3D object reconstruction via structured light technique

Victor Michael Dominguez, Floyd Willis Patricio* and Krister Jazz Urog
National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City 1101
*Corresponding author: fpatricio@nip.upd.edu.ph

Abstract
Structured light technique was utilized to extract depth information and
shape of two 3D objects: a cylinder and a two-layered circular disc. The
reconstruction of the cylinder object was deemed poor due to unstable height
of the object along the z-axis thought the technique successfully showed the
curve portion of the 3D object. For the two-layered disc, the depth
information was not properly achieved although contour and the variation of
the height of the disc is highly distinguishable.

1. Introduction
3D measurements constitute an important topic in computer vision which has different applications in
range sensoring, industrial inspection of manufactured parts, object recognition, biometrics and others. Methods
based on structured light came to cope with problems in the limitation of 3D surface mapping due to the
difficulty in finding correspondences. Creating correspondences and giving specific codewords to every unitary
position of the image is a tool of structure light technique [1].

Figure 1. Summary of the concept of Structured Light Technique. In optical triangulation, an

illumination pattern is projected onto an object and the reflected light is captured by a camera. The 3D point
is reconstructed from the relative displacement of a point in the pattern and image [2].

This can be done by substituting one of the cameras in Stereo Vision technique by an active projector
device. This projector illuminates a screen with structured light patterns. The projected pattern imposes the
illusion of texture onto an object, as well as increases the number of points of correspondence from two different
perspectives. As the structure of the projected pattern is known, the object can be 3D reconstructed by using one
single image, looking for differences between the projected and the recorded pattern [2].

Figure 2. Set-up of gray code light projection with an object placed on the reference plane.

Applied Physics 187

Academic Year 2013-2014
Dominguez Introduction
Urog Methodology
Patricio Abstract, Results and Discussion, Data Processing, Conclusion, Compilation and Editing

Using the set-up presented in figure 2, one can from similar triangles UGV and CGP which can derive
a relation

=
(1)

where z can be regarded as the height of the 3D object with respect to the reference plane. Since CP is
equivalent to the baseline B and the segment UV can be expressed in the following form,
=

)=(

(2)

one can derive an equation using 1 and 2 to arrive at the working equation for the height profile of the object z
by the equation,
( )
)=
(
(3)
+ ( )

In this activity, 3D reconstruction of a cylinder and a two-layered disc was tried using technique of
structure light.

2. Methodology
The activity aims to reconstruct a 3D object using the structured light technique. The first part of this
activity is the alignment of the projector and the camera. A Powerpoint presentation slide which was constructed
to have a grid and a red dot in the geometric center of the slide was used to align the projector to the camera.
The slide was projected to a flat white screen and the dot was centred to the camera viewfinder. The camera was
aligned such that the image of the horizontal lines looked exactly horizontal and not skewed. The distance
between cameras sensor and the spatial light modulator location of the projector was recorded together with the
distance from the plane of the camera to the white screen.
Another slide which consists of different colored lines was constructed and projected to the screen. The image of
the screen was captured and was regarded as the reference image. Afterwards, two 3D objects were placed in
front of the camera. The first object was a cylinder can and the other one was a two-layered circular disc. A
sample of the constructed reference image and the illuminated 3D objects are presented in figure 3.

Figure 3. Sample image of the reference image (left), illuminated cylinder (middle) and the circular disc (right).

Using the gathered images and recorded measurements, the height profile z(x,y) was calculated using Scilab
code and reconstructed in a 3D mesh plot.

3. Results and Discussion

Figure 4 presents the 3D mesh plot of the height profile of the cylinder object. It can be noticed that the
curves of the object can be identified from the reconstruction though the height along the z axis was skewed and
unstable. Also observable in the plot is the presence of wave structuring along the y-direction which is attributed
by the projected vertical colored lines in the object. This detail makes the height profile to be deemed as poor
reconstruction for the cylinder object

Applied Physics 187

Academic Year 2013-2014
Dominguez Introduction
Urog Methodology
Patricio Abstract, Results and Discussion, Data Processing, Conclusion, Compilation and Editing

Figure 4. The 3D reconstruction of the cylinder.

Figure 5 on the other hand presents the 3D mesh plot of the reconstruction of the two-layered disc
figure. It can be noticed that the two layers of the circular disc with varying heights along the z axis is
distinguishable in the graph. Apparent again in the mesh plot is the presence of the waving along the y direction
due to the line patterns projected to the object. Peaking in the height can be noticed in some crests of the waves
due to the varying intensities of projected colored light.
The depth information of the object was not properly achieved. However, it can be observed that the
contours of the figure can be observed and the transition of height between the two layers of the circular disc is
observed.

Figure 5. The 3D reconstruction of the two-layered disc figure.

Conclusions
Structured light technique was utilized to extract depth information and shape of two 3D objects: a cylinder
and a two-layered circular disc. The reconstruction of the cylinder object was deemed poor due to unstable
height of the object along the z-axis thought the technique successfully showed the curve portion of the 3D
object. For the two-layered disc, the depth information was not properly achieved although contour and the
variation of the height of the disc is highly distinguishable. Errors in the experiment may highly be attributed by
the misalignment of the camera and projector and the minute shaking of the set-up.

References
1.
2.
3.

Zhang, L., Curless, B., Seitz, S., Rapid shape acquisition using color structured light and multi-pass
dynamic programming.
Navarro, S. F., 3D reconstruction of object shape using structured light, Department of Computer
Architecture and Technology, University of Girona, 2009.
Applied Physics 187 Activity 15 Manual, National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines.

Applied Physics 187

Academic Year 2013-2014
Dominguez Introduction
Urog Methodology
Patricio Abstract, Results and Discussion, Data Processing, Conclusion, Compilation and Editing

Appendix (Code)

clear
AA = double(rgb2gray(imread('C:\Users\Christian\Dropbox\Acads\1st sem
2013\AP 187\Act 15\New folder\ref.jpg')));
BB = double(rgb2gray(imread('C:\Users\Christian\Dropbox\Acads\1st sem
2013\AP 187\Act 15\New folder\cyl.jpg')));
CC = double(rgb2gray(imread('C:\Users\Christian\Dropbox\Acads\1st sem
2013\AP 187\Act 15\New folder\circ.jpg')))
//A = A(:,:,1)
//D = find(A>54)
//E = find(A(D)<90)
//A(E) = 0
//imshow(A)
L = 1.285
B = 0.285
z = (L*BB)./(B+(AA))
mesh(z)

Applied Physics 187

Academic Year 2013-2014
Dominguez Introduction
Urog Methodology
Patricio Abstract, Results and Discussion, Data Processing, Conclusion, Compilation and Editing