An endoscopic 3D scanner based on structured light.

We present a new endoscopic 3D scanning system based on Single Shot Structured Light. The proposed design makes it possible to build an extremely small scanner. The sensor head contains a catadioptric camera and a pattern projection unit. The paper describes the working principle and calibration procedure of the sensor. The prototype sensor head has a diameter of only 3.6mm and a length of 14mm. It is mounted on a flexible shaft. The scanner is designed for tubular cavities and has a cylindrical working volume of about 30mm length and 30mm diameter. It acquires 3D video at 30 frames per second and typically generates approximately 5000 3D points per frame. By design, the resolution varies over the working volume, but is generally better than 200μm. A prototype scanner has been built and is evaluated in experiments with phantoms and biological samples. The recorded average error on a known test object was 92μm.