Recovering shape by purposive viewpoint adjustment

• Published in: Proceedings 1992 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition pp. 16 - 22
• Main Authors: Kutulakos, K.N., Dyer, C.R.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE Comput. Soc. Press 1992
• Subjects: Artificial intelligence; Character recognition; Geometry; Image analysis; Image recognition; Information resources; Layout; Marine vehicles; Navigation; Shape
• ISBN: 9780818628559; 0818628553
• ISSN: 1063-6919
• DOI: 10.1109/CVPR.1992.223233

An approach for recovering surface shape from the occluding contour using an active (i.e., moving) observer is presented. It is based on a relationship between the geometries of a surface in a scene and its occluding contour: If the viewing direction of the observer is along a principal direction for a surface point whose projection is on the contour, surface shape (i.e., curvature) at the surface point can be recovered from the contour. An observer that purposefully changes viewpoint in order to achieve a well-defined geometric relationship with respect to a 3D shape prior to its recognition is used. It is shown that there is a simple and efficient viewing strategy that allows the observer to align the viewing direction with one of the two principal directions for a point on the surface. Experimental results demonstrate that the method can be easily implemented and can provide reliable shape information.< >