Summary: Reconstruction of Specular Surfaces using Polarization Imaging
Stefan Rahmann and Nikos Canterakis
Institute for Pattern Recognition and Image Processing
Computer Science Department, University of Freiburg
79110 Freiburg, Germany
frahmann,canterakisg@informatik.uni­freiburg.de
Abstract
Traditional intensity imaging does not offer a general
approach for the perception of textureless and specular re­
flecting surfaces. Intensity based methods for shape recon­
struction of specular surfaces rely on virtual (i.e. mirrored)
features moving over the surface under viewer motion. We
present a novel method based on polarization imaging for
shape recovery of specular surfaces. This method over­
comes the limitations of the intensity based approach, be­
cause no virtual features are required. It recovers whole
surface patches and not only single curves on the surface.
The presented solution is general as it is independent of the
illumination. The polarization image encodes the projec­
tion of the surface normals onto the image and therefore

Source: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Institut für Informatik,, Lehrstuhls für Mustererkennung und Bildverarbeitung

Collections: Computer Technologies and Information Sciences