PNNL-13501 - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Results and Accomplishments
We used the HAZMAT Spill Center facility (Figure 1) at
the Remote Sensing Test Range on Frenchman Flat at the
Nevada Test Site for the test area both for the sitemodeling
development effort and the ground-truth sensor
demonstration.
Wind Tunnel
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Correlation of Chemical and Other Information
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Figure 1. Oblique photograph of HAZMAT Spill Center at
the Nevada Test Site—the test case for applications of closerange
photogrammetry and the field-sampling studies
For the site-modeling part of this project, we explored two
approaches to site modeling: 1) geometry-based systems
and 2) a hybrid geometry-based/image-based system
(Figure 2). Our intention was to simulate the use of
imagery expected to be available for arbitrary weapons
sites with analytical approaches developed for reverseengineering
facilities or making architectural renderings
to advance the state-of-the-art for weapons site and
facility characterization. Our criteria for evaluating these
site-modeling approaches were:
• Visualization versus functional characterization—
Current technology used in the national technical
means imagery community, (such as RapidScene)
generates simulated three-dimensional scenes using
imagery-texture-mapped bumps on topography for
semi-photorealistic virtual-reality walkthroughs, and
fly-bys. However, a functional characterization is a
three-dimensional association of virtual physical
objects. This association includes individual shapes
and textures (and internal structure where
appropriate), spatial arrangement, and physical
connections (pipes, trenches, etc.).
• Object-locked texture mapping for functional
understanding and to communicate functional
understanding—Three-dimensional scene
visualization texture maps, such as those described
above, represent a static association of objects.
Multiple images are used to get the best map image
394 FY 2000 Laboratory Directed Research and Development Annual Report
for each surface. To move virtual objects around in a
site model, they must be individual three-dimensional
objects and must be individually texture mapped.
• Association of virtual objects with weapons
processes—We start with a suite of objects and
shapes (pipe, prism/cylinder, sphere, tanks of various
compound shapes, etc.) generated for a site to build
the virtual site from imagery, then hyperlink the site
objects to a database by their primitives, and
hyperlink weapons site templates to the same
database to provide associations/arrangements of
objects indicative of proliferation activities.
Figure 2. Schematic (Debevec et al. 1996) relating hybrid
site-modeling approach to geometry-based and image-based
approaches
For raw imagery data, we obtained 4-inch by 5-inch color
contact prints of aerial photographs of the HAZMAT Spill
Center from the Remote Sensing Laboratory in Las
Vegas. We scanned these prints to create uncontrolled
digital images for use in close-range photogrammetric
analyses; such images represent the lowest-level data we
expect to obtain for arbitrary sites.
Geometry-Based Systems. We acquired two commercial
off-the-shelf close-range photogrammetry software
packages; Eos Systems, Inc. PhotoModeler ® Pro 3.1, and
Vexcel Corporation FotoG-FMS 5.1. Both of these
programs allow the user to use multiple, overlapping
photographs to reconstruct object geometry by calculating
camera positions and relative orientations of pairs of
stereographic images from tie points common to the
images, and to place those objects in an absolute
coordinate system using surveyed control points visible in
the images. Creation and linking of tie and control points
between images can be performed manually in both
systems.