Camera calibration from multiple views of a 2D object, using a global non linear minimization method

An important task in most 3D vision systems is camera calibration. Many camera models, numerical methods and experimental set-ups have been proposed in the literature to solve the calibration problem. We have analysed and tried many methods; we have concluded that the main troubles come from the choice about the numerical methods and about the calibration object. We propose in this paper a method which is based on a camera model that incorporates lens distortion, which involves a non-linear minimization technique, which can be performed using multiple views of a single 2D object, and which uses subpixel features extraction. We present an application for which only a 2D calibration object can be used.