Depth Estimation for Glossy Surfaces with Light-Field Cameras

Light-field cameras have now become available in both consumer and industrial applications, and recent papers have demonstrated practical algorithms for depth recovery from a passive single-shot capture. However, current light-field depth estimation methods are designed for Lambertian objects and fail or degrade for glossy or specular surfaces. Because light-field cameras have an array of micro-lenses, the captured data allows modification of both focus and perspective viewpoints. In this paper, we develop an iterative approach to use the benefits of light-field data to estimate and remove the specular component, improving the depth estimation. The approach enables light-field data depth estimation to support both specular and diffuse scenes. We present a physically-based method that estimates one or multiple light source colors. We show our method outperforms current state-of-the-art diffuse and specular separation and depth estimation algorithms in multiple real world scenarios.