Textureless Surface Feature Point Detection via Micro-Geometry Reconstruction

Feature point detection on textureless surfaces remains a fundamental challenge in computer vision due to the absence of discernible color and brightness gradients. From the imaging mechanism perspective, micro-geometry structures of textureless surfaces provide physically stable cues for feature point extraction despite the absence of visual distinctiveness. Therefore, we propose a novel feature point detection method, which reconstructs surface micro-geometry structures from a single RGB image and leverages these micro-geometry structures for feature extraction, without relying on specialized equipment or complex deep learning models. Specifically, our method establishes a novel framework that models the light-surface interaction to analyze phase modulation in reflected light. Then it reconstructs underlying micro-geometry structures through Gabor Kernel-based spectral analysis, enabling accurate quantification of surface height variations from phase information. This information forms the foundation of our proposed Concave-Convex Index (CCI), a robust geometric descriptor that achieves stable feature characterization through geometry-aware measurements. Extensive evaluations on TUM, T-LESS, Shape2.5D datasets and self-collected images, demonstrate our method's superior capability in extracting stably distributed and highly repeatable feature points, even when visible texture or brightness gradients vanish. Our method offers a novel perspective for reliable feature point detection on challenging textureless surfaces across diverse materials and illumination conditions.