Publication
Reconstructing the Surface of Inhomogeneous Transparent Scenes by Scatter Trace Photography
AbstractWe present a new method for reconstructing the exterior surface of a complex transparent scene with inhomogeneous interior (e.g., multiple interfaces, reflective or painted interiors, etc). Our approach involves capturing images of the scene from one or more viewpoints while moving a proximal light source to a 2D or 3D set of positions. This gives a 2D (or 3D) dataset per pixel, called the scatter trace. The key idea of our approach is that even though light transport within a transparent scene’s interior can be exceedingly complex, the scatter trace of each pixel has a highlyconstrained geometry that (1) reveals the contribution of direct surface reflection, and (2) leads to a simple “scatter-trace stereo” algorithm for computing the local geometry of the exterior surface (depth and surface normals). We present 3D reconstruction results for a variety of scenes that exhibit complex light transport phenomena.
Download publicationRelated Resources
See what’s new.
2012
Understanding Analogical Reasoning in Biomimetic Design: An Inductive Approach
This paper reports insights gained from observing groups of novice…
1999
Socially Translucent Systems: Social Proxies, Persistent Conversation, and the Design of “Babble”
We take as our premise that it is possible and desirable to design…
2022
Collision Anthology: Foresight-Informed Innovation
This project leverages science fiction as a medium to imagine…
2023
Teaching Robots to Cooperate in Strange New Worlds
Learn how researchers at Autodesk are collaborating with NASA’s RETHI…
Get in touch
Something pique your interest? Get in touch if you’d like to learn more about Autodesk Research, our projects, people, and potential collaboration opportunities.
Contact us