Projector-Camera Structured Light Using Photometric Ratios

Conventional light striping systems capture 3D data by stereo reconstruction and employ encoding systems to solve the correspondence problem. A confounding factor in this overall framework is the interaction of light with surfaces. Light is absorbed by materials and current methods tend to perform poorly for dark objects. We present a new approach to projector-based structured light that uses reflectance ratios for invariance to surface albedo. We demonstrate promising results for traditionally difficult areas such as black portions of objects and dark hair. Consequently, this approach may be particularly useful in the area of people sensing.