Three-dimensional infrared imaging method based on binocular stereo vision

The infrared imaging technique is characterized as high-precision and noncontact and provides the temperature information of the object, leading to its broad application in civil and military fields. Currently, the research on infrared thermography is mainly focused on two-dimensional images, lacking the information in depth orientation. To extend the range of application and provide spatial information, a three-dimensional (3-D) infrared imaging system based on binocular stereo vision is presented. The system is composed of two visible-light cameras, an infrared camera, and a digital projector. The proposed system fuses the metric information and the infrared information to acquire the 3-D surface temperature distribution by combining the 3-D reconstruction technique with infrared thermography. The registration of the metric information and the infrared image is accomplished according to the properties of three-view geometry. Experiments have been undertaken with a storage box, a rudder model, and a person's stretching arm, respectively, and the results demonstrated the good performance of the proposed method.