Probability analysis of position errors using uncooled IR stereo camera

Abstract

This paper analyzes the random phenomenon of 3D positions when tracking moving objects using the infrared (IR) stereo camera, and proposes a probability model of 3D positions. The proposed probability model integrates two random error phenomena. One is the pixel quantization error which is caused by discrete sampling pixels in estimating disparity values of stereo camera. The other is the timing jitter which results from the irregular acquisition-timing in the uncooled IR cameras. This paper derives a probability distribution function by combining jitter model with pixel quantization error. To verify the proposed probability function of 3D positions, the experiments on tracking fast moving objects are performed using IR stereo camera system. The 3D depths of moving object are estimated by stereo matching, and be compared with the ground truth obtained by laser scanner system. According to the experiments, the 3D depths of moving object are estimated within the statistically reliable range which is well derived by the proposed probability distribution. It is expected that the proposed probability model of 3D positions can be applied to various IR stereo camera systems that deal with fast moving objects. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.