Better Optical Triangulation Through Spacetime Analysis

The standard methods for extracting range data from optical triangulation scanners are accurate only for planar objects of uniform reflectance illuminated by an incoherentsource. Using these methods, curved surfaces, discontinuous surfaces, and surfaces of varying reflectance cause systematic distortions of the range data. Coherent light sources such as lasers introduce speckle artifacts that further degrade the data. We present a new ranging method based on analyzing the time evolution of the structured light reflections. Using our spacetime analysis, we can correctfor each of these artifacts, thereby attaining significantly higher accuracyusing existing technology. We present results that demonstrate the validity of our method using a commercial laser stripe triangulation scanner.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1995
• Where: ICCV
• Authors: Brian Curless, Marc Levoy
• Keywords: Computer Vision, ICCV 1995, Optical Triangulation Scanners, Range Data, Triangulation Scanner