Digital Representation of the Real World: How to Capture, Model, and Render Visual Reality

As much as we need computer graphics to generate artificial images (e.g., alien weapons, talking hamsters), we also need digital models of real-world objects for a variety of applications (e.g., digitized cities for online maps, food for commercials, planes for film stunts, cars for virtual reality). This book presents the state-of-the-art research into how complex, real-world scenes are digitized to create realistic virtual worlds. It covers the entire pipeline from acquisition, data processing, and modeling to content editing, photorealistic rendering, and user interaction.