Calibration of a Pmd-camera Using a Planar Calibration Pattern Together with a Multi-camera Setup

We discuss the joint calibration of novel 3D range cameras based on the time-of-flight principle with the Photonic Mixing Device (PMD) and standard 2D CCD cameras. Due to the small field-of-view (fov) and low pixel resolution, PMD-cameras are difficult to calibrate with traditional calibration methods. In addition, the 3D range data contains systematic errors that need to be compensated. Therefore, a calibration method is developed that can estimate full intrinsic calibration of the PMD-camera including optical lens distortions and systematic range errors, and is able to calibrate the external orientation together with multiple 2D cameras that are rigidly coupled to the PMD-camera. The calibration approach is based on a planar checkerboard pattern as calibration reference, viewed from multiple angles and distances. By combining the PMD-camera with standard CCD-cameras the internal camera parameters can be estimated more precisely and the limitations of the small fov can be overcome. Furthermore we use the additional cameras to calibrate the systematic depth measurement error of the PMD-camera. We show that the correlation between rotation and translation estimation is significantly reduced with our method.