high performance computing on graphics processing units: hgpu.org

This paper presents a new GPU-based implementation of fast non-local means (NLM) filtering for material restyling. Our fast NLM filtering algorithm is able to achive realtime feedback of interactive image editing. Furthermore a novel material editing method based on our fast NLM filtering is proposed to change the material appearance of image-based objects. Given an input image, an alpha matte is created to differentiate the object from its background. After the automatic matting process, the object is removed from the background, and the 3D shape of the object is recovered. We use the fast non-local means (NLM) filtering to process the luminance channel of an image and obtain a pseudo-depth map that is sufficient for altering the material appearance of the observed object. We recover the gradient luminance maps for the region to be material-restyled; and change the material property in the region-of-interest by solving the Poisson equation. In this way, the new material is mapped onto the 3D shape, resulting in an object which appears to be made of a different material. Our new NLM filtering-based material editing is easy to implement in parallel with graphics hardware. The experimental results have demonstrated the satisfactory performance of our method.