Abstract

In this paper we describe a simple shape from shading algorithm which recovers depth from a brightness image, typically in fewer than ten iterations. This algorithm, which is a simplification of the algorithm of Oliensis and Dupuis, is based on a minimum downhill principle which guarantees continuous surfaces and stable results. The algorithm is applicable to a broad variety of objects and reflectance maps. 1 Introduction Until the recent publications of Oliensis and Dupuis [[5],[6],[7]] most researchers in shape from shading were convinced that recovering depth from a brightness image necessarily required some regularization technique in order to guarantee a physically plausible surface [4]. It also seemed evident that only an iterative process with typically several thousand iterations would lead to a good approximation of the true surface. Linear methods [8] with an elegant solution in the Fourier domain form an exception to that rule, but they can only be applied to a limited numb...

Citations