APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR RECONSTRUCTING 3D SHAPE OF OBJECT WITH DEPTH DISCONTINUITY USING HELMHOLTZ STEREOPSIS

Provided is an apparatus for reconstructing a 3D shape of an object by using Helmholtz stereopsis. The apparatus includes: an image capturer for capturing two pairs of images satisfying Helmholtz reciprocity condition; a preprocessor for estimating optical and geometrical characteristics of a camera used for the image capturing; and a geometrical data reconstructor for converting Helmholtz restrictions generated from the respective pairs of the images into partial differential equations on the basis of the estimated optical and geometrical characteristics, and reconstructing 3D surface data of an object with depth discontinuity at a boundary between regions on the basis of the partial differential equations.