Three-dimensional object texturing for visible-thermal fringe projection profilometers

Abstract

Conventional fringe projection profilometers utilize cameras and projectors in the visible spectrum. Nevertheless, some applications require profilometers with a complementary thermal camera for the infrared spectrum. Since the point cloud is computed from pixel correspondences between the visible camera-projector pair, the texture in the visible spectrum is obtained by direct association of color from each image pixel to its corresponding point in the cloud. Unfortunately, the texture from the thermal camera is not straightforward because of the inexistence of pixel-point correspondences. In this paper, a simple interpolation-based method for determining the texture of the reconstructed objects is proposed. The theoretical principles are reviewed, and an experimental verification is conducted using a visible-thermal fringe projection profilometer. This work provides a helpful framework for three-dimensional data fusion for advanced multi-modal profilometers.