Depth and All-in-Focus Image Estimation in Synthetic Aperture Integral Imaging Under Partial Occlusions

A common assumption in the integral imaging reconstruction is that a pixel will be photo-consistent if all viewpoints observed by the different cameras converge at a single point when focusing at the proper depth. However, the presence of occlusions between objects in the scene prevents this from being fulfilled. In this paper, a novel depth and all-in focus image estimation method is presented, based on a photo-consistency measure that uses the median criterion in relation to the elemental images. The interest of this approach is to find a solution to detect which camera correctly sees the partially occluded object at a certain depth and allows for a precise solution to the object depth. In addition, a robust solution is proposed to detect the boundary limits between partially occluded objects, which are subsequently used during the regularization depth estimation process. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms other state-of-the-art depth estimation methods in a synthetic aperture integral imaging framework

Integral imaging techniques for flexible sensing through image-based reprojection

In this work, a 3D reconstruction approach for flexible sensing inspired by integral imaging techniques is proposed. This method allows the application of different integral imaging techniques, such as generating a depth map or the reconstruction of images on a certain 3D plane of the scene that were taken with a set of cameras located at unknown and arbitrary positions and orientations. By means of a photo-consistency measure proposed in this work, all-in-focus images can also be generated by projecting the points of the 3D plane into the sensor planes of the cameras and thereby capturing the associated RGB values. The proposed method obtains consistent results in real scenes with different surfaces of objects as well as changes in texture and lighting

Stereoscopic Depth Perception Through Foliage

Both humans and computational methods struggle to discriminate the depths of objects hidden beneath foliage. However, such discrimination becomes feasible when we combine computational optical synthetic aperture sensing with the human ability to fuse stereoscopic images. For object identification tasks, as required in search and rescue, wildlife observation, surveillance, and early wildfire detection, depth assists in differentiating true from false findings, such as people, animals, or vehicles vs. sun-heated patches at the ground level or in the tree crowns, or ground fires vs. tree trunks. We used video captured by a drone above dense woodland to test users' ability to discriminate depth. We found that this is impossible when viewing monoscopic video and relying on motion parallax. The same was true with stereoscopic video because of the occlusions caused by foliage. However, when synthetic aperture sensing was used to reduce occlusions and disparity-scaled stereoscopic video was presented, whereas computational (stereoscopic matching) methods were unsuccessful, human observers successfully discriminated depth. This shows the potential of systems which exploit the synergy between computational methods and human vision to perform tasks that neither can perform alone

Depth Estimation in Integral Imaging Based on a Maximum Voting Strategy

An approach that uses the scene information acquired by means of a three-dimensional (3D) synthetic aperture integral imaging system is presented. This method generates a depth map of the scene through a voting strategy. In particular, we consider the information given by each camera of the array for each pixel, and also the local information in the neighbourhood of that pixel. The proposed method obtains consistent results for any type of object surfaces as well as very sharp boundaries. In addition, we also contribute in this paper with a repository of a set of synthetic integral images generated by 3DS Max where the so-called ground truth (real-true depth map) is available. This resource can be used as a benchmark to test any Integral Imaging based range estimation method.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under the projects SEOSAT (ESP2013-48458-C4-3-P) and MTM2013-48371-C2-2-P, in part by the Generalitat Valenciana through the project PROMETEO-II-2014-062, and in part by the University Jaume I through the project UJI-P11B2014-09. The work of B. Javidi was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant NSF/IIS-1422179

Non line of sight imaging using phasor field virtual wave optics

Non-line-of-sight imaging allows objects to be observed when partially or fully occluded from direct view, by analysing indirect diffuse reflections off a secondary relay surface. Despite many potential applications1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, existing methods lack practical usability because of limitations including the assumption of single scattering only, ideal diffuse reflectance and lack of occlusions within the hidden scene. By contrast, line-of-sight imaging systems do not impose any assumptions about the imaged scene, despite relying on the mathematically simple processes of linear diffractive wave propagation. Here we show that the problem of non-line-of-sight imaging can also be formulated as one of diffractive wave propagation, by introducing a virtual wave field that we term the phasor field. Non-line-of-sight scenes can be imaged from raw time-of-flight data by applying the mathematical operators that model wave propagation in a conventional line-of-sight imaging system. Our method yields a new class of imaging algorithms that mimic the capabilities of line-of-sight cameras. To demonstrate our technique, we derive three imaging algorithms, modelled after three different line-of-sight systems. These algorithms rely on solving a wave diffraction integral, namely the Rayleigh–Sommerfeld diffraction integral. Fast solutions to Rayleigh–Sommerfeld diffraction and its approximations are readily available, benefiting our method. We demonstrate non-line-of-sight imaging of complex scenes with strong multiple scattering and ambient light, arbitrary materials, large depth range and occlusions. Our method handles these challenging cases without explicitly inverting a light-transport model. We believe that our approach will help to unlock the potential of non-line-of-sight imaging and promote the development of relevant applications not restricted to laboratory conditions

Defocus Video Matting

Video matting is the process of pulling a high-quality alpha matte and foreground from a video sequence. Current techniques require either a known background (e.g., a blue screen) or extensive user interaction (e.g., to specify known foreground and background elements). The matting problem is generally under-constrained, since not enough information has been collected at capture time. We propose a novel, fully autonomous method for pulling a matte using multiple synchronized video streams that share a point of view but differ in their plane of focus. The solution is obtained by directly minimizing the error in filter-based image formation equations, which are over-constrained by our rich data stream. Our system solves the fully dynamic video matting problem without user assistance: both the foreground and background may be high frequency and have dynamic content, the foreground may resemble the background, and the scene is lit by natural (as opposed to polarized or collimated) illumination.Engineering and Applied Science

Unstructured light fields

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-38).We present a system for interactively acquiring and rendering light fields using a hand-held commodity camera. The main challenge we address is assisting a user in achieving good coverage of the 4D domain despite the challenges of hand-held acquisition. We define coverage by bounding reprojection error between viewpoints, which accounts for all 4 dimensions of the light field. We use this criterion together with a recent Simultaneous Localization and Mapping technique to compute a coverage map on the space of viewpoints. We provide users with real-time feedback and direct them toward under-sampled parts of the light field. Our system is lightweight and has allowed us to capture hundreds of light fields. We further present a new rendering algorithm that is tailored to the unstructured yet dense data we capture. Our method can achieve piecewise-bicubic reconstruction using a triangulation of the captured viewpoints and subdivision rules applied to reconstruction weights.by Myers Abraham Davis (Abe Davis).S.M

Roadmap on 3D integral imaging: Sensing, processing, and display

This Roadmap article on three-dimensional integral imaging provides an overview of some of the research activities in the field of integral imaging. The article discusses various aspects of the field including sensing of 3D scenes, processing of captured information, and 3D display and visualization of information. The paper consists of a series of 15 sections from the experts presenting various aspects of the field on sensing, processing, displays, augmented reality, microscopy, object recognition, and other applications. Each section represents the vision of its author to describe the progress, potential, vision, and challenging issues in this field