Non-Metric CCD Camera Calibration Algorithm in a Digital Photogrammetry System

Camera calibration is a critical process in photogrammetry and a necessary step to acquire 3D information from a 2D image. In this paper, a flexible approach for CCD camera calibration using 2D direct linear transformation (DLT) and bundle adjustment is proposed. The proposed approach assumes that the camera interior orientation elements are known, and addresses a new closed form solution in planar object space based on homogenous coordinate represen- tation and matrix factorization. Homogeneous coordinate representation offers a direct matrix correspondence between the parameters of the 2D DLT and the collinearity equation. The matrix factorization starts by recovering the elements of the rotation matrix and then solving for the camera position with the collinearity equation. Camera calibration with high precision is addressed by bundle adjustment using the initial values of the camera orientation elements. The results show that the calibration precision of principal point and focal length is about 0.2 and 0.3 pixels respec- tively, which can meet the requirements of close-range photogrammetry with high accuracy.