Structure from motion with planar homography estimation: a real-time low-bandwidth, high-resolution variant for aerial reconnaissance

We propose a new algorithm variant for Structure from Motion (SfM) to enable real-time image processing of scenes imaged by aerial drones. Our new SfM variant runs in real-time at 4 Hz equating to an 80× computation time speed-up compared to traditional SfM and is capable of a 90% size reduction of original video imagery, with an added benefit of presenting the original two-dimensional (2D) video data as a three-dimensional (3D) virtual model. This opens many potential applications for a real-time image processing that could make autonomous vision–based navigation possible by completely replacing the need for a traditional live video feed. The 3D reconstruction that is generated comes with the added benefit of being able to generate a spatially accurate representation of a live environment that is precise enough to generate global positioning system (GPS) coordinates from any given point on an imaged structure, even in a GPS-denied environment.