Research Issues in Object Distance Estimation Using a Laser Pointer and a Webcam
Keywords:
depth; camera calibration; perspective projection; laser spot.Abstract
The depth perception of objects in a scene is the primary research objective of the machine vision system. It
has many industrial applications, such as robot navigation, scene understanding, metrology, etc. In this paper, some
issues of low cost image processing based distance estimation systems are described. The low cost systems use commonly
available laser pointer pens and a web camera. These systems are based on the principle of triangulation along with the
perspective projection and the fact that light travels in a straight line. The paper presents a prototype system of a laser
range estimation system consisting of a laser light pen and a webcam. The main contribution of the paper is a simple
procedure for the system calibration and the camera parameter estimation. The system is implemented in the Matlab
environment and gives good results.
