Preliminary Study on Structured Light Strip Center Extraction Method Based on Underwater Structured Light Scanning System

Scattering and an uneven distribution of reflected light owing to the target surface texture are the main issues in extracting the structured light strip center in underwater. Herein, we proposed a new approach for underwater information acquisition. In this method, the targets are scanned using structured light for the convolution process, thereby solving the nonuniform distribution of a backscattered background because of nonuniform illumination. Furthermore, the uncertainty of noise fluctuations is reduced from a statistical viewpoint. A virtual aperture method is proposed to eliminate backscattering using this system. Moreover, a method for improving the accuracy of the center extraction is proposed using the restored image to remove the target surface texture, by using the method, conventional center extraction methods can be applied to the underwater targets containing texture, thus widening their application range. Underwater experiments were performed to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.