View synthesis of articulating humans using visual hull

In this paper, we present a method, which combines image-based visual hull and human body part segmentation for overcoming the inability of the visual hull method to reconstruct concave regions. The virtual silhouette image corresponding to the given viewing direction is first produced with image-based visual hull. Human body part localization technique is used to segment the input images and the rendered virtual silhouette image into convex body parts. The body parts in the virtual view are generated separately from the corresponding body parts in the input views and then assembled together. The previously rendered silhouette image is used to locate the corresponding body parts in input views and avoid the unconnected or squeezed regions in the assembled final view. Experiments show that this method can improve the reconstruction of concave regions for human postures and texture mapping.