Actor 3D reconstruction by a scene-based, visual hull guided, multi-stereovision framework

Abstract : This paper proposes a novel framework to produce 3D, high-precision models of humans from multi-view capture. This method's inputs are a visual hull and several sets of multi-baseline views. For each such view set, a surface is reconstructed with a multi-baseline stereovision method, then used to carve the visual hull. Carved visual hulls from different view sets are then fused pairwise to deliver the intended 3D model. The contributions of this paper are threefold: (i) the addition of visual hull guidance to a multi-baseline stereovision method, (ii) a carving solution to a visual hull from an interpolated and smooth stereovision surface, and (iii) a fusion solution to merge differently carved volumes differing in several areas. The paper shows that the proposed approach helps recovering a high quality carved volume, a 3D representation of the human to be modelled, that is precise even for small details and in concave areas subjected to occlusion.