Calc Normals of Point Cloud and Filter It

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Function

This step is used to calculate point cloud normals and remove outliers.

function description

Usage Scenario

This Step is used to add normals to the original point cloud and remove outliers. It usually follows Steps Capture Images from Camera and From Depth Map to Point Cloud.

Input and Output

Input

Input ports Data type Description

Point Cloud

PointCloud/XYZ

Point cloud input to this port will be used to calculate the normals.

Output

Output ports Data type Description

Point Cloud (with normals)

PointCloud/XYZ-Normal

Point cloud with normal vectors and outliers removed.

Parameter Description

This Step provides three methods to calculate and filter the normals of the point cloud:

  • CloudPreprocessingGPU: Calculate the normals of the point cloud and then convert the input ordinary point cloud to the point cloud with normals. When there is a GPU and you need to calculate the normals, it is recommended to adopt this method.

  • CloudXYZToCloudNormal: Convert the input ordinary point cloud to point cloud with normals without calculating normals.

  • NormalEstimation: a regular method. Calculate the normals of the point cloud, and then convert the input ordinary point cloud to the point cloud with normals. When there is no GPU on the IPC and you need to calculate the normals of the point cloud, it is recommended to adopt this method.

The following sections introduce the parameters for the three methods.

Parameter Description

Min Depth of Valid Points

Description: This parameter is used to set the minimum depth value of points in the point cloud. Points with depth values smaller than this value will be removed.

CloudPreprocessingGPU

Calculation Settings

Parameter Description

Calc in Batches

Description: When performing GPU calculations, split large point clouds into multiple batches to reduce the amount of data loaded at once.
Default setting: Unselected
Adjustment: When the point cloud data is very large (causing insufficient VRAM or processing lag), check this option to prevent GPU memory overflow.

Search Radius

Parameter description: For point cloud processing, points within a circle whose radius is the value of the Search Radius parameter will be used to calculate the normals. The unit is millimeters (mm). A larger radius produces smoother normals but may lose some details; a smaller radius preserves more details but is susceptible to noise. Default: 15.000 mm
Default value: 15.000 mm

Concave and Convex Point Removal Settings

Parameter Description

Remove Concave and Convex Points

Once this option is selected, abnormally raised or depressed points will be removed according to the set search radius and threshold.
Default setting: Unselected

Outlier Removal Search Radius

Parameter description: Concave and convex points within the search radius will be detected and removed.
Default value: 20.000 mm

Concave Threshold

Points with depressions greater than this value within the search radius will be removed.
Default value: 1.0000

Convex Threshold

Points with convexity greater than this value within the search radius will be removed.
Default value: 1.0000

Outlier Removal Settings

Parameter Description

Remove Sparse

Once this option is selected, isolated points with insufficient neighbors will be removed according to the set search radius and threshold.
Default setting: Unselected

Sparse Point Removal Search Radius

Parameter description: Points within the search radius will be used to detect and remove outliers.
Default value: 10.000 mm

Outlier Threshold

Description: Take the current point as the center, and if the number of points in the search radius is smaller than this value, the current point is outlier.
Default value: 0

Number of iterations

Description: This parameter is used to set the number of times to repeatedly remove the outlier.
Default value: 1

CloudXYZToCloudNormal

There is no need to adjust parameters.

NormalEstimation

Parameter Description

Search Radius

Parameter description: Within the kernel, points with distances to the center point less than the search radius will be used to calculate the normals.
Default value: 5.000 mm

Half Kernel Size

Parameter description: Within the kernel, points with distances to the center point less than the search radius will be used to calculate the normals.
Default value: 3

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