A fast and accurate calibration method for the structured light system based on trapezoidal phase-shifting pattern

Calibration plays an important part in the structured light system. It used to be regarded as time-consuming, expensive and hard to implement. In this paper, we introduce a novel and fast method to calibrate the structured light system by using the camera to control the projector to “capture” images. Firstly, we projected just six trapezoidal grayscale pattern to establish the corresponding pixel between the camera and the projector, then we converted the camera image to its corresponding projector image. Thus the structured light system can be easy controlled by the camera calibration. Experiments showed that the present calibration method is fast, easy and accurate.     

Robust pattern decoding in shape-coded structured light

Decoding is a challenging and complex problem in a coded structured light system. In this paper, a robust pattern decoding method is proposed for the shape-coded structured light in which the pattern is designed as grid shape with embedded geometrical shapes. In our decoding method, advancements are made at three steps. First, a multi-template feature detection algorithm is introduced to detect the feature point which is the intersection of each two orthogonal grid-lines. Second, pattern element identification is modelled as a supervised classification problem and the deep neural network technique is applied for the accurate classification of pattern elements. Before that, a training dataset is established, which contains a mass of pattern elements with various blurring and distortions. Third, an error correction mechanism based on epipolar constraint, coplanarity constraint and topological constraint is presented to reduce the false matches. In the experiments, several complex objects including human hand are chosen to test the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method. The experimental results show that our decoding method not only has high decoding accuracy, but also owns strong robustness to surface color and complex textures.     

基于平面互补靶标的线结构光标定系统

为提升线结构光传感器的标定效率与精度,设计了一种集成自背光可调节位姿的平面棋盘格-同心圆互补线结构光标定系统。该系统基于同心圆圆心的真实投影位置与投影椭圆圆心位置的几何关系,建立非线性优化偏心误差补偿模型,精确得到透射投影下圆心偏心误差补偿位置。该方法与传统标定方法对比降低重投影误差84.7%,有效解决了圆形标志物偏心误差补偿的高精度标定难题。通过将相机坐标系下过光心、光条中心线的平面与靶标平面结合,多次获取空间交线的坐标信息增加特征点,并使用最小二乘法拟合光平面方程,解决了因特征点少从而平面拟合标定精度较低的问题。在复杂环境下重复实验测得大尺寸砂轮外径误差均值为0.005 1 mm,结果表明该标定系统具有一定的准确性和简便实用性。     

A novel calibration approach to structured light 3D vision inspection

Structured light 3D vision inspection is a commonly used method for various 3D surface profiling techniques. In this paper, a novel approach is proposed to generate the sufficient calibration points with high accuracy for structured light 3D vision. This approach is based on a flexible calibration target, composed of a photo-electrical aiming device and a 3D translation platform. An improved algorithm of back propagation (BP) neural network is also presented, and is successfully applied to the calibration of structured light 3D vision inspection. Finally, using the calibration points and the improved algorithm of BP neural network, the best network structure is established. The training accuracy for the best BP network structure is 0.083 mm, and its testing accuracy is 0.128 mm.     

A novel 1D target-based calibration method with unknown orientation for structured light vision sensor

The problem associated with calibrating a structured light vision sensor is that it is difficult to obtain the coordinates of the world calibration points falling on the light stripe plane. In this paper, we present a novel method to address this problem by randomly moving a 1D (one-dimension) target within the sensor's view field. At each position where the target is set, the world coordinates with one calibration point on the light stripe plane that can be obtained based on at least three preset known points on the 1D target by a proposed two-stage technique. Thus, as long as the 1D target is at least set at three different positions, not less than three such calibration points can be obtained to perform the structured light vision sensor calibration. The simulation and real experiments conducted reveal that the proposed approach has an accuracy of up to 0.065 mm. The advantages of the proposed method are: (1) 1D target is easily machined with high accuracy, which reduces the cost of the calibration equipment; (2) the method simplifies the calibration operation and can be convenient in on-site calibration; (3) the method is suitable for use in confined spaces.     

Line structured light vision sensor calibration using parallel straight lines features

Line structured light vision sensor (LSLVS) calibration is to establish the relation between the camera and the light plane projector. This paper proposes a geometrical calibration method for LSLVS via three parallel straight lines on a 2D target. The approach is based on the properties of vanishing points and lines. During the calibration, one important aspect is to determine the normal vector of the light plane, another critical step is to obtain the distance parameter d of the light plane. In this paper, we put the emphasis on the later one. The distance constraint of parallel straight lines is used to compute a 3D feature point on the light plane, resulting in the acquisition of the parameter d. Thus, the equation of the light plane in the camera coordinate frame (CCF) can be solved out. To evaluate the performance of the algorithm, possible factors affecting the calibration accuracy are taken into account. Furthermore, mathematical formulations for error propagation are derived. Both computer simulations and real experiments have been carried out to validate our method, and the RMS error of the real calibration reaches 0.134 mm within the field of view 500 mm × 500 mm.     

