3D shape reconstruction from a single image is a highly ill-posed problem. Modern deep learning based systems try to solve this problem by learning an end-to-end mapping from image to shape via a deep network. In this paper, we aim to solve this problem via an online optimization framework inspired by traditional methods. Our framework employs a deep autoencoder to learn a set of latent codes of 3D object shapes, which are fitted by a probabilistic shape prior using Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM). At inference, the shape and pose are jointly optimized guided by both image cues and deep shape prior without relying on an initialization from any trained deep nets. Surprisingly, our method achieves comparable performance to state-of-the-art methods even without training an end-to-end network, which shows a promising step in this direction.
What is a good vector representation of an object? We believe that it should be generative in 3D, in the sense that it can produce new 3D objects; as well as be predictable from 2D, in the sense that it can be perceived from 2D images. We propose a novel architecture, called the TL-embedding network, to learn an embedding space with these properties. The network consists of two components: (a) an autoencoder that ensures the representation is generative; and (b) a convolutional network that ensures the representation is predictable. This enables tackling a number of tasks including voxel prediction from 2D images and 3D model retrieval. Extensive experimental analysis demonstrates the usefulness and versatility of this embedding.