A New Development in Camera Calibration: Calibrating a Pair of Mobile Cameras

Abstract

A new method of camera calibration is proposed for active visual sensing for use in three-dimensional (3D) scene analy sis. The method permits calibration of a mobile camera as a function of the position and orientation of the camera. The algorithm for identification of the calibration matrices is divided into two steps: first, calibration for a fixed position of the camera (i.e., the transformation between the real-world coordinates and the coordinates of the corresponding points in the image plane of the camera); second, calibration as a function of the position and orientation of the camera, which uses the prior information of the calibration for a fixed posi tion. The method can be used for any mobile camera as long as the movement of the camera support is known. For instance, if the camera is mounted on the tip of a robot or on a link, we must know the geometric transformation between this link and the base of the robot, but it is not necessary to know the placement of the camera on this link.