Uniqueness in Shape from Shading Revisited

We analyse the problem of representing solutions of first-orderpartial differential equations in terms of complete integrals and envelopes. In this context, we revisit the uniqueness results alreadyexisting in the shape-from-shading literature that concern eikonalequations corresponding to the images of a Lambertian hemi-sphere and aLambertian plane. We show that the approach adopted by Brooks in [2, 3] isincomplete and subsequently re-establish its uniqueness claims.