A graph-based approach for robust single-shot structured light

Structured Light is a well-known method for acquiring 3D surface data. Single-shot methods are restricted to the use of only one pattern, but make it possible to measure even moving objects with simple and compact hardware setups. However, they typically operate at lower resolutions and are less robust than multi-shot approaches. This paper presents an algorithm for decoding images of a scene illuminated by a single-shot color stripe pattern. We solve the correspondence problem using a region adjacency graph, which is explicitly designed for robustness against surface color variations. The algorithm runs in real time on input images of 780 × 580 pixels and can generate up to 10⁵ data points per frame. Our methodology gives accurate 3D data even under adverse conditions, i.e. for highly textured or volume-scattering objects and low contrast illumination. Experimental results demonstrate the improvement over previous methods.