Depth-mesh objects : fast depth-image meshing and warping

In this paper we present a novel and efficient depth-image representation and warping technique based on a piece-wise linear approximation of the depth-image as a textured and simplified triangle mesh. We describe the application of a hierarchical triangulation method to generate view-dependent triangulated depth-meshes efficiently from reference depth-images, and propose a new hardware accelerated depth-image rendering technique that supports per-pixel weighted blending of multiple depth-images in real-time. Applications of our technique include image-based object representations and the use of depth-images in large scale walk-through visualization systems