Progressively Streamed Real-time Preview of Captured Optical Surface Materials on the Web

Real-time delivery of captured optical surface materials has several uses, ranging from commercial showcasing of products, or product configurators, on the web, to dissemination of and research on cultural heritage by providing easy access to collections. In this work we describe two contributions: First, the development of a real-time 3D viewer for captured optical surface materials mapped to 3D geometry on the web, which is demonstrated using measured Approximate Bidirectional Texturing Function (ABTF) surface materials as an example. Second, we solve the general problem of the initial wait time for the user when viewing 3D renderings coupled with large measured material data by progressively enhancing the material details presented to the user from the start, following one of several methods proposed to define the order in which the individual surface fragments are sent. This reordering prevents the retransmission of fragments and continuously enhances the perceived increase in quality over time, making each step noticeably better in terms of perceived quality without producing visible pop-in effects or other artifacts. The benefit is the ability to visualize captured optical surface materials in their full detail without need for lossy compression, while retaining interactive loading times and thus improving user experience.