Application of image enhancement techniques for shape reconstruction using shape from shading

Algorithms for reconstructing shape and geometry from 2D images are very sensitive to the light, camera, surface and texture parameters. It is very difficult to accurately recover these parameters under real life conditions. Variations in these parameters result in significant changes in the quality of the reconstructed 3D shapes. This paper proposes a novel method for dealing with the variations in light, camera and surface properties. This paper shows that image enhancement techniques can be used to improve performance of the shape reconstruction algorithms like shape-from-shading by altering these parameters in a controlled manner. As a consequence of image enhancement the reconstructed results are consistently improved regardless of variations in imaging conditions. The reasons for improved results of shape reconstruction algorithms are noise removal, removal of very high frequency content, and altered surface properties.