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Interactive light source position estimation for augmented reality with an RGB‐D camera
Author(s) -
Boom Bastiaan J.,
OrtsEscolano Sergio,
Ning Xin X.,
McDonagh Steven,
Sandilands Peter,
Fisher Robert B.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
computer animation and virtual worlds
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.225
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1546-427X
pISSN - 1546-4261
DOI - 10.1002/cav.1686
Subject(s) - rendering (computer graphics) , computer science , augmented reality , computer vision , artificial intelligence , rgb color model , computer graphics (images) , position (finance) , light source , optics , physics , finance , economics
The first hybrid CPU‐GPU based method for estimating a point light source position in a scene recorded by an RGB‐D camera is presented. The image and depth information from the Kinect is enough to estimate a light position in a scene, which allows for the rendering of synthetic objects into a scene that appears realistic enough for augmented reality purposes. This method does not require a light probe or other physical device. To make this method suitable for augmented reality, we developed a hybrid implementation that performs light estimation in under 1second. This is sufficient for most augmented reality scenarios because both the position of the light source and the position of the Kinect are typically fixed. The method is able to estimate the angle of the light source with an average error of 20°. By rendering synthetic objects into the recorded scene, we illustrate that this accuracy is good enough for the rendered objects to look realistic. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.