A Color Invariant Based Binary Coded Structured Light Range Scanner for Shiny Objects

Object range data provide valuable information in recognition and modeling applications. Therefore, it is extremely important to reliably extract the range data from a given object. There are various range scanners based on different principles. Among these, structured light based range scanners deserve spacial attention. In these systems, coded light stripes are projected onto the object. Using the bending of these light stripes on the object and the triangulation principle, range information can be obtained. Since this method is simple and fast, it is used in most industrial range scanners. Unfortunately, these range scanners can not scan shiny objects reliably. The main reason is either highlights on the shiny object or the ambient light in the environment. These disturb the coding by illumination. As the code is changed, the range data extracted from it will also be disturbed. In this study, we propose a color invariant based binary coded structured light range scanner to solve this problem. The color invariant used can eliminate the effects of highlights on the object and the ambient light from the environment. This way, we can extract the range data of shiny objects in a robust manner. To test our method, we developed a prototype range scanner. We provide the obtained range data of various test objects with our range scanner.