Corner-Based Geometric Calibration of Multi-focus Plenoptic Cameras

We propose a method for geometric calibration of multifocus plenoptic cameras using raw images. Multi-focus plenoptic cameras feature several types of micro-lenses spatially aligned in front of the camera sensor to generate micro-images at different magnifications. This multi-lens arrangement provides computational-photography benefits but complicates calibration. Our methodology achieves the detection of the type of micro-lenses, the retrieval of their spatial arrangement, and the estimation of intrinsic and extrinsic camera parameters therefore fully characterising this specialised camera class. Motivated from classic pinhole camera calibration, our algorithm operates on a checker-board’s corners, retrieved by a custom microimage corner detector. This approach enables the introduction of a reprojection error that is used in a minimisation framework. Our algorithm compares favourably to the state-of-the-art, as demonstrated by controlled and freehand experiments, making it a first step towards accurate 3D reconstruction and Structure-from-Motion.