A system and process for reconstructing optimal texture maps from multiple views
of a scene is described. In essence, this reconstruction is based on the optimal
synthesis of textures from multiple sources. This is generally accomplished using
basic image processing theory to derive the correct weights for blending the multiple
views. Namely, the steps of reconstructing, warping, prefiltering, and resampling
are followed in order to warp reference textures to a desired location, and to
compute spatially-variant weights for optimal blending. These weights take into
consideration the anisotropy in the texture projection and changes in sampling
frequency due to foreshortening. The weights are combined and the computation of
the optimal texture is treated as a restoration problem, which involves solving
a linear system of equations. This approach can be incorporated in a variety of
applications, such as texturing of 3D models, analysis by synthesis methods, super-resolution
techniques, and view-dependent texture mapping.