A Simple Calibration Approach to Single View Height Estimation

This paper presents a simple calibration approach to height estimation based on single view metrology. Instead of calibrating intrinsic or extrinsic parameters, our approach aims to estimate the vanishing points of a stationary camera. The calibration process is formulated as an optimization problem with a novel objective function, in which twelve parameters for estimating vanishing points are defined. The genetic algorithm with Cauchy mutation operator is further used for obtaining robust results. The major advantages of the proposed approach are: 1) it is easy to setup since only a cubic box and some optional line segments are required, and 2) it works without camera's intrinsic parameters. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach with digital and analog video cameras.