Calibration of binocular cameras with non-overlapping fields of view based on planar mirrors

Abstract

Multicamera systems are commonly applied in the large field-of-view (FOV) measurements. However, two cameras may have a non-overlapping FOV in some scenes, and traditional binocular camera calibration methods cannot be used to directly calibrate non-overlapping cameras. To solve this problem, our study proposes a calibration method for binocular cameras with non-overlapping FOVs on the basis of planar mirrors. According to the reflection characteristics of an optical planar mirror, the proposed method can use the same target to calibrate non-overlapping cameras. Hence, the method overcomes the limitation of non-overlapping cameras being unable to observe common targets. Experiments results show that the maximum RMS error does not exceed 0.53 mm. Hence, the proposed method is effective, and its measurement technique is simpler and more universal than those of other methods. In addition, it is applicable to a wide range of measurements.