Bowling for Calibration: An Undemanding Camera Calibration Procedure Using a Sphere

Abstract

Camera calibration is a critical problem in computer vision. This paper presents a new method for extrinsic parameters computation: images of a ball rolling on a flat plane in front of the camera are used to compute roll and pitch angles. The calibration is achieved by an iterative Inverse Perspective Mapping (IPM) process that uses an estimation on ball gradient invariant as a stop condition. The method is quick and as easy to use as throw a ball and is particularly suited to be used to quickly calibrate vision systems in unfriendly environments where a grid is not available. The algorithm correctness is demonstrated and its accuracy is computed using both computer generated and real images.