Toward Image-Based Scene Representation Using View Morphing

Abstract

The question of which views may be inferred from a set of basis images is addressed. Under certain conditions, a discrete set of images implicitly describes scene appearance for a continuous range of viewpoints. In particular, it is demonstrated that two basis views of a static scene determine the set of all views on the line between their optical centers. Additional basis views further extend the range of predictable views to a two- or three-dimensional region of viewspace. These results are shown to apply under perspective projection subject to a generic visibility constraint called monotonicity. In addition, a simple scanline algorithm is presented for actually generating these views from a set of basis images. The technique, called view morphing may be applied to both calibrated and uncalibrated images. At a minimum, two basis views and their fundamental matrix are needed. Experimental results are presented on real images. This work provides a theoretical foundation for image-based representations of 3D scenes by demonstrating that perspective view synthesis is a theoretically well-posed problem.