3D Shape Reconstruction from Synthetic Images Captured by a Rotating Periscope System with a Single Focal Direction

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Someya, S. | Okamoto, K. | Tanaka, G.

Affiliations: Research Institute of Energy Utilization, AIST, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8564, Japan. Tel: +81-298-61-7247; Fax: +81-298-51-7523; E-mail: s.someya@aist.go.jp | University of Tokyo, Ibaraki, Japan

Abstract: A three-dimensional shape measurement system with only one camera and a rotating periscope is proposed. Many images are captured at every few degrees of periscope rotation. The distance along the optical axis of the camera from the focal point of the camera system to a certain point along the object surface is inversely proportional to the parallax. In this system, a circular streak is obtained by tracing a point on each image using the cross-correlation along the direction of periscope shift. The parallax can be calculated from the radius of the streak. Applying this method to shape measurement of the human face from synthetic images, the images were well reconstructed and the proposed system may be adaptable to a portable 3D shape acquisition system.

Keywords: Image processing, Sensor, Three-dimensional measurement, Optical flow

Journal: Journal of Visualization, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 155-164, 2003