3D surface estimation and model construction from specular motion in image sequences

This work reconstructs a 3D graphics model of an object with specular surfaces by its rotation. Continuous images are taken to measure highlights on the smooth surfaces and their motion. Coplanar extended lights determine a plane of rays to produce a highlight stripe on the object. 3D surfaces are then recovered from the moving stripe. We investigate global motion characteristics of the highlights in the epipolar-plane images so as to qualitatively identify surface types and control the modeling process. Under single and multiple plane-of-rays illuminations, we give two quantitative approaches for surface and normal recovery which use highlight orientation in the image and highlight motion in the epipolar-plane images. The computations employ a first-order differential equation and linear equations, respectively.