结构光三维测量系统中投影仪标定技术研究

投影仪标定是单摄像机单投影仪结构光三维测量中的基础。采用双面标定块实现投影仪的标定。标定块正面为黑底白色圆点图案,通过Tsai两步法及非线性优化完成摄像机标定。背面为反射率均匀的白色平面,由投影仪投影双方向高亮度的直线来生成特征点。针对特征点三维坐标难以确定的问题,采用了两种方法:一是依靠摄像机标定结果;二是结合正面圆点图案,利用交比不变性获取更多的有效输入数据。标定设备简单,操作方便。实验结果证明具有较理想的标定精度。     

Thomas rotation and polarized light: A non-abelian geometric phase in optics

We describe anon-abelian Berry phase in polarization optics, suggested by an analogy due to Nityananda between boosts in special relativity and the effect of elliptic dichroism on polarized light. The analogy permits a simple optical realization of the non-abelian gauge field describing Thomas rotation. We also show how Thomas rotation can be understood geometrically on the Poincaré sphere in terms of the Pancharatnam phase.     

光栅投影相位法系统模型及标定方法

本文针对传统投影光栅相位法的光学三角法模型进行了改进,采用直入射光路并配合使用一种简便易行的标定方法,只需使用相移公式求取相位差,而不会引入与系统几何位置关系有关的量,简化了求取高度矩阵的要求。实验结果表明,新系统模型精度良好,测量误差为0.107 mm。采用该模型和标定方法可以克服传统方法系统模型的局限性,最大限度减少误差源并提高抗干扰性。     

Error correcting coding-theory for structured light illumination systems

Intensity discrete structured light illumination systems project a series of projection patterns for the estimation of the absolute fringe order using only the temporal grey-level sequence at each pixel. This work proposes the use of error-correcting codes for pixel-wise correction of measurement errors. The use of an error correcting code is advantageous in many ways: it allows reducing the effect of random intensity noise, it corrects outliners near the border of the fringe commonly present when using intensity discrete patterns, and it provides a robustness in case of severe measurement errors (even for burst errors where whole frames are lost). The latter aspect is particular interesting in environments with varying ambient light as well as in critical safety applications as e.g. monitoring of deformations of components in nuclear power plants, where a high reliability is ensured even in case of short measurement disruptions. A special form of burst errors is the so-called salt and pepper noise, which can largely be removed with error correcting codes using only the information of a given pixel. The performance of this technique is evaluated using both simulations and experiments.     

Flexible and accurate implementation of a binocular structured light system

This paper presents a practical implementation of a binocular system for three-dimensional (3D) surface measurement. Manufacturing procedures are easy to implement because this system does not require that the optical axes of two cameras’ lenses be coplanar and the structured light sheets be perpendicular to that plane. The method of structured light calibration is proposed to obtain the parameters of the structured light sheets. This calibration method can tolerate the surface condition of the calibration board. To eliminate the effect caused by the distortion of projector lens, each structured light sheet is fitted to a conicoid. Meanwhile, data acquired from two cameras are transformed into a unique coordinate system to avoid 3D data matching. Experiments are conducted to validate the flexibility, accuracy, and desirability of our system.     

Optimum projection pattern generation for grey-level coded structured light illumination systems

Structured light illumination (SLI) systems are well-established optical inspection techniques for noncontact 3D surface measurements. A common technique is multi-frequency sinusoidal SLI that obtains the phase map at various fringe periods in order to estimate the absolute phase, and hence, the 3D surface information. Nevertheless, multi-frequency SLI systems employ multiple measurement planes (e.g. four phase shifted frames) to obtain the phase at a given fringe period. It is therefore an age old challenge to obtain the absolute surface information using fewer measurement frames. Grey level (GL) coding techniques have been developed as an attempt to reduce the number of planes needed, because a spatio-temporal GL sequence employing p discrete grey-levels and m frames has the potential to unwrap up to p^m fringes. Nevertheless, one major disadvantage of GL based SLI techniques is that there are often errors near the border of each stripe, because an ideal stepwise intensity change cannot be measured. If the step-change in intensity is a single discrete grey-level unit, this problem can usually be overcome by applying an appropriate threshold. However, severe errors occur if the intensity change at the border of the stripe exceeds several discrete grey-level units. In this work, an optimum GL based technique is presented that generates a series of projection patterns with a minimal gradient in the intensity. It is shown that when using this technique, the errors near the border of the stripes can be significantly reduced. This improvement is achieved with the choice generated patterns, and does not involve additional hardware or special post-processing techniques. The performance of that method is validated using both simulations and experiments. The reported technique is generic, works with an arbitrary number of frames, and can employ an arbitrary number of grey-levels.     

