LiDAR data reduction assisted by optical image for 3D building reconstruction

The focus of LiDAR data compression and reduction has been raised in recent years due to the dramatically huge amount of points cloud. To improve the disposal efficiency of LiDAR data, a data reduction method assisted by optical image for 3D reconstruction of building facade is proposed in this article. The method involves a series of procedures of “2D feature line extraction – 3D feature line converting – buffer area of LiDAR points”. The main issue here is finding out a LiDAR point dataset around the 3D feature segment converted from 2D feature lines, which benefits to improving the efficiency of post-processing based on LiDAR data. The reduced LiDAR data can be obtained with reliable structures and accurate geometric position. Furthermore, the experiment of the LiDAR data reduction was conducted over the Xingyuan Building in Nanjing Normal University. The reduction method in this paper proved to be suit for the regular objects modeling, on the basis of the reliable and rigorous mathematical models and computer algorithms, and was a fundamental and useful approach to improve the efficiency of 3D reconstruction of building with the higher modeling accuracy.