Height data from gradient fields

Abstract

The paper starts with a review of integration techniques for calculating height maps from dense gradient fields. There exist a few proposals of local integration methods (Coleman/Jain 1982, Healey/Jain 1984, Wu/Li 1988, Rodehorst 1993), and two proposals for global optimization (Horn/Brooks 1986 and Frankot/ Chellappa 1988). Several experimental evaluations of such integration techniques are discussed in this paper. The examined algorithms received high markings on curved objects but low markings on polyhedral shapes. Locally adaptive approaches are suggested to cope with complex shapes in general.