A visual inspection system using a single camera and mirrors

In this paper the geometrical properties of an imaging system are investigated. This system uses mirrors to simulate additional cameras. The geometry developed here helps us to capture the images of an object from meaningful viewpoint locations. The imaging system with the desired geometry is realized by adjusting the positions and orientations of mirrors. A special calibration pattern is used for the process of camera calibration which finds the unknown camera parameters and gives feedback about the degree of compliance with the desired geometry. The calibrated camera and its mirror images are used to create a 2D image of an object surface with a uniform geometry. After a pre-defined inner or outer surface of a test object is imaged from different view angles using mirrors, these images are warped and blended in a single image which is used for visual inspection. Hence, the vaguely defined process of inspecting 3D objects and their surface textures is converted to an efficient and well defined process of inspecting 2D images.