A Light Field Camera For Image Based Rendering by Jason

The cost of building a digitizing system for image-based rendering can be prohibitive. Furthermore, the physical size, weight, and complexity of these systems has, in effect, limited their use to small objects and indoor scenes. The primary motivations for this project is to reduce the acquisition cost of light-field capture devices and create a portable system suitable for acquiring outdoor scenes. This paper describes the design of such an apparatus using readily available parts. One of the strategies for reducing the system cost has been to rely on software to correct as many of the geometric and photometric inaccuracies as possible. The resulting light field acquisition device can be built for under $200. The presented light-field acquisition system employs a modified lowcost flatbed scanner. The scanner is interfaced to a standard desktop PC for indoor use or a laptop for outdoor experiments. Focused onto the glass of the scanner is an 8-by11-grid assembly of one-inch plastic lenses. To make the scanner mobile, the DC power supply is replaced with a 12V lead acid battery. Although the construction of our light-field capture system is simple, the most significant challenges involve the processing of the raw scanner output. Necessary adjustments are color correction and radial distortion removal. Thesis Supervisor: Leonard McMillan Title: Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering