3D plenoptic representation of a linear scene

This paper presents a novel 3D plenoptic function. We constrain camera motion to a line, and create a linear mosaic using a manifold mosaic. The plenoptic function is represented with three parameters: camera position along the axis, the angle between the ray and the centric axis, and the rotation angle in the vertical plane. Novel views are rendered by combining the appropriate captured rays in an efficient manner at the rendering time. Like panoramas, our method does not require recovery of geometric and photometric scene models. Moreover, it provides a much richer user experience by allowing the user to move freely in a linear region and observe significant parallax and lighting changes. Compared with either Lightfield or Lumigraph, it has a much smaller file size because a 3D only plenoptic function is constructed. Finally, an experiment with a synthetic environment is given to demonstrate its efficiency in capturing, construction and rendering of a linear scene.