View-based Rendering: Visualizing Real Objects from Scanned Range and Color Data

Modeling arbitrary real objects is difficult, and rendering textured models typically does not result in realistic images. We describe a new method for displaying scanned real objects, called view-based rendering. The method takes as input a collection of colored range images covering the object and creates a collection of partial object models. These partial models are rendered separately using traditional graphics hardware and blended together using various weights and soft z-buffering. We demonstrate interactive viewing of real, non-trivial objects that would be difficult to model using traditional methods.