3D reconstruction of external and internal surfaces of transparent objects from polarization state of highlights.

A vision-based method is proposed to measure the 3D shape of external and internal surfaces (not accessible) of smooth transparent objects. Looking at the reflections of point sources on a specular surface with a polarimetric camera, we combine the measurements of two techniques: shape from distortion and shape from polarization. It permits us to recover the position and orientation of the specular surface for each detected point. The internal surface of transparent objects exhibiting as well a specular component, the same technique is used on the highlights coming from the back surface, taking into account the refraction by using polarimetric ray tracing.

Characterizing weld pool surfaces from polarization state of thermal emissions.

In this Letter, a vision-based remote sensing methodology is proposed to measure the topography of weld pool surfaces from one single view. Thermal radiations emitted by the hot liquid metal at a wavelength within the arc plasma blind spectral window are acquired by a wavefront division polarimetric system. The refractive index of the liquid metal and the topography of the weld pool surface are inferred from the polarimetric state of the thermal radiations.

Shape from polarization: a method for solving zenithal angle ambiguity.

We report a multispectral based method that permits the evolution of shape from polarization setup applied to 3D shape estimation of transparent objects. The setup is based on a polarization imaging technique which is a recent imaging method based on the analysis of the polarization state of the light in the observed scene. The technique has rapidly evolved with the development of electro-optic components and some polarization cameras are now available on the market. Shape from polarization consists in measuring the azimuthal and zenithal angles characterizing the normal of each point of the observed surface. We focus on the ambiguity in the measurement of the zenithal angle and propose a general multispectral approach for estimating the appropriate value of this angle.

Optimization of a polarization imaging system for 3D measurements of transparent objects.

This paper presents a multispectral imaging system for 3D reconstruction of transparent objects based on "shape from polarization" technique. The originality of this work relies on a multispectral active lighting system which enables to cope with the two ambiguities on the zenith angle and azimuth angle. A calibration step allows optimising the polarimetric measurements. Example of a reconstructed transparent object is presented.

Active lighting applied to three-dimensional reconstruction of specular metallic surfaces by polarization imaging.

In the field of industrial vision, the three-dimensional inspection of highly reflective metallic objects is still a delicate task. We deal with a new automated three-dimensional inspection system based on polarization analysis. We first present an extension of the shape-from-polarization method for dielectric surfaces to metallic surfaces. Then, we describe what we believe to be a new way of solving the ambiguity concerning the normal orientation with an active lighting system. Finally, applications to shape-defect detection are discussed, and the efficiency of the system to discriminate defects on specular metallic objects made by stamping and polishing is presented.