New multiple-camera calibration method for a large number of cameras

In a multiple camera system that consists of a large number of cameras, each camera has to be calibrated in order to use the image information obtained from them effectively. When a target scene is large, the conventional calibration methods using 3D or 2D object are difficult to apply because setting these objects is an elaborate task. Although another approach called self-calibration using only image point correspondences seems to be suitable in such a situation, this method is often susceptible to noise. In this paper, we propose a new camera calibration method for such systems using 1D object, which has three points on a line with known distances of each other. The main reason for using 1D object as a calibration object is because it is more flexible than 3D or 2D object in a large scene. By using the free-moving 1D object without knowledge about its position and only one calibrated camera, we can calibrate multiple cameras simultaneously, so the proposed method presents an easy and practical solution. Experimental results of computer-simulated data are shown in this paper. In the presentation, experimental results of real image data will be presented.