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Research Statement

Through my research I hope to develop advanced methods for computer vision, graphics, and machine learning. Primarily, I plan on applying these techniques to consumer electronics, entertainment, and robotics. Current projects include multi-flash and catadioptric systems for 3D reconstruction and new methods in computational photography.



Shield Fields:
Modeling and Capturing 3D Occluders

In this paper we decouple 3D occluders from 4D illumination using shield fields: the 4D attenuation function which acts on any light field incident on an occluder. We then analyze occluder reconstruction from cast shadows, leading to a single-shot light field camera for visual hull reconstruction.

 

Shield Fields: Modeling and Capturing 3D Occluders

Douglas Lanman, Ramesh Raskar, Amit Agrawal, and Gabriel Taubin

ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH Asia 2008)


Modeling and Synthesis of
Aperture Effects in Cameras

In this paper we describe the capture, analysis, and synthesis of vignetting and depth-of-field effects in conventional cameras. We also consider calibration using point sources and introduce the Bokeh Brush: a novel, post-capture method for full-resolution control of the shape of out-of-focus points.

 

Modeling and Synthesis of Aperture Effects in Cameras (ps, pdf)

Douglas Lanman, Ramesh Raskar, and Gabriel Taubin

Int'l Symposium on Computational Aesthetics in Graphics, Visualization, and Imaging (CAe 2008)

Additional Material: presentation (pdf, ppt)


Surround Structured Lighting

This paper presents a new system for rapidly acquiring complete 3D models using a single structured light projector, a pair of planar mirrors, and one or more cameras. Using an orthographic projector composed of a Fresnel lens and a DLP projector, we display a single Gray code sequence to encode all the illumination planes within the scanning volume.

 

Surround Structured Lighting for Full Object Scanning (ps, pdf)

Douglas Lanman, Daniel Crispell, and Gabriel Taubin

6th International Conference on 3D Digital Imaging and Modeling (3DIM 2007)

Additional Material: presentation (pdf, ppt)


Multi-Flash 3D Photography

We describe a new 3D scanning system which exploits the depth discontinuity information captured by the multi-flash camera proposed by Raskar et al. in 2004. In contrast to existing differential and global shape-from-silhouette algorithms, our method can reconstruct the position and orientation of points located deep inside concavities.

 

Beyond Silhouettes: Surface Reconstruction using Multi-Flash Photography (ps, pdf)

Daniel Crispell, Douglas Lanman, Peter G. Sibley, Yong Zhao, and Gabriel Taubin

Third International Symposium on 3D Data Processing, Visualization and Transmission (3DPVT 2006)

 

Multi-Flash 3D Photography: Capturing Shape and Appearance (ps, pdf)

Douglas Lanman, Peter G. Sibley, Daniel Crispell, Yong Zhao, and Gabriel Taubin

33rd International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH 2006)

Additional Material: poster, supplementary material


Catadioptric Systems

Catadioptric imaging systems are composed of both lenses and mirrors. In my research at Brown, I am working with Prof. Gabriel Taubin to develop novel computer vision algorithms using these systems. Current efforts focus on system design, calibration techniques, and 3D reconstruction. To date, two papers have been accepted for publication in this area.

 

Reconstructing a 3D Line from a Single Catadioptric Image (ps, pdf)

Douglas Lanman, Megan Wachs, Gabriel Taubin, and Fernando Cukierman

Third International Symposium on 3D Data Processing, Visualization and Transmission (3DPVT 2006)

Additional Material: poster

 

Spherical Catadioptric Arrays: Construction, Multi-View Geometry, and Calibration (ps, pdf)

Douglas Lanman, Daniel Crispell, Megan Wachs, and Gabriel Taubin

Third International Symposium on 3D Data Processing, Visualization and Transmission (3DPVT 2006)

Additional Material: poster


Visual Sensor Networks

Sensor networks have received a great deal of attention lately. In a similar vein, we seek to develop methods for utilizing distributed ad-hoc networks of "smart" camera-processor nodes. Current research is focused on developing robust autocalibration procedures. A more detailed description is available in this paper summary.


Model-based Face Capture

A novel method was developed for creating photo-realistic 3D face models from 2D images of a subject. A scattered data interpolation algorithm was used to deform an exemplar mesh to fit individual face geometries.

 

Results: report, presentation, website


Sensor Network Simulation

As an intern at Los Alamos National Laboratory I created a comprehensive sensor network simulation package. Working with Dr. Anders M. Jorgensen, I also developed a novel algorithm for distributed audio source localization.

 

Results: presentation


Distributed Task Allocation

For a final course project in EE 141: Swarm Intelligence, I contributed to the development of novel division-of-labor algorithms for multi-robot systems. Studies were conducted using the Webots simulator and Khepera robots.

 

Results: report, website, animation, publication

 

Last Updated: September 5, 2008