Chikatsu, Hirofumi 
  
DEVELOPMENT OF HYBRID VIDEO THEODOLITE AND APPLICATION 
FOR 3D MODELING OF PANORAMIC OBJECTS 
Hirofumi CHIKATSU, Tetsuji ANAI 
Tokyo Denki University, Japan 
Department of Civil Engineering 
chikatsu@g.dendai.ac.jp 
Working Group V/5 
KEY WORDS: Hybrid Video Theodolite, Camera Calibration, Panoramic Objects, Ortho Image, 3D Modeling. 
ABSTRACT 
Digital archives or VR museums for structures of architectural significance and objects of importance to the World's 
cultural heritage have recently received more attention. However, there are some issues for effective operational of 
digital archives or VR museums. These problems include real-time imaging, spatial data acquisition, and modeling. 
In particular, efficient spatial data acquiring techniques in a site should be developed or investigated. 
With this objective, and for multiple applications such as human motion analysis, auto-tracking, realtime 
positioning and so on, Hybrid Video Theodolite (HVT) system was developed by the authors consisting of 6 parts: 
sensor, pan head and tilt body, imaging, recording, control and monitor. The most remarkable points of this HVT 
system are its ability to obtain synchronized stereo image sequences and rotation parameters in real-time while 
tracking a moving object. As for further additional point of this system, automated camera calibration without target 
can be achieved. 
This paper describes the HVT system, and investigates the effectiveness of this system for 3D modeling of 
panoramic objects in architecture and archeology. 
1 INTRODUCTION 
The authors have been concentrating on developing a video theodolite system consisting of a CCD camera, a 
theodolite and a video recorder where the camera rotation parameters can be determined in real-time while recording 
a moving object. The current values of the rotation parameters are continuously superimposed on image frames and 
thus recorded as a part of the image data (Chikatsu and et al., 1994). The effectiveness of the video theodolite 
system for dynamic analysis of human motion have been demonstrated (Chikatsu and Murai, 1995, Chikatsu and et 
al., 1996, Anai and Chikatsu, 1999) and the application of the video theodolite system to the ski jump (Chikatsu and 
et al., 1997) and panoramic imaging (Nakano and Chikatsu, 1999) also have been demonstrated. 
Furthermore, the authors constructed the stereo vision system based on the video theodolite system fitting the stereo 
adapter to the lens of the CCD camera of the video theodolite (Kakiuchi and Chikatsu, 1998). Right and left image 
are taken as the odd field and even field by the liquid crystal shutter. The remarkable points of the stereo vision 
system are its ability to obtain the synchronized stereo image sequences and camera rotation parameters in realtime, 
and 3D modeling for indoor space became possible (Kakiuchi and Chikatsu, 2000). 
There are still, however, some issues which need to be resolved before this system may become operational. These 
problems include, necessity of increased speed for tracking and long base line for stereo image for large base-depth 
ratios. 
With these motives, the Hybrid Video Theodolite (HVT) System was developed by the authors consisting of 6 parts: 
sensor, pan head and tilt body, imaging, recording, control and monitor. After describing the HVT system, the 
effectiveness of this system for 3D modeling of panoramic objects in architecture and archeology are shown in this 
paper. 
2 HYBRID VIDEO THEODOUITE (HVT) SYSTEM 
The HVT system was developed based on the video theodolite system which have been developing by the authors, 
for multiple applications such as human motion analysis, auto-tracking, rea-time positioning and so on (Anai and 
Chikatsu 2000, Yoshida and Chikatsu 2000). 
The HVT system consists of 6 parts: sensor, pan head and tilt body, imaging, recording, control and monitor. The 
sensor part consist of 3 color CCD cameras and laser range finder mounted on pan head, and pan head mounted on 
  
  
130 International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part B5. Amsterdam 2000. 
  
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