A state of the art in structured light patterns for surface profilometry

Shape reconstruction using coded structured light is considered one of the most reliable techniques to recover object surfaces. Having a calibrated projector-camera pair, a light pattern is projected onto the scene and imaged by the camera. Correspondences between projected and recovered patterns are found and used to extract 3D surface information. This paper presents an up-to-date review and a new classification of the existing techniques. Some of these techniques have been implemented and compared, obtaining both qualitative and quantitative results. The advantages and drawbacks of the different patterns and their potentials are discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.