Simple method for shape recovery based on linear structured light

This paper aims at recovering the shape of an object by using a common LCD projector and a digital camera. The projector is employed as a point light source for casting linear stripe onto the surface of an object. From the sequence of photos taken by a digital camera, the shape of an object can be recovered. In this paper, a method for projector calibration is proposed on the basis of camera calibration. In addition, a RGB linear structured light scheme is also proposed for recovering the shape of an object with complex color and texture. The experimental results show that dense point clouds can be obtained for further surface reconstruction. It can be concluded that such a system cheap but keeping relatively high accuracy can be considered as a replacement of expensive scanning systems.