Creating and Rendering Image-Based Visual Hulls

In this paper, we present efficient algorithms for creating and rendering image-based visual hulls. These algorithms are motivated by our desire to render real-time views of dynamic, real-world scenes. We first describe the visual hull, an abstract geometric entity useful for describing the volumes of objects as determined by their silhouettes. We then introduce the image-based visual hull, an efficient representation of an object’s visual hull. We demonstrate two desirable properties of the image-based visual hull. First, it can be computed efficiently (i.e., in real-time) from multiple silhouette images. Second, it can be quickly rendered from novel viewpoints. These two properties motivate our use of the image-based visual hull in a real-time rendering system that we are currently developing .