Skip to main content
Log in

Linear shape from shading

  • Published:
International Journal of Computer Vision Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In many situations the reflectance function of a surface is approximately linear, and there is an effielent closed-form solution to the shape-from-shading problem. When boundary conditions (e.g., edges, singular points) are not available, good estimates of shape may still be extracted by using the assumption of general viewing position. An improved method for estimating the illuminant direction is also presented.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. A.P. Pentland, “Local analysis of the image,” IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Recog. 6(2): 170–187, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  2. F.P. Ferrie, and M.D. Levine, “Where and why local shading works,” IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Recog. 17(1), 1989.

  3. D. Knill, and D. Kersten, “Learning a near-optimal estimator for surface shape from shading, Comput. Vision, Graph., Image Process. to appear, 1989.

  4. G.B. Smith, “Shape from shading: An assessment,” SRI AI Center Tech. Note 287, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, 1983.

    Google Scholar 

  5. B.K.P. Horn, “Understanding image intensities,” Artificial Intelligence 8(2): 210–231, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  6. K. Ikeuchi and B.K.P. Horn, “Numerical shape from shading and occluding boundaries,” Artificial Intelligence 17: 141–185, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  7. B.K.P. Horn, and M.J. Brooks, “The variational approach to shape from shading,” Comput. Vision, Graph., Image Process. 33: 174–208, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  8. G.B. Smith, Personal communication.

  9. T. Simchony and R. Chellappa, “Direct analytical methods for solving Poisson equations in computer vision problems,” IEEE Comput. Vision Workshop, Miami Beach, FL, December 1987.

  10. E. Adelson and A. Pentland, “Weiner filtering to improve shape from shading,” In preparation, 1989.

  11. A. Pentland, “Fractal-based description of natural scenes,” IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Recog. 6(6):661–674, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  12. P. Kube and A. Pentland, “On the imaging of fractal surfaces,” IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Vision 10(5):704–707, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  13. A.P. Pentland, “Finding the illuminant direction,” J. Opt. Soc. Amer. 72(4):448–455, 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  14. A.P. Pentland, “Shape information from shading: A theory of human perception,” Proc. 2nd Intern. Conf. Comput. Vision, pp. 404–413, 448–455, Tampa, FL, December 5–8, 1988.

  15. J. Daugman, “Two-dimensional analysis of cortical receptive field profiles,” Vision Research 20:846–856, 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  16. E. Adelson and J. Bergen, “Spatiotemporal energy models for the perception of motion,” J. Opt. Soc. Amer. A 2(2):284–299, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  17. A. Watson and A. Ahumada, “Model of human visual-motion sensing,” J. Opt. Soc. Amer. A 2(2):322–342, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Pentland, A.P. Linear shape from shading. Int J Comput Vision 4, 153–162 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00127815

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00127815

Keywords

Navigation