The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project will help satisfy the growing demand in 3D capturing technology primarily caused by the need for photorealistic content for 3D applications, and better computer vision solutions for autonomous machinery. Additionally, for researchers and conservationists, 3D capturing is a way to preserve precious artifacts and study them without endangering of permanently losing them during transportation or due to natural deterioration. For retailers and designers, low cost accurate 3D representations of products are needed for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications that open new possibilities to connect with their customers. Finally, as display makers continue to improve upon light field (LF) displays, LF image and video will potentially become mainstream and a pipeline will need to exist to capture, compress, and stream this new form of media.
This I-Corps project utilizes a specialized computer numerical control camera and compression algorithms to record multiple photos of an object or a scene and based on this raw data to construct light field (LF) images which preserve the complex interactions between the lights and the surfaces in the scene. This project develops compression and reconstruction algorithms that exploit the redundant information found in LF images while also allowing quick decompression on viewing devices (applicable for web, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR)). The 3D content (object or scene) can then be viewed with six degrees of freedom and in stereovision. This provides a complete solution to capture a generic object regardless of shape and material in a portable 3D format without manual post-editing.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
