Forget the Checkerboard: Practical Self-Calibration Using a Planar Scene

Abstract

We introduce a camera self-calibration method using a planar scene of unknown texture. Planar surfaces are everywhere but checkerboards are not, thus the method can be more easily applied outside the lab. We demonstrate that the accuracy is equivalent to a checkerboard-based calibration, so there is no need for printing checkerboards any more. Moreover, the use of a planar scene provides improved robustness and stronger constraints than a self-calibration with an arbitrary scene. We utilize a closed-form initialization of the focal length with minimal and practical assumptions. The method recovers the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of the camera and the metric structure of the planar scene. The method is implemented in a real-time application for non-expert users that provides an easy and practical process to obtain high accuracy calibrations.