A binary coded structured light system to scan shiny surfaces

To extract the range data of objects, there are various range scanners based on different principles. Among these, structured light based range scanners are mostly used. In these systems, coded light stripes are projected onto the object. Using the bending of these light stripes on the object and the triangulation principle, range information can be obtained. This method is used in most industrial range scanners, since it is simple and fast. The major problem with these range scanners is in scanning shiny objects. They can not be used to scan shiny objects reliably. The main reason for this problem is that the extra light projected onto the object from the environment. This light is projected back from the object and disturbs the original projected binary coded light structure. Therefore, range data of the shiny objects can not be obtained reliably using these scanners. In this study, we developed a color based binary structured light system to solve this problem. To eliminate the effect of the ambient light, we used a color invariant. This way, we were able to extract the range data of shiny objects in a robust manner. We provided the range data of various test objects obtained with our range scanner.