Patent attributes
An apparatus includes a nearest neighbor search engine configured to receive multiple sets of surface data. Each of the multiple sets includes three-dimensional point positions of a corresponding portion of a surface of an object. The nearest neighbor search engine is configured to perform a nearest neighbor search based on adjacency data indicating pairs of overlapping sets of the multiple sets to identify, in each pair of overlapping sets, pairs of closest corresponding points that are within a threshold distance of each other. The apparatus includes a transformation matrix generator configured to determine one or more transformation matrices to reduce a global distance metric that corresponds to distances between the points of each identified pair of closest corresponding points. The apparatus also includes a data set aligner configured to generate updated 3D point positions by applying the one or more transformation matrices to one or more of the multiple sets.
