Extending DeepSDF for automatic 3D shape retrieval and similarity transform estimation

Recent advances in computer graphics and computer vision have allowed for the development of neural network based generative models for 3D shapes based on signed distance functions (SDFs). These models are useful for shape representation, retrieval and completion. However, this approach to shape retrieval and completion has been limited by the need to have query shapes in the same canonical scale and pose as those observed during training, restricting its effectiveness to real world scenes. In this work, we present a formulation that overcomes this issue by jointly estimating the shape and similarity transformation parameters. We conduct experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of this formulation on synthetic and real datasets and report favorable comparisons to strong baselines. Finally, we also emphasize the viability of this approach as a form of data compression useful in augmented reality scenarios.