Distortion correction algorithm based on absolute phase image in structured light 3D reconstruction

Abstract This paper proposes a distortion correction algorithm based on absolute phase maps for a dual-projector, single-camera structured light 3D shape measurement system. Distortion correction is performed separately for the projector-camera pairs on the left and right. By projecting a ninth-order complementary Gray code combined with the eight-step phase-shifting method onto a white board, absolute phase maps are obtained, solving the impact of radial and tangential lens distortion. A sub-pixel level distortion error lookup table is introduced to address the influence of residual error after distortion correction on measurement accuracy, improving the overall precision by at least 95.7%. Experiments demonstrate that the dual-projector, single-camera structured light 3D shape measurement system expands the system’s measurement range while reducing shadowing issues caused by single-projector illumination. The proposed distortion correction and error compensation algorithms effectively enhance the overall measurement accuracy of the system and significantly improve issues like warping caused by distortion.