Estimating the Shape of A Surface with Non-Constant Reflectance from a Single Color Image

Most shape estimation algorithms assume images of smooth surfaces with constant surface reflectance and often require knowledge of illuminant positions. These two requirements limit the applicability of such approaches to a small subset of imaged objects. In this paper a variational approach to the shape-from-color problem is presented that requires no knowledge of scene illuminants, and makes no assumptions regarding an object’s reflectance properties. Using a surface smoothness constraint, this technique can accurately reconstruct the shape of any continuous Lambertian surface given only a single color image. The capabilities of this algorithm are demonstrated using synthetic and real imagery.