When should we consider lens distortion in camera calibration

摘要

This work investigates the effect of neglecting lens distortion in camera calibration, and presents a theoretical analysis of the calibration accuracy. We derived an approximate upper envelope for the 2D prediction error, which is a function of a few factors including the number of calibration points, the observation error of 2D image points, the radial lens distortion coefficient, the image size and resolution. This error envelope provides a guide line for selecting both a proper camera calibration configuration and an appropriate camera model while satisfying the desired accuracy. Experimental results from both computer simulations and real experiments are included in this paper.