Equivalence of oblique and frontal illumination in perspective shape from shading

Abstract

In this paper, it is shown that any oblique illumination shape-from-shading problem under perspective projection for Lambertian reflection and a single distant light source can be converted to an equivalent frontal illumination problem by a simple nonlinear intensity transformation which is equivalent to a rectification in stereo vision. Remarkably, it involves no approximation of depth. The method is evaluated on perspective shape-from-shading involving wide range of oblique angles.