Handbook of Machine and Computer Vision, 2nd Edition

Chapter 5Camera Calibration

Robert Godding

AICON 3D Systems GmbH, Biberweg 30 C, 38122 Braunschweig, Germany

5.1 Introduction

In the past years, the use of optical measurement systems has continuously increased in industrial measurement technology. On the one hand, there are digital cameras (partly with telecentric optics) that are used for the determination of two-dimensional measuring quantities; on the other hand, the 3D measurement technology has greatly come to the fore. Favorable to this development was the improvement of the sensor technology of digital cameras so that nowadays cameras with about 50 megapixels can be used as well as ever faster processors enabling the fast processing of large data quantities.

The mode of operation of the systems, however, greatly differs.

One method consists in using one-camera systems by means of which almost any objects are taken (partially with several hundred images), which are then evaluated offline. Besides, there are numerous systems in use in which a great number of cameras are simultaneously acquiring an object, the evaluation being made online. Due to this, there are rising requirements with respect to the geometrical quality of manufactured parts and most industrial applications require a very high accuracy for evaluation.

This accuracy can only be reached if corresponding mathematical models form the basis of the cameras used for all calculations, that is, all camera and lens parameters are known and are taken in consideration ...