SpikeGS: 3D Gaussian Splatting from Spike Streams with High-Speed Camera Motion

Abstract: Novel View Synthesis plays a crucial role by generating new 2D renderings from multi-view images of 3D scenes. However, capturing high-speed scenes with conventional cameras often leads to motion blur, hindering the effectiveness of 3D reconstruction. To address this challenge, high-frame-rate dense 3D reconstruction emerges as a vital technique, enabling detailed and accurate modeling of real-world objects or scenes in various fields, including Virtual Reality or embodied AI. Spike cameras, a novel type of neuromorphic sensor, continuously record scenes with an ultra-high temporal resolution, showing potential for accurate 3D reconstruction. Despite their promise, existing approaches, such as applying Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) to spike cameras, encounter challenges due to the time-consuming rendering process. To address this issue, we make the first attempt to introduce the 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) into spike cameras in high-speed capture, providing 3DGS as dense and continuous clues of views, then constructing SpikeGS. Specifically, to train SpikeGS, we establish computational equations between the rendering process of 3DGS and the processes of instantaneous imaging and exposing-like imaging of the continuous spike stream. Besides, we build a very lightweight but effective mapping process from spikes to instant images to support training. Furthermore, we introduced a new spike-based 3D rendering dataset for validation. Extensive experiments have demonstrated our method possesses the high quality of novel view rendering, proving the tremendous potential of spike cameras in modeling 3D scenes.