Patent ID: 8218903

Claim:
A method of creating a computer graphics model of a physical object, the method comprising: displaying a first still illumination pattern on a display device so that the first illumination pattern illuminates a physical object; acquiring at least one still image of the physical object illuminated by the first illumination pattern, wherein the still image includes image points corresponding with points on the physical object and having shading values; determining if the still image of the physical object is suitable for creating a computer graphics model of the physical object; in response to a determination that the image of the physical object is not suitable, selecting a second illumination pattern and repeating the steps of displaying, acquiring, and determining if the image is suitable; and in response to a determination that the image is suitable, determining candidate surface orientations for each of a set of model points of a computer graphics model from the shading values, wherein the set of model points are each associated with at least a portion of the image points.