Interactive normal reconstruction from a single image

We present an interactive system for reconstructing surface normals from a single image. Our approach has two complementary contributions. First, we introduce a novel shape-from-shading algorithm (SfS) that produces faithful normal reconstruction for local image region (high-frequency component), but it fails to faithfully recover the overall global structure (low-frequency component). Our second contribution consists of an approach that corrects lowfrequency error using a simple markup procedure. This approach, aptly called rotation palette, allows the user to specify large scale corrections of surface normals by drawing simple stroke correspondences between the normal map and a sphere image which represents rotation directions. Combining these two approaches, we can produce high-quality surfaces quickly from single images.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: TOG
• Authors: Tai-Pang Wu, Jian Sun, Chi-Keung Tang, Heung-Yeung Shum
• Keywords: Faithful Normal Reconstruction, Single Images, Surface Normals, TOG 2008