Interactive Common Illumination for Computer Augmented Reality

The advent of computer augmented reality (CAR), in which computer generated objects mix with real video images, has resulted in many interesting new application domains. Providing common illumination between the real and synthetic objects can be very beneficial, since the additional visual cues (shadows, interreflections etc.) are critical to seamless real-synthetic world integration. Building on recent advances in computer graphics and computer vision, we present a new framework to resolving this problem. We address three specific aspects of the common illumination problem for CAR: (a) simplification of camera calibration and modeling of the real scene; (b) efficient update of illumination for moving CG objects and (c) efficient rendering of the merged world. A first working system is presented for a limited sub-problem: a static real scene and camera with moving CG objects. Novel advances in computer vision are used for camera calibration and user-friendly modeling of the real scene, a recent interactive radiosity update algorithm is adapted to provide fast illumination update and finally textured polygons are used for display. This approach allows interactive update rates on mid-range graphics workstations. Our new framework will hopefully lead to CAR systems with interactive common illumination without restrictions on the movement of real or synthetic objects, lights and cameras.