Effects of lens distortion calibration patterns on the accuracy of monocular 3D measurements

Abstract

A variety of lens distortion modelling techniques exist. Since they make use of different calibration metrics it is difficult to select one over the others. This work aims to compare lens distortion modelling techniques and calibration patterns in a unified and objective manner. A common image dataset is captured along with physical measurements and is used to quantify the photogrammetric accuracy of the different calibration techniques. Multiple calibration patterns and sizes are tested and compared to results obtained with industry standard calibration methods. Several sub-pixel accurate methods of finding calibration points in images are evaluated. Improvements of 20% over the method used in OpenCV are consistently obtained. This work opens up the possibility for improved distortion characterisation in the scientific community.