Biologically motivated, precise and simple calibration and reconstruction using a stereo light microscope

Stereoscopic calibration and reconstruction is applied to the specialized optics of a binocular monobjective stereo light microscope. Such a microscope exhibits a special kind of image distortion. Despite the difficulty of modelling the microscope, a simple calibration method as well as a fast and simple, yet precise, reconstruction algorithm is developed. Their fundamental scheme is based upon biological binocular vision. The reconstruction uses polynomial approximations up to a degree of 2 and thus has a very low computational complexity. The polynomial coefficients are identified during calibration and their number is minimal by construction. No lens data is required. Both the calibration and reconstruction algorithm are robust against a rigid motion of the microscope. Their power is proven with real data using an off-the-shelf PC.