ABSTRACT
In this article I develop a new type of shape-fromshading algorithm, one that uses assumptions about the reflectance function, rather than using assumptions about the surface shape. The basic idea of this algorithm is to construct a linear approximation to the true reflec tance function, thus permitting an extremely efficient closed-form solution for the surface shape. One impor tant characteristic of the solution is that good estimates of shape can be obtained even when boundary condi tions are not available, by use of the assumption of general viewing position.
