Interpretation of 3D structure and motion using structured lighting

The problem of analyzing time-varying image sequences using structured lighting is investigated. The goal is to estimate the structure and motion parameters of 3D objects in arbitrary motion from a sequence of structured light-coded images. The surface of the moving objects may be either planar or curved, and the mode of motion can be arbitrary. It is proposed that an active sensing principle in the analysis, in which a light pattern is projected onto the object surface to encode the surface for analysis, be adopted. A structured light-coded image is partitioned into small windows, and each window is assumed to be a view of a piece of a plane, of a sphere, or of a cylinder. And these windows can be processed in parallel. The distortion of the projected pattern observed in an image is related to the surface orientation and structure of the imaged object. Furthermore, as the object moves, the light pattern on the surface changes accordingly. Changes of the observed light pattern over time are utilized to compute the motion of the imaged object