BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a technique to generate an image from a virtual viewpoint based on images captured from a plurality of viewpoints.

Description of the Related Art

In recent years, a technique has been attracting attention, which generates virtual viewpoint contents by performing synchronous image capturing at a plurality of viewpoints by installing a plurality of cameras at different positions and by using a plurality of images obtained by the image capturing. According to the technique to generate virtual viewpoint contents from a plurality of images, for example, it is made possible to view a highlight scene in soccer or basketball from a variety of angles, and therefore, it is possible to give a user a higher feeling of being at a live performance.

In order to generate and browse a virtual viewpoint image, image processing, such as concentration of image data captured by a plurality of cameras to a server or the like, generation of a three-dimensional model in the server or the like, and rendering, may be required. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-15756 has disclosed a technique to generate an image from an arbitrary viewpoint on a real space close to the reality from images of a plurality of cameras by adjusting camera parameter and images in accordance with each local area obtained by dividing the real space.

However, with the technique of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-15756 described above, a virtual viewpoint image is generated by using images of a plurality of cameras, and therefore, there is such a problem that the data amount of images required for generation of a virtual viewpoint image becomes very large.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a technique capable of obtaining a virtual viewpoint image while reducing the data amount.

The image processing apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention is an image processing apparatus including: a first generation unit configured to generate three-dimensional shape data indicating a shape of an object based on at least one of a plurality of images captured from different directions by a plurality of image capturing devices; a second generation unit configured to generate color information indicating a color of each element of the three-dimensional shape data based on the three-dimensional shape data generated by the first generation unit and the plurality of images; and a write unit configured to write the three-dimensional shape data and the color information to a storage unit in association with each other as material data for generating a virtual viewpoint image corresponding to virtual viewpoint information indicating a virtual viewpoint.

Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.