3D multi-directional sensor with pyramid mirror and structured light

Structured-light-based 3D multi-directional sensors are widely used due to their flexible field of view (FOV), which is a significant benefit. Nevertheless, existing 3D multi-directional sensors based on linear lasers are only capable of measuring a slice of a 3D scene at low resolution. In addition, other 3D multi-directional sensors are capable of measuring 3D scenes by shooting 2D structured light patterns in different directions through curved mirrors. However, the projected and captured structured light patterns are blurred due to the optical aberration property of curved mirrors, resulting in inaccurate 3D reconstruction. This paper proposes a 3D, high-resolution, high-accuracy, real-time multi-directional sensor that utilizes pyramid mirrors to decompose the FOVs into different directions and reduce the optical aberration phenomenon. The mathematical model of the 3D sensor is presented, and the FOV is analyzed. A dual-frequency phase-shifting fringe pattern is used for 3D reconstruction in real time. Moreover, the sensor is calibrated using a planar circle calibration gauge and the Householder reflection constraint. Finally, the experimental results demonstrate that the measurement error of the 3D multi-directional sensor is less than 1 mm and 0.03 rad, thus verifying the method's feasibility.     

编码光系统的颜色耦合与颜色失衡校正

为了减小编码光系统中的颜色耦合与颜色失衡的干扰,提高形状与颜色重建的准确度,建立了彩色编码光系统,并对其所采用的编解码方法、颜色重建的两个相关环节及颜色校正方法进行了研究。首先,给出了系统的彩色梯形相移强度比编解码法,分析了编解码过程中存在的RGB基色相互耦合现象,设计了应用Caspi模型硬件标定的颜色耦合校正方案;然后,给出了系统的逐点颜色重建法,分析了颜色重建过程中由表面曲率导致的颜色失衡现象,设计了利用表面几何信息校正颜色失衡的方案。实验结果表明：校正后单一绿色图像中的红色分量值约为校正前的1/10;单色表面色差约为0.1,趋近于人眼颜色分辨率,远低于校正前的0.4;重建的单色复杂被测表面颜色均匀、视觉效果良好,符合实际情况。提出的方法符合编码光系统抗干扰能力强的要求,有助于提高形状与颜色重建的准确度。     

Absolute phase recovery in structured light illumination systems: Sinusoidal vs. intensity discrete patterns

Structured light illumination is a well-established technology for noncontact 3D surface measurements. A common challenge in those systems is to obtain the absolute surface information using few measurement frames. This work discusses techniques based on the projection of multiple sinusoidal fringe patterns with different fringe period, as well as the projection of intensity discrete Gray Code and grey-level coded patterns. The use of sinusoidal multi-frequency techniques has been since years an on-going area of research, where various algorithms have been developed based on beats, look-up tables, or number-theoretical approaches. This work shows that a related technique, the so-called algebraic reconstruction technique that is borrowed from the area of multi-wavelength interferometry can be used for this purpose. This approach provides a robust analytical solution to the phase-unwrapping problem. However, this work argues that despite these advances, the acquisition of additional phase maps obtained with different fringe periods requires too many measurement frames, and hence is inefficient. Motivated by that, this work proposes a new grey level coding scheme that uses only few measurement frames, overcomes typical defocus errors, and has an error detecting feature. The latter feature makes the need of separate error detecting algorithms obsolete. This so-called closed-loop space filling curve can be implemented with an arbitrary number of N grey-levels enabling to code up to (2N) code-words. The performance of this so-called closed-loop space filling curve is demonstrated using experimental data.     

