Patent ID: 7737975
Filing Date: 2010-06-15
Classification: G01B,G01S,G06T,H04N

Abstract:
1. A normal vector information generating device which generates normal vector information on a surface of an object, said normal vector information generating device comprising: a CPU; an image information obtaining unit configured to obtain, using the CPU, information about an image of the object, the information including luminance information which is information about luminance of light from the object and polarization information which is information about polarization of the light from the object; a shadow area extracting unit configured to extract an attached shadow area and a cast shadow area from the image of the object based on the luminance information and the polarization information obtained by said image information obtaining unit, the attached shadow area appearing on the surface of the object depending on an angle of incidence light, and the cast shadow area appearing on a surface of a material body other than the object when the light is blocked by the object; and a normal vector information generating unit configured to generate normal vector information identifying a normal vector on the surface of the object in the attached shadow area extracted by said shadow area extracting unit using the polarization information obtained by said image information obtaining unit, wherein said image information obtaining unit includes: wherein said shadow area extracting unit is configured to extract the attached shadow area and the cast shadow area by: comparing, for each unit image, luminance of the unit image and a predetermined threshold value based on luminance information of the polarized image; judging that the unit image belongs to a low luminance area including an attached shadow area and a cast shadow area when the luminance is less than the threshold value; and judging, for the unit image belonging to the low luminance area, whether the unit image is the attached shadow area or the cast shadow area, based on the polarization information generated by said polarization information generating unit.