| Research Mission: |
The research group "Graphics, Vision and Video" investigates problems that live on the boundary between the fields Computer Graphics and Computer Vision. One major line of research in Computer Vision aims at developing methods for acquiring dynamic scenes with video cameras and estimating model descriptions of the scenes from the recorded data.
These model descriptions typically comprise of models of shape, models of motion or models of physical material properties. The main goal of Computer Graphics, on the other hand, has been to display such model descriptions realistically. In our work, we investigate the problems of acquisition, reconstruction and display of dynamic scenes in conjunction and develop novel algorithmic concepts for each of these questions. In particular we develop methods for dynamic shape and appearance reconstruction, motion estimation, animation of complex deformable models, and real-time rendering and relighting. Ultimately, it is our goal to generate realistic renderings of image- or video-captured dynamic scenes from arbitrary virtual camera views.
One very young line of research that aims at putting this video-based rendering paradigm into practice, is 3D or Free-Viewpoint Video. Here, we will extend our previous work on model-based free-viewpoint video of human actors and develop novel algorithms that enable us to process more general scenes.
Christian Theobalt is a Senior Researcher at MPI for Informatics and professor at Saarland University. |
