3D reconstruction of deformable (or non-rigid) scenes from a set of monocular
2D image observations is a long-standing and actively researched area of
computer vision and graphics. It is an ill-posed inverse problem,
since--without additional prior assumptions--it permits infinitely many
solutions leading to accurate projection to the input 2D images. Non-rigid
reconstruction is a foundational building block for downstream applications
like robotics, AR/VR, or visual content creation. The key advantage of using
monocular cameras is their omnipresence and availability to the end users as
well as their ease of use compared to more sophisticated camera set-ups such as
stereo or multi-view systems. This survey focuses on state-of-the-art methods
for dense non-rigid 3D reconstruction of various deformable objects and
composite scenes from monocular videos or sets of monocular views. It reviews
the fundamentals of 3D reconstruction and deformation modeling from 2D image
observations. We then start from general methods--that handle arbitrary scenes
and make only a few prior assumptions--and proceed towards techniques making
stronger assumptions about the observed objects and types of deformations (e.g.
human faces, bodies, hands, and animals). A significant part of this STAR is
also devoted to classification and a high-level comparison of the methods, as
well as an overview of the datasets for training and evaluation of the
discussed techniques. We conclude by discussing open challenges in the field
and the social aspects associated with the usage of the reviewed methods.Comment: 25 page