Accurate and simple geometric calibration of multi-camera systems

In this paper we present a low-cost, accurate and flexible approach to the calibration of multi-camera acquisition systems for 3D scene modeling. The adopted calibration target-set is just a marked planar surface, which is imaged in several positions in order to emulate a larger 3D target-frame. In order to obtain a better camera parameter estimation, the proposed approach is able to refine the a priori knowledge on the target-set through a process of self-calibration. This allows us to start with rough measurements of the coordinates of the calibration targets. We formalize our parameter estimation problem as a particular case of the more general class of inverse problem. In particular, we derive an analytic prediction of the calibration performance, based on error propagation analysis, whose correctness is demonstrated through simulation experiments. Finally, the results of a series of calibration experiments on real data is presented, which confirm the effectiveness of approach in a variety of experimental conditions.