Patent ID: 7343035

Claim:
A computerized method for generating height information for an arbitrary-image point on a rectified image from first and second aerial images having respective first and second sets of rational polynomial coefficients (RPCs), the first and second aerial images and the rectified image including overlapping image locations, the method comprising: on the first aerial image, generating a first epipolar line and a first RPC line corresponding to the arbitrary-image point; on the second aerial image, generating a second epipolar line and a second RPC line corresponding to the arbitrary-image point; generating a first intersection point of the first epipolar line and the first RPC line; generating a second intersection point of the second epipolar line and the second RPC; associating line and sample coordinates of the first intersection point to respective first and second cubic polynomial equations; associating line and sample coordinates of the second intersection point to respective third and fourth cubic polynomial equations; and solving the first, second, third, and fourth cubic polynomial equations to generate a height of the arbitrary-image point.