System and method for aligning a locally-reconstructed three-dimensional object to a global coordinate system using partially-detected control points

This invention relates generally to the field of reconstructing and/or manipulating surface geometries of one or more three dimensional objects in a scene, from a plurality of two dimensional images of the scene, and more particularly to a system and method for relating a local coordinate system associated with a reconstruction of at least a portion of the scene to a global coordinate system. A system and method are described for aligning a locally-reconstructed three-dimensional object, whose local reconstruction is relative to a local coordinate system, to a global coordinate system by using pre-mapped control points which are projected onto one or more of the images that may be used to generate the local reconstruction. A system includes a control point information generator and an alignment generator. The control point information generator is configured to identify in at least image associated with a local reconstruction of the object a projection of at least one control point in the scene onto the at least one image, and generate local projected coordinate information indicating coordinates of the projection in the at least one image. The alignment information generator is configured to utilize the local projected coordinate information and mapping information relating to global coordinate information indicating coordinates of the at least one control point relative to the global coordinate system to generate alignment information relating a local coordinate system associated with the local reconstruction to the global coordinate system.