FINDING THE ILLUMINANT DIRECTION

Shading is important for estimation of three-dimensional shape from the two-dimensional image, for instance, for distinguishing between the smooth occluding contour generated by the edge of a sphere and the sharp occluding contour generated by the edge of a disk. In order to use shading information to solve such problems, one must know the illuminant direction L. Each illuminant direction L has a unique effect on the distribution of changes in image intensity dI, potentially permitting the estimation of L. However, because dI is a function of both L and the surface curvature, L can be estimated from the image only by making an assumption about the imaged surface curvature. One assumption that is sufficient to disentangle L and surface curvature is that changes in surface orientation are isotropically distributed. Estimates made employing this assumption agree with estimates of illuminant direction given by human subjects for images of natural objects, even when both are objectively wrong. Further, there is a significant correlation between the variance of these estimates and the variance of the human subjects' estimates.