Eyes for relighting

The combination of the cornea of an eye and a camera viewing the eye form a catadioptric (mirror + lens) imaging system with a very wide field of view. We present a detailed analysis of the characteristics of this corneal imaging system. Anatomical studies have shown that the shape of a normal cornea (without major defects) can be approximated with an ellipsoid of fixed eccentricity and size. Using this shape model, we can determine the geometric parameters of the corneal imaging system from the image. Then, an environment map of the scene with a large field of view can be computed from the image. The environment map represents the illumination of the scene with respect to the eye. This use of an eye as a natural light probe is advantageous in many relighting scenarios. For instance, it enables us to insert virtual objects into an image such that they appear consistent with the illumination of the scene. The eye is a particularly useful probe when relighting faces. It allows us to reconstruct the geometry of a face by simply waving a light source in front of the face. Finally, in the case of an already captured image, eyes could be the only direct means for obtaining illumination information. We show how illumination computed from eyes can be used to replace a face in an image with another one. We believe that the eye not only serves as a useful tool for relighting but also makes relighting possible in situations where current approaches are hard to use.