This paper presents a novel method for estimating specular roughness and tangent vectors, per surface point, from polarized second order spherical gradient illumination patterns. We demonstrate that for isotropic BRDFs, only three second order spherical gradients are sufficient to robustly estimate spatially varying specular roughness. For anisotropic BRDFs, an additional two measurements yield...

In this paper,we presenta rigorous theoretical formulation of the fundamental problem—indirect illumination from area sources via curved ideal specular surfaces. Intensity and area factors are introduced to clarify this problem and to rectify the radiance from these specular surfaces. They take surface geometry, such as Gaussian curvature, into account. Based on this formulation, an algorithm f...

Understanding the global meteor flux at Earth requires the measurement of meteor velocities. While several radar methods exist for measuring meteor velocity, they may be biased by plasma reflection mechanisms. This paper presents a new method for deriving meteoroid velocity from the altitudinal extent of non-specular trails. This method employs our recent discoveries on meteor trail plasma inst...

ÐIn this work, we recover 3D models of objects with specular surfaces. An object is rotated and its continuous images are taken. Circular-shaped light sources that generate conic rays are used to illuminate the rotating object in such a way that highlighted stripes can be observed on most of the specular surfaces. Surface shapes can be computed from the motions of highlights in the continuous i...

In this paper we address the problem of separating Lambertian and specular reflection components in order to improve the quality of surface normal information recoverable using shape-from-shading. The framework for our study is provided by the iterated conditional modes algorithm. We develop a maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) estimation method for estimating the mixing proportions for Lam...

By tooling an spot-illuminated surface to control the flow of specular glints under motion, one can produce holographic view-dependent imagery. This paper presents the differential equation that governs the shape of the specular surfaces, and illustrates how solutions can be constructed for different kinds of motion, lighting, host surface geometries, and fabrication constraints, leading to som...

We introduce specular sets. These are subsets of groups which form a natural generalization of free groups. These sets of words are an abstract generalization of the natural codings of interval exchanges and of linear involutions. We consider two important families of sets contained in specular sets: sets of return words and maximal bifix codes. For both families we prove several cardinality re...

When creating a digital composite of two people, it is difficult to exactly match the lighting conditions under which each individual was originally photographed. In many situations, the light source in a scene gives rise to a specular highlight on the eyes. We show how the direction to a light source can be estimated from this highlight. Inconsistencies in lighting across an image are then use...

Conventional vision systems designed to reconstruct the surfaces of objects generally handle only diffuse objects or objects with a minimal amount of specularity. The presence of specular reflections produced by highly specular surfaces confuse traditional vision systems and may mask the true location of an object and lead to incorrect measurements. This article describes the development of a f...

Because specular reflection is view-dependent, shiny surfaces behave radically differently from matte, textured surfaces when viewed with two eyes. As a result, specular reflections pose substantial problems for binocular stereopsis. Here we use a combination of computer graphics and geometrical analysis to characterize the key respects in which specular stereo differs from standard stereo, to ...