Disparity estimation for non-planar specular surfaces

Develop disparity-estimation methods that accurately reconstruct multiple objects and non-planar specular surfaces, including cubes and spheres, despite ambiguities caused by violations of the single global plane assumption.

Background

The Specular Reflection Disparity Estimation (SRDE) method assumes that the target object can be represented by a single Euclidean plane with one surface normal. Multiple objects and non-planar geometries violate this assumption, producing inaccurate disparity maps for objects such as cubes with multiple visible faces and spheres.

The paper reports that both SRDE and existing learning-based disparity-estimation methods degrade under these conditions and explicitly characterizes accurate reconstruction of non-planar specular objects as an unresolved problem for the broader field.

References

Therefore, this is not only a challenging condition for SRDE, but remains an open research problem across the entire field.

— Disparity Estimation of Planar Reflective Surfaces Using Specular Reflections From a Single Light Source  (2609.24756 - Kossira et al., 21 Sep 2026) in Section 5.4.2, “Geometric Boundaries”