per square kilometer.

Therefore, the contributions made are indeed great ones and will go a long way towards this research effort. All contributors as well as affiliated parties with this research effort will be receiving a bi-weekly email containing a summary of the progress made on this research effort and a link to a more detailed progress report hosted on this website. Furthermore, contributors will be appropriately cited in all publications where their donated data was used.  In addition to the citings and updates, contributors will also receive pdf copies of the Masters Thesis as well as the PhD Dissertation. 

I would like to thank Dr. Franz Rottensteiner and Simon Clode, John Ellis with AeroMap, and Paul Mrstik with Terrapoint for their time and their companies’ extremely generous contribution of test data towards this research effort.  Without your contributions I would have never been able to proceed forth with researching this awesome area of research for my thesis. Furthermore, I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Kasparis with the University of Central Florida (UCF) for all of his help and guidance and Dr. Andy Lee with Harris for his expert advice. I would also like to thank the Harris Corporation for their generous donation to the UCF, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department to fund my research.  Thank you Dr. Georgios Anagnostopulos, Dr. Michael Georgiopoulos, Dr. Andy Lee, Dr. Abhijit Mahalanobis, and Dr. Wasfy Mikhael for serving on my PhD Committee. 

Links to additional information regarding the data and/or funding the contributors donated and additional information about the contributors and their company have been linked in the bar off to the right hand side as well as in the table above.  If any of the information presented is innacurate or you as a contributor would like to see additional information posted, please email me and I will be more than happy to make the necessary modifications.

Please do not email me requesting copies of the donated data.  I have been given explicit instructions NOT to redistribute any of the donated data. 

[Nicholas Shorter] [Resume] [What? Why? How?] [LiDAR Presentation] [Works Completed] [Contributors] [F. Rottensteiner] [AeroMap] [TerraPoint] [Dr. Kasparis] [Harris Corporation] [Update Blog] [Research Progress Reports] [Workstation] [Links]