A passive full body scanner using shape from silhouettes

Describes a camera-based approach to fully automatically create 3D models of persons. A setup of sixteen digital cameras is used to capture the images of the person to be scanned. Using a monochromatic background and the shape-from-silhouette approach a 3D model is created automatically. Using the original images the models are realistically textured. In future 3D telepresence applications or multi-player games these models have to be animated using an internal skeleton structure. A principal component analysis is utilised to extract the skeleton automatically from the models. Compared to other full body scanning approaches no mechanically moving components are used which makes the system especially suitable for low cost end user applications