Reconstructing Shape from Shading Images under Point Light Source Illumination

A new photometric method is proposed fo r determining the 3-D shape of t he object from multiple shading Images under the point light source illumination. When the surface is t he perfect diffuser with the uniform reflectance, an algorithm fo r the determination of 3-D shape with positions is developed by using the method of least squares and basing on the principle of the monocular vision and the inverse square law fo r illuminance. In the proposed method, the number of the necessary images is four fo r the general surface, and can be reduced t o three for t he continuous surface.