A simple static-shadow based algorithm for 3D complex-terrain surface reconstruction

This paper presents a 3D terrain map reconstruction technique based on a static-shadow based algorithm This proposed technique integrates a number of simple techniques to treat partial and total occlusions since the occlusions affect the shadow length estimation and shadow detection leading to errors in the DEM results considerably. To prove the validity of the proposed technique, the accuracy of the DEM data derived from satellite and aerial image is compared with the real topographic data in an experiment. It is shown by the experimental results that the technique provides some degree of accuracy when compared with the real data, although its errors are slightly higher than that of a stereo matching technique.