3D shape measurement of objects with high dynamic range of surface reflectivity

This paper presents a method that allows a conventional dual-camera structured light system to directly acquire the three-dimensional shape of the whole surface of an object with high dynamic range of surface reflectivity. To reduce the degradation in area-based correlation caused by specular highlights and diffused darkness, we first disregard these highly specular and dark pixels. Then, to solve this problem and further obtain unmatched area data, this binocular vision system was also used as two camera-projector monocular systems operated from different viewing angles at the same time to fill in missing data of the binocular reconstruction. This method involves producing measurable images by integrating such techniques as multiple exposures and high dynamic range imaging to ensure the capture of high-quality phase of each point. An image-segmentation technique was also introduced to distinguish which monocular system is suitable to reconstruct a certain lost point accurately. Our experiments demonstrate that these techniques extended the measurable areas on the high dynamic range of surface reflectivity such as specular objects or scenes with high contrast to the whole projector-illuminated field. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America