Iterative pose computation from line correspondences

This paper presents a method for estimating the position and orientation of a camera with respect to a known 3-D object from line correspondences. The main idea of the method is to estimate a pose with either a weak perspective or a paraperspective camera model and to improve this pose iteratively. At convergence the result is compatible with a perspective camera model. This iterative improvement of a linear (affine) camera model has already been used for points but has never been extended to lines. Known methods which compute pose from line correspondences deal with a set of nonlinear equations which are solved either in closed-form or using minimization techniques. These methods have to deal with multiple solutions. In contrast our method starts with a solution which is very close to the true solution and converges in very few iterations (typically three to five iterations). The rank analysis of the linear system to be solved at each iteration allows us to characterize geometric configurations which defeat the algorithm. (C) 1999 Academic Press.