Calibration method and experiments of multi-camera's parameters based on freely moving one-dimensional calibration object

The one-dimensional (1D) calibration method is of easy implementation and with high efficiency. In order to overcome deficiencies of existing 1D calibration methods, a new method is proposed in this paper to calibrate the internal and external parameters of multiple cameras by using a 1D calibration object. Firstly, the pair-wise calibration is carried out, where the positions of principal points are assumed to be approximately known and only those parameters such as the distortion, focal length, relative rotation and translation are needed to be taken into consideration. Then, with the fundamental matrix and geometry constraints of feature points on the calibration wand, the internal and external parameters of binocular cameras can be determined. After the pair-wise calibration, all parameters (including the positions of principal points) of the multicamera system are refined by using Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm and the bundle adjustment method. The simulation and real experiments demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method.