used in the system will be made in the subsequent
section:
3.1 Illumination Estimation
The Illumination Estimation method used to
determine how the light of a certain scene is
configured has a number of constraints and
assumptions that will be listed here. These
assumptions apply to the entire Augmented Reality
system.
The system is only useable outdoor during
daytime. This is due to the assumption that the sun is
the only major light source in an outdoor scene, and
therefore the only direct light source needing
estimation, where the sky is providing secondary
lighting, which will be estimated as ambient light.
The system is constrained to only running under
conditions with no precipitation, as it will alter the
reflectance properties of the surfaces in the scene.
Furthermore the scene that is to be augmented
must contain diffuse surfaces, as these will be the
sources to estimation of the scene lighting.
In order for the system to have the ability to
estimate the light of the scene, a 3D model of the
scene is also required, as well as an HDRI
environment map recorded in the centre of the scene.
Finally, as the light is estimated from the images
recorded by a camera of the scene, the camera needs
to be calibrated to fit the scene. The 3D model of the
environment required in this system, needs only to
be a simple representation, containing only the main
surfaces of the scene. E.g. a square building needs
only representation as a box.
In calibration of the system to the scene, the user
is prompted to mark on an environment map of the
scene, which visible surfaces are considered diffuse,
and can be used for estimation.
When the system has been calibrated, the
Illumination Estimation is able to analyse the images
of the scene taken by the camera, and determine
from the 3D model, the environment map, and a sun
model the intensity of the direct light from the sun,
as well as the intensity of the indirect lighting from
the reflected surfaces in the scene.
The result of the estimation is passed on to the
rendering pipeline as RGB intensities for direct and
ambient lighting and as a light vector giving the
direction vector to the sun. The light parameters are
compliant to the Phong shading model, as a variety
of this model is used to derive the light estimated
parameters.
The Illumination Estimation analyses the images
using 500 randomly selected pixel samples, from
which the light parameters of the used model is
estimated. Under the assumption that a sun model
provides the direction vector to the sun, the method
is able to estimate the light intensity of both direct
and indirect light in the scene, if the camera has
surfaces in both light and shadow within its frame.
E.g. the method will estimate the RGB intensity of
the sun to almost zero, when there is a heavy cloud
cover, because it sees no noticeable difference
between the area in direct light, and the area, that
should be in shadow.
The light parameters are estimated for every
frame in the current implementation of the system,
and runs at 10 fps.
The estimation of light and shading of the virtual
objects is furthermore based on the assumption, that
the sunlight in an outdoor scene is purely directional.
This is not completely correct in reality, but the
angle difference to the incoming sunlight at two
points in a scene that are e.g. 100 metres apart are
insignificant and therefore the system uses the light
direction given by the light estimation in the entire
scene, which also helps speeding up all shading and
shadowing calculations performed real-time.
Another assumption of the project has been that
outdoor environments with brick buildings and tiled
stones are close to being diffuse, which is used to
derive the illumination parameters.
3.2 Basic Rendering
This section describes how a virtual object is
augmented into one frame when the local light
parameters are known.
When the lighting of the given scene has been
estimated, this is used to place an object in the scene
that is subjectively appearing as if it is part of the
scene, instead of an object manipulated into the
frame.
The simplest way to do this is by placing the
virtual object within the scene. Use the Phong
shading model, supported by any 3D hardware, in
conjunction with the estimated light parameters on
the object. This will result in a virtual augmented
object, which seemingly matches the lighting of the
surrounding scene. Except the surfaces of the object
not in direct sunlight will have a constant colour
addition from the surroundings.
To maintain the illusion that the virtual object is
an integral part of the real scene, shadows play as
big a role as the shading itself. Real objects must
cast shadows onto the virtual object; the virtual
object must cast shadows onto the real environment.
To cast shadows from the virtual objects onto the
real environment and vice versa, the Shadow
Volume algorithm is used.
The Shadow Volume algorithm (Crow, 1977) has
been modified to use two sets of shadows; Virtual
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