A Space Carving Based Reconstruction Method Using Discrete Viewing Edges

In this paper, we consider the problem of reconstructing a 3D model from a set of pictures taken from calibrated and arbitrarily placed cameras. Our method is based on existing space carving algorithm which considers photo hull as the final result. Our goal is to solve the visibility problem during carving the visual hull. A new concept Discrete Viewing Edge (DVE) is proposed to represent the visual hull instead of a 3D array. DVE is based on voxels and is simple but effective. With models represented by DVEs, we present a surface extraction algorithm and a carve procedure, during which the visibility of a voxel can be determined rapidly and easily. Our way of determining the visibility of a voxel is global, i.e., we take all possible cameras to which this voxel is visible into account. We apply our method to a set of synthetic pictures and provide arbitrary views of target model which are different from existing cameras.