Integrating synthetic objects into real scenes

This paper presents a methodology for integrating synthetic objects into real scenes. We take a set of photographs of the real scene and build a simple image-based model. We use high dynamic range images to build an accurate representation of the lighting in the scene. Then we insert a synthetic object into the model and compute its illumination and shading using the lighting information. Illumination changes produced by the synthetic object are also applied to real-scene objects located nearby. We show how easy it is to achieve photo-realistic results without specialized hardware. Our approach takes advantage of techniques like automatic camera calibration, highdynamic range image capture and image-based lighting.