Scene appearance model based on spatial prediction

The appearance of a static scene as sensed by a camera changes considerably as a result of changes in the illumination that falls upon it. Scene appearance modeling is thus necessary for understanding which changes in the appearance of a scene are the result of illumination changes. For any camera, the appearance of the scene is a function of the illumination sources in the scene, the three-dimensional configuration of the objects in the scene and the reflectance properties of all the surfaces in the scene. A scene appearance model is described here as a function of the behavior of static illumination sources, within or beyond the scene, and arbitrary three-dimensional configurations of patches and their reflectance distributions. Based on the suggested model, a spatial prediction technique was developed to predict the appearance of the scene, given a few measurements within it. The scene appearance model and the prediction technique were developed analytically and tested empirically. Two potential applications are briefly explored.