Low-Cost 3D Scanning by Exploiting Virtual Image Symmetries

We present a low cost, hybrid active/passive 3D scanning system based on an off-the-shelf camera, a laser stripe illuminator and a turntable. The system combines the good accuracy of active triangulation approaches with the flexibility of self-calibration based approaches. System operation is based on the construction of a single view of a virtual surface of revolution, from which camera calibration (both intrinsic and extrinsic parameters) is performed by exploiting the same object being scanned. Shape acquisition is finally obtained by laser profile reconstruction and collation. Experiments with both synthetic and real data are shown, providing an insight into both camera calibration and shape reconstruction performance.