A Shape from Shading Algorithm and Its Application

This paper presents an integrated algorithm for 3D reconstruction, which includes the estimation of parameters and shape from shading. The parameters, that are the illuminant direction and albedo, are estimated from the statistics of image intensities. The shape from shading algorithm is implemented with a minimum downhill principle on the Lambertian reflectance model. Furthermore, this paper proposes a method to deal with the deviant values, and has also demonstrated the application of this algorithm. At the end of this paper, experimental results show that this algorithm is efficient and leads to continuous object surface. It is applicable to a broad variety of objects.