Perspective Shape from Shading: Ambiguity Analysis and Numerical Approximations

In this paper we study a perspective model for shape from shading and its numerical approximation. We show that an ambiguity still persists, although the model with light attenuation factor has previously been shown to be well-posed under appropriate assumptions. Analytical results revealing the ambiguity are complemented by various numerical tests. Moreover, we present convergence results for two iterative approximation schemes. The first is based on a finite difference discretization, whereas the second is based on a semi-Lagrangian discretization. The convergence results are obtained in the general framework of viscosity solutions of the underlying partial differential equation. In addition to these theoretical and numerical results, we propose an algorithm for reconstructing discontinuous surfaces, making it possible to obtain results of reasonable quality even for complex scenes. To this end, we solve the constituting equation on a previously segmented input image, using state constraint boundary conditions at the segment borders.