Flexible simulation strategy for modeling 3D cultural objects based on multi-source remotely sensed imagery

New ideas and solutions never come alone. Although automated feature extraction is not sufficiently mature to move from the realm of scientific investigation into the category of production technology, a new goal has arisen: 3D simulation of real-world objects, extracted from images. This task, which evolved from feature extraction and is not an easy task itself, becomes even more complex, multi-leveled, and often uncertain and fuzzy when one exploits time-sequenced multi-source remotely sensed visual data. The basic components of the process are familiar image processing tasks: fusion of various types of imagery, automatic recognition of objects, removng those objects from the source images, and replacing them in the images with their realistic simulated "twins" - object rendering. This paper discusses how to aggregate the most appropriate approach to each task into one technological process in order to develop a Manipulator for Visual Simulation of 3D objects (ManVIS) that is independent or imagery/format/media. The technology could be made general by combining a number of competent special purpose algorithms under appropriate contextual, geometric, spatial, and temporal constraints derived from a-priori knowledge. This could be achieved by planning the simulation in an Open Structure Simulation Strategy Manager (O3SM) - a distinct component of ManVIS-building the simulation strategy before beginning actual image manipulation.