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Shape and spatially-varying BRDFs from photometric stereo
Dan B Goldman1, Brian Curless, Aaron Hertzmann
1Adobe Systems, Inc., Seattle, WA 98103, USA. dgoldman@adobe.com
Summary
This study presents a photometric stereo technique for surfaces with varying Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Functions (BRDFs). The method accurately recovers shape and material properties, enabling realistic renderings and interactive editing.
Area of Science:
- Computer Vision
- Computer Graphics
- Material Science
Background:
- Photometric stereo typically assumes uniform surface properties.
- Spatially-varying Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Functions (BRDFs) present a significant challenge for existing methods.
- Accurate material and shape recovery is crucial for realistic rendering and analysis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a photometric stereo method for surfaces with spatially-varying BRDFs.
- To recover both surface geometry and detailed material properties (BRDFs and weight maps).
- To enable accurate re-rendering under novel lighting and facilitate interactive editing.
Main Methods:
- An optimization-based photometric stereo approach.
- Constraining pixels to be representable by a combination of at most two fundamental materials.
- Leveraging observations about the composition of most objects from a limited set of materials.
Main Results:
- Successful recovery of surface shape and spatially-varying BRDFs.
- Generation of accurate weight maps for material composition.
- Demonstration of high-fidelity re-renderings under new lighting conditions.
- Validation across a variety of object types.
Conclusions:
- The proposed method effectively handles complex surfaces with spatially-varying diffuse and specular properties.
- The approach provides a robust framework for shape and material estimation.
- Enables new possibilities for interactive manipulation and re-rendering of 3D objects.
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