Polarization-based transparent surface modeling from two views

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel method to recover the surface shape of transparent objects. The degree of polarization of the light reflected from the object surface depends on the reflection angle which, in turn, depends on the object's surface normal; thus, by measuring the degree of polarization, we are able to calculate the surface normal of the object. However, degree of polarization and surface normal does not correspond one-to-one, making us to analyze two polarization images taken from two different view in order to solve the ambiguity. A parabolic curve will be a strong clue to correspond a point in one image to a point in the other image, where both points represent the same point on object surface. By comparing the degree of polarization at such corresponding points, the true surface normal can be determined.