21AI601 – COMPUTER VISION

UNIT V & LP 17– SHAPE FROM X, PHONG MODEL,

REFLECTANCE MAP, ALBEDO ESTIMATION,
PHOTOMETRIC STEREO AND SHAPE FROM TEXTURE,
COLOR, MOTION AND EDGES

1. INTRODUCTION
• The study of how shape can be inferred from such cues is sometimes called
• shape from X, since the individual instances are called shape from shading, shape from texture,
and shape from focus.
• Shape from shading and photometric stereo When you look at images of smooth shaded objects,
you can clearly see the shape of the object from just the shading variation. How is this possible?
The answer is that as the surface normal changes across the object, the apparent brightness
changes as a function of the angle between the local surface orientation and the incident
illumination.
• The problem of recovering the shape of a surface from this intensity variation is known as shape
from shading and is one of the classic problems in computer vision.
• Most shape from shading algorithms assume that the surface under consideration is of a uniform
albedo and reflectance, and that the light source directions are either known or can be calibrated
by the use of a reference object. Under the assumptions of distant light sources and observer,
the variation in intensity become purely a function of the local surface orientation.
 • "Shape from X" refers to a family of techniques used to recover the 3D shape of an object from
a 2D image or set of images.
• The "X" in this case represents the various image cues that can be exploited to infer the object's
shape.

Different techniques use different visual cues to infer shape.

Here are some common ones:
Shading (S):
Variations in brightness across an object's surface can reveal the orientation of surface patches relative to
the light source. This is called "Shape from Shading".

Stereo (X):
By using two cameras positioned slightly apart, we can obtain depth information from the disparity
between corresponding points in the left and right images.

Motion (M):
Observing the object's motion across multiple frames can reveal depth information based on how
different parts of the object move relative to each other. This is called "Shape from Motion".

Texture (T):
The way texture patterns deform across the object's surface can provide clues about its shape.

Criteria Shape from Shape from stereo Shape from Shape from
shading texture motion

Information Shading variation Disparity between Texture pattern Motion of features

used on object surface stereo images deformation across frames

Strengths Simple to Highly accurate Robust to lighting Works with

implement changes untextured objects
Applications Image Analysis, 3D construction, Material Augmented reality,
Object recognition Robotics Classification Object tracking

Reflectance Map:
• A reflectance map (also known as environment map) is a powerful technique used to simulate
realistic reflections on surfaces.
• It describes how light interacts with a surface under different lighting conditions.
• It's essentially a pre-computed texture that stores the environment surrounding the object being
rendered.
• It is used to reconstruct the 3D shape of objects.
• Modern Computer vision systems can directly generate reflectance maps from objects.

Working:

1. Capturing the Environment: The environment surrounding the object is captured

from a specific viewpoint, typically as a spherical or cubic image. This image encodes
the lighting information from all directions.
2. Mapping the Environment: The captured environment image is then mapped onto a
specific geometric shape, depending on the chosen projection method. Common
choices include:

• Cube Mapping: The environment is projected onto the six faces of a cube, representing
the six directions (up, down, left, right, front, back).
• Sphere Mapping: The environment is projected onto a sphere, capturing reflections
from all angles around the object.

3. Applying the Reflection Map: During rendering, the surface's orientation at each point
is used to sample the corresponding reflection information from the reflectance map.
 This sampled information is then used to determine the reflected color on the surface,
creating a realistic illusion that the object reflects its surroundings.

PHONG MODEL:
The Phong model, also referred to as the Phong reflection model or Phong illumination, is a fundamental
concept in computer graphics for simulating how light interacts with surfaces.

Simulating Light Interaction:

The Phong model approximates how light reflects off a surface by considering three main
components:

1. Ambient:

• This term represents the general, low-level illumination present in the scene,
independent of the direction of the light source. It provides a sense of
background lighting.
• Responsible for simulating the overall brightness of an object independent of
the light source directions.

2. Diffuse:

• This component simulates how light scatters off a rough surface in all directions.
• The intensity of diffuse reflection depends on the angle between the light source
direction and the surface normal (a vector perpendicular to the surface).
Rougher surfaces have a more prominent diffuse component, resulting in softer
shadows.

3. Specular:

• This component represents the shiny highlight that appears on smooth surfaces
when light reflects directly back towards the viewer.
 • The intensity of specular reflection is determined by the angle between the
reflected light direction (calculated based on light source direction and surface
normal) and the viewer's direction.
• A smaller angle creates a more concentrated and brighter highlight.

ALBEDO ESTIMATION:
• Albedo estimation is the process of determining the reflective ability of a surface, specifically
how much solar radiation it reflects back out into space.
• Albedo (represented by the symbol α) is a dimensionless quantity ranging from 0 (perfectly black,
absorbing all radiation) to 1 (perfectly white, reflecting all radiation).
• Albedo represent the amount of light reflected by an object.
• Snow surface has the highest albedo.
• In albedo estimation, low albedo value indicates that the surface reflects less light.
• In 3D reconstruction, albedo estimation aids in estimating surface normal.