Catadioptric camera calibration by polarization imaging

A new efficient method of calibration for catadioptric sensors is presented in this paper. It is based on an accurate measurement of the three-dimensional parameters of the mirror by means of polarization imaging. While inserting a rotating polarizer between the camera and the mirror, the system is automatically calibrated without any calibration patterns. Moreover it permits to relax most of the constraints related to the calibration of the catadioptric systems. From the measurement of three-dimensional parameters, we apply the generic calibration concept to calibrate the catadioptric sensor. The influence of the disturbed measurement of the parameters on the reconstruction of a synthetic scene is presented. Finally, experiments prove the validity of the method with some preliminary results on three-dimensional reconstruction.