As a feature, a local range image described in a log-polar coordinate system with a tangential plane set as an image plane is used. In a created image, ambiguity concerning an angular axis around the normal is normalized as a power spectrum using Fourier series expansion and changed to an amount invariable with respect to rotation. The power spectrum is dimensionally compressed by expanding the power spectrum in a peculiar space using a peculiar vector. Corresponding points are searched by nearest neighbor in a dimensionally compressed space to calculate a correspondence relation among the points. Wrong correspondence is removed by verification to determine a positional relation among range images. A reliable correspondence relation is narrowed down by verification by cross-correlation and a RANSAC to create a tree structure representing a link relation among the range images. A shape mode is created by applying a simultaneous registration method to plural range images of the tree structure using a result of this registration as an initial value.
Method and program for registration of three-dimensional shape