Precision camera calibration using known target motions along three perpendicular axes

Abstract

We present a method for precision intrinsic calibration of pinhole-model cameras. We refer to this method as "3-Axis." The algorithm employs a target moving with known displacements along three perpendicular axes to decrease the number of unknown terms that must be determined. This method along with new evaluation strategies for comparing the accuracy of pinhole camera calibration algorithms is described in detail. The 3-Axis approach is then compared with the current stateof-the art algorithms in simulated and physical settings and is shown to exceed them in accuracy and computational performance assuming an equal number of samples acquired.