RAYSET: A TAXONOMY FOR IMAGE-BASED RENDERING

Abstract

A new concept, referred to as rayset, is discussed in this paper. It is a parametric function consisting of two mapping relations. The first one maps from a parameter space to the ray space, while the second one maps from the parameter space to the attribute space. A taxonomy is proposed based on the rayset concept whereby scene representations and scene reconstruction techniques used in image-based rendering are individually classified. Existing image-based rendering techniques are surveyed under the proposed classification. The review shows that different image-based scene representations, such as multiple-center-of-projection image and concentric mosaics, can be cast as different kinds of raysets. Different scene reconstruction approaches can be regarded as attempts to render different raysets. The concepts of rayset warping and rayset editing are also formulated. Under the rayset taxonomy, both techniques try to alter one of the mapping relations defined by a rayset without changing the other one.