Catadioptric stereo-vision system using a spherical mirror

In the computer vision field, the reconstruction of target surfaces is usually achieved by using 3D optical scanners assembled integrating digital cameras and light emitters. However, these solutions are limited by the low field of view, which requires multiple acquisition from different views to reconstruct complex free-form geometries. The combination of mirrors and lenses (catadioptric systems) can be adopted to overcome this issue. In this work, a stereo catadioptric optical scanner has been developed by assembling two digital cameras, a spherical mirror and a multimedia white light projector. The adopted configuration defines a non-single viewpoint system, thus a non-central catadioptric camera model has been developed. An analytical solution to compute the projection of a scene point onto the image plane (forward projection) and vice-versa (backward projection) is presented. The proposed optical setup allows omnidirectional stereo vision thus allowing the reconstruction of target surfaces with a single acquisition. Preliminary results, obtained measuring a hollow specimen, demonstrated the effectiveness of the described approach.