Comprehensive simulation software for teaching camera calibration by a constructivist methodology

This paper describes the Metrovisionlab computer application implemented as a toolbox for the Matlab program. It is designed to teach the most important camera calibration aspects in dimensional metrology applications such as laser triangulation sensors and photogrammetry or stereovision systems. This software is used in several industrial vision courses for senior undergraduate mechanical engineering students. The application: simulates a virtual camera, providing a simple and visual understanding of how various characteristics of a camera influence the image that it captures; generates the coordinates of synthetic calibration points, both in the world reference system and the image reference system; and can calibrate with the most important and widely-used methods in the area of vision cameras, using coplanar or non-coplanar calibration points. Thus, the main goal is to have a simulation tool that allows characterizing the accuracy, repeatability, error mechanisms and influences for different measurement conditions and camera calibration algorithms. In the realized tests, the software has demonstrated to be a very effective educational tool.