Extension of 3D vision system for spherical objects using highlight patterns

This paper describes an extended 3D vision system for spherical objects using highlight patterns formed by specular reflection on surfaces of the objects. The 3D coordinates of the central position and the radius of the spherical object can be measured by this system. Although the authors had proposed the vision systems which uses two cameras and two point light sources, there was restriction that there had to be the camera and the point light source in the same point. The extended system has less restriction about arrangement of cameras and point light sources than the former system that proposed by the authors. The basic performances of the extended system are proved by experiments.