Stereo Analysis Extension Based on BRDF Reciprocity

Abstract

This paper presents an extension of the binocular technique which considers reciprocal reflectance of surfaces. This particular property allows to recover depth information for surfaces where others stereo techniques failed, for example, textureless and highly specular surfaces. The consideration of an arbitrary BRDF (Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function) improves conventional stereo algorithms, in such a way that explicit or implicit assumptions about a reflectance function are not necessary and dense depth maps are obtained. Fixed specularities and correspondence between half-occluded regions reduce processing complexity which is an important advantage of this methodology. This paper provides a general geometry assembly to this approach extending its applicability to some specific areas where accurate depth measures are required. Several results from our implementation are shown using rendered ray-tracing stereo images.