Generic distortion model for metrology under optical microscopes

For metrology under optical microscopes, lens distortion is the dominant source of error. Previous distortion models and correction methods mostly rely on the assumption that parametric distortion models require a priori knowledge of the microscopes' lens systems. However, because of the numerous optical elements in a microscope, distortions can be hardly represented by a simple parametric model. In this paper, a generic distortion model considering both symmetric and asymmetric distortions is developed. Such a model is obtained by using radial basis functions (RBFs) to interpolate the radius and distortion values of symmetric distortions (image coordinates and distortion rays for asymmetric distortions). An accurate and easy to implement distortion correction method is presented. With the proposed approach, quantitative measurement with better accuracy can be achieved, such as in Digital Image Correlation for deformation measurement when used with an optical microscope. The proposed technique is verified by both synthetic and real data experiments.