From Single Shot to Structure: End-to-End Network-Based Deflectometry for Specular Free-Form Surface Reconstruction

Deflectometry is a key component in the precise measurement of specular (mirrored) surfaces; however, traditional methods often lack an end-to-end approach that performs 3D reconstruction in a single shot with high accuracy and generalizes across different free-form surfaces. This paper introduces a novel deep neural network (DNN)-based approach for end-to-end 3D reconstruction of free-form specular surfaces using single-shot deflectometry. Our proposed network, VUDNet, innovatively combines discriminative and generative components to accurately interpret orthogonal fringe patterns and generate high-fidelity 3D surface reconstructions. By leveraging a hybrid architecture integrating a Variational Autoencoder (VAE) and a modified U-Net, VUDNet excels in both depth estimation and detail refinement, achieving superior performance in challenging environments. Extensive data simulation using Blender leading to a dataset which we will make available, ensures robust training and enables the network to generalize across diverse scenarios. Experimental results demonstrate the strong performance of VUDNet, setting a new standard for 3D surface reconstruction.