On the continuum between what we call reality and an entirely simulated version of it, there is enough space left to mix both worlds together. As it turns out however, the Internet has hardly any good blog material to fill this gap, specifically the aspects of rendering and relighting objects in real-time augmented reality applications.

I am among some of the few people researching in this area and trying to figure out how to augment real images with virtual objects and have them look good. Having said that, it is important to note that this has been an ongoing topic in Hollywood for a long time, as there had been real need for believable dinosaurs. However, the movie people have the luxury of moving things around as long as they want to make it look right, while in real-time AR applications, you need to work with the things you get each frame. And this often isn’t that much.

I will casually write about papers and the practical issues that arise in real-time relighting. Ultimately, this blog will look at modern GPU-based global illumination algorithms and their application in AR. Enjoy!