High-fidelity image reproduction using angular distribution of reflected spectral intensity

A method to reproduce images of an object under various observation conditions is presented. In this method, a series of multispectral images is captured by rotating the object under a point light source of which spectral power distribution and the position are known. The captured images are decomposed into diffuse and specular reflection component images based on the dichromatic reflection and the Lambertian models. Next, the incident angle of the illumination light and the angle between viewing direction and regular reflection are calculated based on observation geometry. Finally, the image under observation geometry is synthesized using the light-ray rearrangement technique. The experiments are carried out using two-dimensional objects, leather and fabric. Most of the synthesized images are shown to be the same as the images actually captured under the assumed illumination geometry, even if the object has complex reflection like fabric for which it is difficult to apply the reflection model used in computer graphics.