Object Representation and Rendering using Inverse Concentric Mosaics

Three of the most basic tasks in computer vision and graphics are capturing, representing, and rendering objects or scenes in as photorealistic a manner as possible. In this paper, we describe our image-based approach to representing and photorealistically rendering objects using what we call Inverse Concentric Mosaics (ICM). While ICM is fundamentally based on the Concentric Mosaics (CM) [12], ICM permits visualization to be from the outside looking in, which CMs do not allow. Using the ICM, objects can be visualized with continuously and interactively changing viewpoints. Photometric effects can be captured with ICM, thus enhancing photorealism. Finally, the ICM can be very easily acquired and processed. We show examples for synthetic and real objects.