Unambiguous photometric stereo using two images

Abstract

In the last years, the 3D reconstruction of surfaces which represent objects photographed by simple digital cameras has become more and more necessary to the scientific community. Through the most various mathematical and engineering methods, scientists continue to study the Shape-from-shading problem, using the photometric stereo technique which allows the use of several light sources, but keeps the camera at the same point of view. Several studies, through different advances on the problem, have checked that in the applications, the smallest number of photos that have to be considered is three. In this article we analyze the possibility to determine the objects' surface using two images only. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.