Color blending based on viewpoint and surface normal for generating images from any viewpoint using multiple cameras

A color blending method for generating a high quality image of human motion is presented. The 3D (three-dimensional) human shape is reconstructed by volume intersection and expressed as a set of voxels. As each voxel is observed as different colors from different cameras, voxel color needs to be assigned appropriately from several colors. We present a color blending method, which calculates voxel color from a linear combination of the colors observed by multiple cameras. The weightings in the linear combination are calculated based on both viewpoint and surface normal. As surface normal is taken into account, the images with clear texture can be generated. Moreover, since viewpoint is also taken into account, high quality images free of unnatural warping can be generated. To examine the effectiveness of the algorithm, a traditional dance motion was captured and new images were generated from arbitrary viewpoints. Compared to existing methods, quality at the boundaries was confirmed to improve.