Single-shot facial capture using polarized RGB sinusoidal illumination
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Lin, Arvin
Ghosh, Abhijeet
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
We present a novel single-shot method for capturing high-quality facial appearance that enables per-pixel estimation of diffuse albedo, specular albedo, specular roughness, and photometric (specular) normals using only linearly polarized RGB illumination and consumer cameras. Our approach leverages color-multiplexed sinusoidal lighting encoded across RGB channels, allowing phase-based decomposition of reflectance parameters per view, without time-multiplexing or iterative refinement. Unlike prior works that jointly optimize appearance and geometry, we decouple the estimation process – separately recovering spatially-varying specular albedo and roughness for the first time in a single-shot capture setup. Additionally, we
estimate high-frequency specular photometric normals independently using view-dependent specular phase cues, obtaining accurate surface mesostructure. We demonstrate our system using a practical monitor-based capture setup with 15 polarized DSLRs, producing detailed reflectance maps suitable for photorealistic rendering. Our approach achieves higher accuracy in reflectance separation and more accurate estimation of fine-scale surface details compared to previous single-shot methods.
estimate high-frequency specular photometric normals independently using view-dependent specular phase cues, obtaining accurate surface mesostructure. We demonstrate our system using a practical monitor-based capture setup with 15 polarized DSLRs, producing detailed reflectance maps suitable for photorealistic rendering. Our approach achieves higher accuracy in reflectance separation and more accurate estimation of fine-scale surface details compared to previous single-shot methods.
Date Acceptance
2025-09-19
Publisher
ACM SIGGRAPH
Copyright Statement
Subject to copyright. This paper is embargoed until publication. Once published the author’s accepted manuscript will be made available under a CC-BY License in accordance with Imperial’s Research Publications Open Access policy (www.imperial.ac.uk/oa-policy).
Identifier
https://wp.doc.ic.ac.uk/rgi/project/single-shot-facial-capture-using-polarized-rgb-sinusoidal-illumination/
Source
ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2025
Publication Status
Accepted
Start Date
2025-12-15
Finish Date
2025-12-18
Coverage Spatial
Hong Kong, China