Specular highlights detection and reduction with multi-flash photography
- Resource Type
- article
- Authors
- Feris, Rogerio; Raskar, Ramesh; Tan, Kar-Han; Turk, Matthew
- Source
- Journal of the Brazilian Computer Society. June 2006 12(1)
- Subject
- Specularities
Multi-Flash Imaging
Poisson Equation
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 0104-6500
We present a novel method to reduce the effect of specularities in digital images. Our approach relies on a simple modification of the capture setup: a multi-flash camera is used to take multiple pictures of the scene, each one with a differently positioned light source. We then formulate the problem of specular highlights reduction as solving a Poisson equation on a gradient field obtained from the input images. The obtained specular reduced image is further refined in a matting process with the maximum composite of the input images. Experimental results are demonstrated on real and synthetic images. The entire setup can be conceivably packaged into a self-contained device, no larger than existing digital cameras.