Constructing feature points for calibrating a structured light vision sensor by viewing a plane from unknown orientations

To calibrate a structured light vision sensor, it is necessary to obtain at least four non-collinear feature points that fall on the light stripe plane. We propose a novel method to construct non-collinear feature points used for calibrating a structured light vision sensor with a planar calibration object. After the planar calibration object is moved freely in the range of measuring of the structured light vision sensor at least twice, all the local world coordinates of the feature points falling on the light stripe plane can be readily obtained in site. The global world coordinates of the non-collinear feature points in the local world coordinate frame can be computed through the three-dimensional (3D) camera coordinate frame. A planar calibration object is designed according to the proposed approach to provide accurate feature points. The experiments conducted on a real structured light vision sensor that consists of a camera and a single-light-stripe-plane laser projector reveal that the proposed approach has high accuracy and is practical in the vision inspection applications. The proposed approach greatly reduces the cost of the calibration equipment and simplifies the calibrating procedure. It advances structured light vision inspection one step from laboratory environments to real world use.     

Implementation and experimental study on fast object modeling based on multiple structured stripes

In this paper, a practical structured light-based system for fast object modeling and reconstruction is reported. The system consists of an off-the-shelf digital projector, a video camera and a turntable. The system calibration is implemented accurately and automatically by taking a single image of an illuminated calibration template. The multiple color light stripes emitted by the projector adopt only three colors and the color can be modified easily according to the surface texture of the object. This makes the system widely applicable in many situations, and the assumption about color neutrality, which is a limitation to other similar systems, can be largely relaxed. The registration and merging algorithm is greatly simplified by employing a turntable. The validity and high accuracy of the method are demonstrated by extensive real experiments.     

Simple and fast rail wear measurement method based on structured light

In this paper, a fast and accurate rail wear measurement method based on simple equipments is presented. The inner rail profile is measured by a line structured light vision sensor. Using the centers of the big and small circle from the rail waist profile as control points, the measured rail profile is registered to the reference profile. The rail wear, including the vertical and horizontal rail wear, is computed by comparing the registered measured profile with the reference profile. The method has three key contributions: (1) the rail waist light stripe center points in the images are located fast and accurately by first tracking the region containing the rail waist light stripe using the Kalman filter and then computing the sub-pixel precision image coordinates by Hessian matrix at pixels. (2) The rail waist profile is segmented automatically into arcs of big and small circles by thresholding the normal angle curve of the measured rail waist profile. The centers of the two circles are used as control points for registering the measured rail profile to the reference profile. (3) The fast location of rail wear points in the images is realized by projecting the rail wear constraint points to the image, which simplifies the problem of computing rail wear from 2d image processing to 1d searching along the line segment connecting two rail wear constraint points. Experiments show that the proposed method can achieve 500 fps measurement frequency. At a train speed of 350 km/h, the interval between two consecutive measurements is about 190 mm. The system is tested on a real running train, and the measurement results are compared with those rail wear measured manually by special gage. The RMS errors of vertical and horizontal rail wears are 0.34 and 0.30 mm, respectively.     

星载微光遥感器外场辐射定标光源的研制和检测

LED外场辐射定标积分球光源基于辐射通量等效理论,用于星载微光遥感器的在轨辐射定标。该定标光源采用12组峰值波长670 nm的LED密集阵列发光单元,每组最大电功率300 W,辐亮度输出达到5.2×10?2 W·cm?2·sr?1,通过等效辐射通量面积校正后,能够适用于10?9 W·cm?2·sr?1量级的微光通道在轨定标。光源的参数检测结果表明:定标光源角度均匀性在±30°以内优于99.6%,平面均匀性优于99.7%,1 h内稳定性优于99.9%,具有优良的辐射特性。在敦煌中国遥感卫星辐射校正场对VIIRS微光通道进行了在轨实测试验,在轨响应结果为8.27×10?9 W·cm?2·sr?1（含月光贡献和大气影响）,证明了该外场微光定标光源辐射量值设计的合理性。     

Image encryption using fractional Mellin transform,structured phase filters,and phase retrieval

An image encryption scheme has been presented by using two structured phase masks in the fractional Mellin transform (FrMT) plane of a system, employing a phase retrieval technique. Since FrMT is a non-linear integral transform, its use enhances the system security. We also add further security features by carrying out spatial filtering in the frequency domain by using a combination of two phase masks: a toroidal zone plate (TZP) and a radial Hilbert mask (RHM). These masks together increase the key space making the system more secure. The phase key used in decryption has been obtained by applying an iterative phase retrieval algorithm based on the fractional Fourier transform. The algorithm uses amplitude constraints of secret target image and the ciphertext (encrypted image) obtained from multiplication of fractional Mellin transformed arbitrary input image and the two phase masks (TZP and RHM). The proposed encryption scheme has been validated for a few grayscale images, by numerical simulations. The efficacy of the scheme has been evaluated by computing mean-squared-error (MSE) between the secret target image and the decrypted image. The sensitivity analysis of the decryption process to variations in various encryption parameters has also been carried out.