Using Flash Photography and Image-Based Rendering to Document Cultural Heritage Artifacts

A novel image-based rendering system is proposed for documenting cultural heritage artifacts. The system utilizes backscattering photography to acquire the initial pictures and derives estimates for the object's diffuse albedo, surface normals, and the specular reflectivity from the images. A projective texture mapping technique is used to create a novel view of the artifact by blending the original photographs and projecting them onto a mesh that is also derived from the photos. By weighting the images according to how they best depict the manner in which a virtual light source illuminates the artifact's surface, object relighting is also achieved.