Abstract:

Sharp discontinuities in depth, or depth edges, are very important low-level features for scene understanding. Recently, we have proposed a solution to the depth edge detection problem using a simple modification of the capture setup: a multi-flash camera with flashes appropriately positioned to cast shadows along depth discontinuities in the scene. In this paper, we show that by varying illumination parameters, such as the number, spatial position, and wave-length of light sources, we are able to handle fundamental problems in depth edge detection, including multi-scale depth changes and motion. The robustness of our methods is demonstrated through our experimental results in complex scenes.