Revision with unchanged content. Our environment is more and more shaped
by the influence of digital media which itself evolves at tremendous
pace. A small example: 15 years ago, off-the-shelf computers were only
able to cope with flat 2D graphics. Im-provements in system design made
it possible to process 3D scenes, leading to a powerful contribution to
our everyday life. However, such scenes need to be created by
experienced artists employing difficult and expensive tools. The
increasing demand for realism makes things not easier. At the same time,
the rapid improvement of commodity hardware enables the development of
low cost systems for 3D photography. How can systems for volumetric
scene re-construction be efficiently designed? How may high quality be
combined with real-time processing? And how is it possible to create a
lightweight architecture using a single computer? After presenting an
introductory over-view and sketching a novel approach to scene
reconstruction, the author gives a survey of related work in
high-performance re-construction by shape from silhouette and shape from
photo-consistency. To convey a profound understanding to the reader he
explains the fundamentals of scene and camera geometry, image formation,
light and color as well as 3D reconstruction from multiple views.
