63 research outputs found
Shadow Estimation Method for "The Episolar Constraint: Monocular Shape from Shadow Correspondence"
Recovering shadows is an important step for many vision algorithms. Current
approaches that work with time-lapse sequences are limited to simple
thresholding heuristics. We show these approaches only work with very careful
tuning of parameters, and do not work well for long-term time-lapse sequences
taken over the span of many months. We introduce a parameter-free expectation
maximization approach which simultaneously estimates shadows, albedo, surface
normals, and skylight. This approach is more accurate than previous methods,
works over both very short and very long sequences, and is robust to the
effects of nonlinear camera response. Finally, we demonstrate that the shadow
masks derived through this algorithm substantially improve the performance of
sun-based photometric stereo compared to earlier shadow mask estimation
Variational Uncalibrated Photometric Stereo under General Lighting
Photometric stereo (PS) techniques nowadays remain constrained to an ideal
laboratory setup where modeling and calibration of lighting is amenable. To
eliminate such restrictions, we propose an efficient principled variational
approach to uncalibrated PS under general illumination. To this end, the
Lambertian reflectance model is approximated through a spherical harmonic
expansion, which preserves the spatial invariance of the lighting. The joint
recovery of shape, reflectance and illumination is then formulated as a single
variational problem. There the shape estimation is carried out directly in
terms of the underlying perspective depth map, thus implicitly ensuring
integrability and bypassing the need for a subsequent normal integration. To
tackle the resulting nonconvex problem numerically, we undertake a two-phase
procedure to initialize a balloon-like perspective depth map, followed by a
"lagged" block coordinate descent scheme. The experiments validate efficiency
and robustness of this approach. Across a variety of evaluations, we are able
to reduce the mean angular error consistently by a factor of 2-3 compared to
the state-of-the-art.Comment: Haefner and Ye contributed equall
Time-Lapse Photometric Stereo and Applications
International audienceThis paper presents a technique to recover geometry from time-lapse sequences of outdoor scenes. We build upon photometric stereo techniques to recover approximate shadowing, shading and normal components allowing us to alter the material and normals of the scene. Previous work in analyzing such images has faced two fundamental difficulties: 1. the illumination in outdoor images consists of time-varying sunlight and skylight, and 2. the motion of the sun is restricted to a near-planar arc through the sky, making surface normal recovery unstable. We develop methods to estimate the reflection component due to skylight illumination. We also show that sunlight directions are usually non-planar, thus making surface normal recovery possible. This allows us to estimate approximate surface normals for outdoor scenes using a single day of data. We demonstrate the use of these surface normals for a number of image editing applications including reflectance, lighting, and normal editing
Learning geometric and lighting priors from natural images
Comprendre les images est d’une importance cruciale pour une pléthore de tâches, de la composition numérique au ré-éclairage d’une image, en passant par la reconstruction 3D d’objets. Ces tâches permettent aux artistes visuels de réaliser des chef-d’oeuvres ou d’aider des opérateurs à prendre des décisions de façon sécuritaire en fonction de stimulis visuels. Pour beaucoup de ces tâches, les modèles physiques et géométriques que la communauté scientifique a développés donnent lieu à des problèmes mal posés possédant plusieurs solutions, dont généralement une seule est raisonnable. Pour résoudre ces indéterminations, le raisonnement sur le contexte visuel et sémantique d’une scène est habituellement relayé à un artiste ou un expert qui emploie son expérience pour réaliser son travail. Ceci est dû au fait qu’il est généralement nécessaire de raisonner sur la scène de façon globale afin d’obtenir des résultats plausibles et appréciables. Serait-il possible de modéliser l’expérience à partir de données visuelles et d’automatiser en partie ou en totalité ces tâches ? Le sujet de cette thèse est celui-ci : la modélisation d’a priori par apprentissage automatique profond pour permettre la résolution de problèmes typiquement mal posés. Plus spécifiquement, nous couvrirons trois axes de recherche, soient : 1) la reconstruction de surface par photométrie, 2) l’estimation d’illumination extérieure à partir d’une seule image et 3) l’estimation de calibration de caméra à partir d’une seule image avec un contenu générique. Ces trois sujets seront abordés avec une perspective axée sur les données. Chacun de ces axes comporte des analyses de performance approfondies et, malgré la réputation d’opacité des algorithmes d’apprentissage machine profonds, nous proposons des études sur les indices visuels captés par nos méthodes.Understanding images is needed for a plethora of tasks, from compositing to image relighting, including 3D object reconstruction. These tasks allow artists to realize masterpieces or help operators to safely make decisions based on visual stimuli. For many of these tasks, the physical and geometric models that the scientific community has developed give rise to ill-posed problems with several solutions, only one of which is generally reasonable. To resolve these indeterminations, the reasoning about the visual and semantic context of a scene is usually relayed to an artist or an expert who uses his experience to carry out his work. This is because humans are able to reason globally on the scene in order to obtain plausible and appreciable results. Would it be possible to model this experience from visual data and partly or totally automate tasks? This is the topic of this thesis: modeling priors using deep machine learning to solve typically ill-posed problems. More specifically, we will cover three research axes: 1) surface reconstruction using photometric cues, 2) outdoor illumination estimation from a single image and 3) camera calibration estimation from a single image with generic content. These three topics will be addressed from a data-driven perspective. Each of these axes includes in-depth performance analyses and, despite the reputation of opacity of deep machine learning algorithms, we offer studies on the visual cues captured by our methods
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Models of Visual Appearance for Analyzing and Editing Images and Videos
The visual appearance of an image is a complex function of factors such as scene geometry, material reflectances and textures, illumination, and the properties of the camera used to capture the image. Understanding how these factors interact to produce an image is a fundamental problem in computer vision and graphics. This dissertation examines two aspects of this problem: models of visual appearance that allow us to recover scene properties from images and videos, and tools that allow users to manipulate visual appearance in images and videos in intuitive ways. In particular, we look at these problems in three different applications. First, we propose techniques for compositing images that differ significantly in their appearance. Our framework transfers appearance between images by manipulating the different levels of a multi-scale decomposition of the image. This allows users to create realistic composites with minimal interaction in a number of different scenarios. We also discuss techniques for compositing and replacing facial performances in videos. Second, we look at the problem of creating high-quality still images from low-quality video clips. Traditional multi-image enhancement techniques accomplish this by inverting the camera’s imaging process. Our system incorporates feature weights into these image models to create results that have better resolution, noise, and blur characteristics, and summarize the activity in the video. Finally, we analyze variations in scene appearance caused by changes in lighting. We develop a model for outdoor scene appearance that allows us to recover radiometric and geometric infor- mation about the scene from images. We apply this model to a variety of visual tasks, including color-constancy, background subtraction, shadow detection, scene reconstruction, and camera geo-location. We also show that the appearance of a Lambertian scene can be modeled as a combi- nation of distinct three-dimensional illumination subspaces — a result that leads to novel bounds on scene appearance, and a robust uncalibrated photometric stereo method.Engineering and Applied Science
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Factored Time-Lapse Video
We describe a method for converting time-lapse photography captured with outdoor cameras into Factored Time-Lapse Video (FTLV): a video in which time appears to move faster (i.e., lapsing) and where data at each pixel has been factored into shadow, illumination, and reflectance components. The factorization allows a user to easily relight the scene, recover a portion of the scene geometry (normals), and to perform advanced image editing operations. Our method is easy to implement, robust, and provides a compact representation with good reconstruction characteristics. We show results using several publicly available time-lapse sequences.Engineering and Applied Science
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