Interactive exploration of acquired 3D data

The goal of our image-based rendering group is to accurately render scenes acquired from the real world. To achieve this goal, we capture scene data by taking 3D panoramic photographs from multiple locations and merge the acquired data into a single model from which real-time 3D rendering can be performed. In this paper, we describe our acquisition hardware and rendering system that seeks to achieve this goal, with particular emphasis on the techniques used to support interactive exploration.