Object Recognition and Shape Reconstruction under Complex Lighting

Variations in lighting can have a significant effect on the appearance of an object. Modeling these variations is important for object recognition and shape reconstruction, particularly of smooth, textureless objects. The recent decade has seen significant progress in handling lambertian objects. In that context I will present our work on using harmonic representations to represent the reflectance of lambertian objects under complex lighting configurations and their application to photometric stereo and prior-assisted shape from shading. In addition, I will present preliminary results in handling specular objects and methods for dealing with moving objects.