A perceptually validated model for surface depth hallucination

Capturing detailed surface geometry currently requires specialized equipment such as laser range scanners, which despite their high accuracy, leave gaps in the surfaces that must be reconciled with photographic capture for relighting applications. Using only a standard digital camera and a single view, we present a method for recovering models of predominantly diffuse textured surfaces that can be plausibly relit and viewed from any angle under any illumination. Our multiscale shape-from-shading technique uses diffuse-lit/flashlit image pairs to produce an albedo map and textured height field. Using two lighting conditions enables us to subtract one from the other to estimate albedo. In the absence of a flash-lit image of a surface for which we already have a similar exemplar pair, we approximate both albedo and diffuse shading images using histogram matching. Our depth estimation is based on local visibility. Unlike other depth-from-shading approaches, all operations are performed on...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: TOG
• Authors: Mashhuda Glencross, Gregory J. Ward, Francho Melendez, Caroline Jay, Jun Liu, Roger J. Hubbold
• Keywords: Albedo, Laser Range, Standard Digital Camera, TOG 2008