title: Build 3D surface from one 2D top-down image surface
body: <p>I am wondering if there is a way to build a random 3D surface from only one <em>(top-down)</em> 2D image of this surface. The fact is that the 3D surface needs the z-coordinates (the heights and the depths) and the 2D <em>(top-down)</em> image gives only the x and y coordinates.</p>
  
  <p>I believe that the main problem is that we can't get the real ranges of the dimensions (x,y,z) of the surface from one 2D <em>(top-down)</em> image but we can get some kind of normalized scaling which is not the real one (it's just similar).</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p><strong>For example:</strong></p>
  
  <p>If we have an image with a surface (2D) and we want 3D of this surface (x,y,z) we can have easily the x and the y coordinates from the image. We can't have the real range of the amplitude (z coordinate) in each point of the surface but only the gray-tones scaling. Is there any ideas on how could we take the real sizes of the amplitudes of a surface from one 2D <em>(top-down)</em> image?  </p>
  
  <p><strong>Left</strong> is a sample of 2D top-down image and <strong>Right</strong> is a surface which created by the 2D
  <a href="http://www.sendspace.com/file/9wzx0u" rel="nofollow">http://www.sendspace.com/file/9wzx0u</a></p>
  
  <p>p.s.
  I can't post an image because of my reputation, so I uploaded one on sedspace.com.</p>