Image-based Material Editing

Photo editing software allows digital images to be blurred, warped or re-colored at the touch of a button. However, it is not currently possible to change the material appearance of an object except by painstakingly painting over the appropriate pixels. Here we present a set of methods for automatically replacing one material with another, completely different material, starting with only a single high dynamic range image, and an alpha matte specifying the object. Our approach exploits the fact that human vision is surprisingly tolerant of certain (sometimes enormous) physical inaccuracies. Thus, it may be possible to produce a visually compelling illusion of material transformations, without fully reconstructing the lighting or geometry. We employ a range of algorithms depending on the target material. First, an approximate depth map is derived from the image intensities using bilateral filters. The resulting surface normals are then used to map data onto the surface of the object to specify its material appearance. To create transparent or translucent materials, the mapped data are derived from the object\u27s background. To create textured materials, the mapped data are a texture map. The surface normals can also be used to apply arbitrary bidirectional reflectance distribution functions to the surface, allowing us to simulate a wide range of materials. To facilitate the process of material editing, we generate the HDR image with a novel algorithm, that is robust against noise in individual exposures. This ensures that any noise, which would possibly have affected the shape recovery of the objects adversely, will be removed. We also present an algorithm to automatically generate alpha mattes. This algorithm requires as input two images--one where the object is in focus, and one where the background is in focus--and then automatically produces an approximate matte, indicating which pixels belong to the object. The result is then improved by a second algorithm to generate an accurate alpha matte, which can be given as input to our material editing techniques

3D Acquisition of Mirroring Objects using Striped Patterns

Objects with mirroring optical characteristics are left out of the scope of most 3D scanning methods. We present here a new automatic acquisition approach, shape-from-distortion, that focuses on that category of objects, requires only a still camera and a color monitor, and produces range scans (plus a normal and a reflectance map) of the target. Our technique consists of two steps: first, an improved environment matte is captured for the mirroring object, using the interference of patterns with different frequencies to obtain sub-pixel accuracy. Then, the matte is converted into a normal and a depth map by exploiting the self-coherence of a surface when integrating the normal map along different paths. The results show very high accuracy, capturing even smallest surface details. The acquired depth maps can be further processed using standard techniques to produce a complete 3D mesh of the object

Image-Based 3D Photography Using Opacity Hulls

We have built a system for acquiring and displaying high quality graphical models of objects that are impossible to scan with traditional scanners. Our system can acquire highly specular and fuzzy materials, such as fur and feathers. The hardware set-up consists of a turntable, two plasma displays, an array of cameras, and a rotating array of directional lights. We use multi-background matting techniques to acquire alpha mattes of the object from multiple viewpoints. The alpha mattes are used to construct an opacity hull. The opacity hull is a new shape representation, defined as the visual hull of the object with view-dependent opacity. It enables visualization of complex object silhouettes and seamless blending of objects into new environments. Our system also supports relighting of objects with arbitrary appearance using surface reflectance fields, a purely image-based appearance representation. Our system is the first to acquire and render surface reflectance fields under varying illumination from arbitrary viewpoints. We have built three generations of digitizers with increasing sophistication. In this paper, we present our results from digitizing hundreds of models.Engineering and Applied Science

Exploring Defocus Matting: Nonparametric Acceleration, Super-Resolution, and Off-Center Matting

Defocus matting is a fully automatic and passive method for pulling mattes from video captured with coaxial cameras that have different depths of field and planes of focus. Nonparametric sampling can accelerate the video-matting process from minutes to seconds per frame. In addition, a super-resolution technique efficiently bridges the gap between mattes from high-resolution video cameras and those from low-resolution cameras. Off-center matting pulls mattes for an external high-resolution camera that doesn't share the same center of projection as the low-resolution cameras used to capture the defocus matting data.Engineering and Applied Science

Relighting Photographs of Tree Canopies

International audienceWe present an image-based approach to relighting photographs of tree canopies. Our goal is to minimize capture overhead; thus the only input required is a set of photographs of the tree taken at a single time of day, while allowing relighting at any other time. We first analyze lighting in a tree canopy both theoretically and using simulations. From this analysis, we observe that tree canopy lighting is similar to volumetric illumination. We assume a single-scattering volumetric lighting model for tree canopies, and diffuse leaf reflectance; we validate our assumptions with synthetic renderings. We create a volumetric representation of the tree from 10-12 images taken at a single time of day and and use a single-scattering participating media lighting model. An analytical sun and sky illumination model provides consistent representation of lighting for the captured input and unknown target times. We relight the input image by applying a ratio of the target and input time lighting representations. We compute this representation efficiently by simultaneously coding transmittance from the sky and to the eye in spherical harmonics. We validate our method by relighting images of synthetic trees and comparing to path-traced solutions. We also present results for photographs where sparse, validating with time-lapse ground truth sequences

Finding the most efficient way to remove residual copper from steel scrap

The supply of end-of-life steel scrap is growing, but residual copper reduces its value. Once copper attaches during hammer shredding, no commercial process beyond hand-picking exists to extract it, yet high-value flat products require less than 0.1wt% copper to avoid metallurgical problems. Various techniques for copper separation have been explored in laboratory trials, but as yet no attempt has been made to provide an integrated assessment of all options. Therefore, for the first time a framework is proposed to define the full range of separation routes and evaluate their potential to remove copper, while estimating their energy and material input requirements. The thermodynamic, kinetic and technological constraints of the various techniques are analyzed to show that copper could be removed to below 0.1wt% with relatively low energy and material consumption. Higher-density shredding allows for greater physical separation, but requires proper incentivization. Vacuum distillation could be viable with a reactor that minimizes radiation heat losses. High-temperature solid scrap pre-treatments would be less energy intensive than melt treatments, but their efficacy with typical shredded scrap is yet unconfirmed. The framework developed here can be applied to other impurity-base metal systems to coordinate process innovation as the scrap supply expands.EPSRC, Cambridge Trust

Towards a formal education of visual effects artists

The rapid growth of the visual effects industry over the past three decades and increasing demand for high quality visual effects for film, television and similar media, in turn increasing demand for graduates in this field have highlighted the need for formal education in visual effects. In this paper, we explore the design of a visual effects undergraduate degree programme and discuss our aims and objectives in implementing this programme in terms of both curriculum and syllabus