Title: Calibration of focal length and 3D pose based on the reflectance and depth image of a planar object

Authors: Christian Beder, Reinhard Koch

Addresses: Computer Science Department, Kiel University, Hermann-Rodewald-Str. 3, D-24118 Kiel, Germany. ' Computer Science Department, Kiel University, Hermann-Rodewald-Str. 3, D-24118 Kiel, Germany

Abstract: The estimation of position and orientation of a Photonic Mixer Device (PMD) camera in a global reference frame is required by many measurement applications based on such systems. PMD cameras produce a depth as well as a reflectance image of low resolution compared to standard optical cameras, so that calibration of the cameras based on the reflectance image alone is difficult. We will present a novel approach for calibrating the focal length and 3D pose of a PMD camera based on the depth and reflectance image of a planar checkerboard pattern. By integrating both sources of information higher accuracies can be achieved. Furthermore, one single image is sufficient for calibrating the focal length as well as the 3D pose from a planar reference object. This is because the depth measurements are orthogonal to the lateral intensity measurements and provide direct metric information.

Keywords: calibration; PMD cameras; photonic mixer device camera; pose estimation; focal length; 3D pose; reflectance; depth image; planar objects; checkerboard pattern.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISTA.2008.021291

International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications, 2008 Vol.5 No.3/4, pp.285 - 294

Published online: 18 Nov 2008 *

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