Theoretical autophotogrammetry. I - The method of the photometric potential

The present work presents preliminary efforts at a mathematical formulation of a photogrammetric method suitable for computerized processing. A theory is derived for the extraction of surface topography from stereometric pairs of photographs. The theory can be applied to either convergent or near-orthographic-projection stereo. Scene brightness is treated as a scalar function defined on a general surface embedded in ordinary three-dimensional space (the actual topography). Correspondence of points is based on adjustments leading to photometric equivalence, while the adjustments are based on the local value of the photometric gradient.