Experimental study of underwater stereo via pattern projection

One detrimental factor impacting performance of underwater stereo vision is the blurry, noisy, low-contrast imagery typically encountered at turbid water sites. As such, in a passive stereo vision system, establishing point correspondence between reflectance images from different perspectives sometimes may be difficult. At short stand-off distances, structured light based active stereo systems may be a viable solution. In this study, experimental results and image enhancement technique to improve the active stereo vision under different turbidity conditions are discussed. A hybrid design integrating such active stereo system with laser line scan (LLS) to provide high quality stereo vision in turbid water is also introduced.