Abstract

Virtual Reality has traditionally relied on hand-created, synthetic virtual worlds as approximations of real world spaces. Creation of such virtual worlds is very labour intensive. Computer vision has recently contributed greatly to the creation of the visual/graphical aspect of the virtual worlds. These techniques are classified under image-based-- as opposed to geometry-based-- rendering in computer graphics. Image based rendering (IBR) aims to recreate a visual world given a few real views of it. We survey some of the important image-based rendering techniques in this paper, analyzing their assumptions and limitations. We then discuss Virtualized Reality, our contribution to the creation of virtual worlds from dynamic events using a stereo technique that gives dense depth maps on allaround views of the event. The virtualized world can be represented as multiple view-dependent models or as a single viewindependent model. It can then be synthesized visually given the position and properties of any virtual camera. We present a few results from 3DDome, our virtualizing facility.