Practical Influences of Geometric and Radiometric Image Quality Provided By Different Digital Camera Systems

Imaging systems founded on current digital camera technology are finding widespread use in high precision measurement applications. A single digital CCD camera, or an array of such cameras, equipped with ring lighting equipment is commonly used to acquire imagery of high contrast retroreflective targets placed on the object at discrete locations to signalize points of interest. The precise and accurate measurement of each imaged target location is a fundamental requirement if suitable measurement tolerances are to be obtained. Whilst such systems are undoubtedly capable of producing excellent results, the practical effects of target image quality on the photogrammetric measurement process is in need of careful consideration. This paper revisits some fundamentals of the optical imaging of retrotargets and investigates some abilities of a range of digital camera systems to provide images of retrotargets that are appropriate to the measurement process. Some experimental results are presented including the imaging of planar arrays of differing sized retrotargets at differing angles and exposures and a series of network analyses in which the level of target image intensity has been varied systematically.