DiGS: Depth-Initialized Gaussian Splatting for Single-Object Reconstruction

Gaussian Splatting is a state-of-the-art technique for 3D reconstruction. In this paper, we investigate how different initialization strategies influence the optimization process within the Gaussian Splatting framework, showing that more accurate initial point clouds can greatly influence the quality of object reconstruction. We introduce the Depth-initialized Gaussian Splatting (DiGS) approach, a pipeline that leverages depth-based initialization. By incorporating depth data from a calibrated stereo camera setup, the proposed method significantly enhances model performance, particularly during the early optimization stages. DiGS is particularly effective for reconstructing isolated single objects and improving the recovery of fine-grained details. Several tests on synthetic and real-world datasets confirm the effectiveness of the proposed pipeline. To evaluate our approach, we employ objective metrics and a user study involving 20 participants to assess with human perception the quality of the proposed approach.