A Cable-driven Parallel Mechanism for Capturing Object Appearance from Multiple Viewpoints

This paper presents the full proof of concept of a system for capturing the light field of an object. It is based on a single high resolution camera that is moved all around the object on a cable-driven end-effector. The main advantages of this system are its scalability and low interference with scene lighting. The camera is accurately positioned along hemispheric trajectories by observing target features. From the set of gathered images, the visual hull is extracted and can be used as an approximate geometry for mapping a surface light field. The paper describes the acquisition system as well as the modeling process. The ability of the system to produce models is validated with four different objects whose sizes range from 20 cm to 3 m.