3D - 2

Can you automatically create 3-d objects (eg in blender) based purely on 2-d images of the object?

Does anyone know how many 2-d images (say photographs) of a 3-d object are needed to automate the production of the 3-d object? Is it even possible? My first guess would be that you need the top, front and side views and that should be enough to auotmate the creation of the 3-d model, but Im not sure... If it is possible, are there any (eg python) scripts or tools out there to do so? In say maya or blender or any other 3d packages? Thanks!

Public Comments

1. If you had the top, front and left view of an object, you could write an algorithm to create a 3D object, but it would not be perfect. The resulting object would have to be convex from the perspective of non-front, left or top views (I know that's confusing, but it's true!). The problem is that 2D images don't contain depth information, at best you could do edge detection and try to create a shape by combining the edge information from all 3 views, but this would not be enough to re-create the object in detail. Going up in dimensions is not possible to exactly re-create what you started with, whereas going down in dimension is usually not a problem. This is similar to integration and differentiation in math, where integration always carries a constant term that is not known.