We recover 3D models of objects with specular surfaces. An object is rotated and its continuous images are taken. Circular-shaped light sources that generate conic rays are used to illuminate the rotating object in such a way that highlighted stripes can be observed on most of the specular surfaces. Surface shapes can be computed from the motions of highlights in the continuous images; either specular motion stereo or single specular trace mode can be used. When the lights are properly set, each point on the object can be highlighted during the rotation. The shape for each rotation plane is measured independently using its corresponding epipolar plane image. A 3D shape model is subsequently reconstructed by combining shapes at different rotation planes. Computing a shape is simple and requires only the motion of highlight on each rotation plane. The novelty of this paper is the complete modeling of a general type of specular objects that has not been accomplished before.

This work recovers 3D graphics models of objects with specular surfaces. An object is rotated and continuous images of it are taken. Circular lights that generate cones of rays are used to illuminate the rotating object. When the lights are properly set each point on the object can be highlighted during the rotation. The shape for each rotational plane is measured independently using its corresponding epipolar plane image. A 3D graphics model is subsequently reconstructed by combining shapes at different rotation planes. Computing a shape is simple and requires only the motion of the highlight on each rotation plane. Results not obtained before are given in the 3D shape recovery experiments on real objects.

This paper generalizes a shape recovery method for specular surfaces. We have use linear lights that generate planes of ray to highlight a rotating object so that its specular surfaces are computed from continuous images. By setting lights properly, shape at each rotation plane can be measured and a 3D graphics model can be subsequently reconstructed. In this paper, we extend the lights used to circular ones to produce cones of ray. Under such illuminations, all surface points with different normals are highlighted in a rotation period. The computation of shape is simpler than compared with the linear light case. We give results of shape recovery on real objects.