Experimental comparison of laser speckle projection and array projection for high-speed 3D measurements

In many application areas, stereo vision-based active triangulation systems are used to reconstruct the three-dimensional (3-D) surface shape of measurement objects. Typically, in order to solve the correspondence problem and increase the accuracy of the pixel assignment, a sequence of patterns is projected onto the object's surface and simultaneously recorded by two cameras. Most 3-D measurement systems are limited to static objects. In order to enhance their speed, it is necessary to use fast cameras as well as fast projection systems. Although high-speed camera systems are available, pattern projection at high frame rates is a difficult task and only a few techniques exist at the moment. In this contribution, we compare two different projection approaches, a laser-based speckle projection unit and an LED-based multi-aperture projection system, with regard to the achievable point cloud completeness and accuracy.