Complete calibration of a phase-based 3D imaging system based on fringe projection technique

Abstract

Phase calculation-based 3D imaging systems have been widely studied because of the advantages of non-contact operation, full-field, fast acquisition and automatic data processing. A vital step is calibration, which builds up the relationship between phase map and range image. The existing calibration methods are complicated because of using a precise translating stage or a 3D gauge block. Recently, we presented a simple method to convert phase into depth data by using a polynomial function and a plate having discrete markers on the surface with known distance in between. However, the initial position of all the markers needs to be determined manually and the X, Y coordinates are not calibrated. This paper presents a complete calibration method of phase calculation-based 3D imaging systems by using a plate having discrete markers on the surface with known distance in between. The absolute phase of each pixel can be calculated by projecting fringe pattern onto the plate. Each marker position can be determined by an automatic extraction algorithm, so the relative depth of each pixel to a chosen reference plane can be obtained. Therefore, coefficient set of the polynomial function for each pixel are determined by using the obtained absolute phase and depth data. In the meanwhile, pixel positions and the X, Y coordinates can be established by the parameters of the CCD camera. Experimental results and performance evaluation show that the proposed calibration method can easily build up the relationship between absolute phase map and range image in a simple way.