Novel method for structured light system calibration

System calibration, which usually involves complicated and time-consuming procedures, is crucial for any 3-D shape measurement system. In this work, a novel systematic method is proposed for accurate and quick calibration of a 3-D shape measurement system we developed based on a structured light technique. The key concept is to enable the projector to "capture" images like a camera, thus making the calibration of a projector the same as that of a camera. With this new concept, the calibration of structured light systems becomes essentially the same as the calibration of traditional stereovision systems, which is well estab- lished. The calibration method is fast, robust, and accurate. It signifi- cantly simplifies the calibration and recalibration procedures of struc- tured light systems. This work describes the principle of the proposed method and presents some experimental results that demonstrate its performance. © 2006 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.