PHOTOMETRIC STEREO

For many surfaces, simple defects such as scratches and dents are easily identifiable with a machine vision camera and a traditional lighting solution. However, some objects have 3D aspects that make accurately identifying surface defects more difficult. A standard vision light and camera configuration, typically used in machine vision, only captures images from a single illumination/viewer perspective and may be ineffective in certain applications.  

To achieve feature-appropriate surface contrast to gather a 3D perspective, Photometric Stereo may be applied.  Download our white paper for information on the basic techniques of Photometric Stereo, components used to implement Photometric Stereo, and a few application examples.