Topology-adaptive multi-view photometric stereo

In this paper, we present a novel technique that enables capturing of detailed 3D models from flash photographs integrating shading and silhouette cues. Our main contribution is an optimization framework which not only captures subtle surface details but also handles changes in topology. To incorporate normals estimated from shading, we employ a mesh-based deformable model using deformation gradient. This method is capable of manipulating precise geometry and, in fact, it outperforms previous methods in terms of both accuracy and efficiency. To adapt the topology of the mesh, we convert the mesh into an implicit surface representation and then back to a mesh representation. This simple procedure removes self-intersecting regions of the mesh and solves the topology problem effectively. In addition to the algorithm, we introduce a hand-held setup to achieve multi-view photometric stereo. The key idea is to acquire flash photographs from a wide range of positions in order to obtain a sufficient lighting variation even with a standard flash unit attached to the camera. Experimental results showed that our method can capture detailed shapes of various objects and cope with topology changes well.