3D SCANNING OF TRANSPARENT OBJECTS APPROVED BY:

Many practical tasks in industry, such as automatic inspection or robot vision, often require scanning of three-dimensional shapes with non-contact techniques. However, transparent objects, such as those made of glass, still pose difficulties for classical scanning techniques. The reconstruction of surface geometry for transparent objects is complicated by the fact that light is transmitted through, refracted and in some cases reflected by the surface. Current approaches can only deal relatively well with sub-classes of objects. The algorithms are still very specific and not generally applicable. Furthermore, many techniques require considerable acquisition effort and careful calibration. This thesis proposes a new method of determining the surface shape of trans-parent objects. The method is based on local surface heating and thermal imaging. First, the surface of the object is heated with a laser source. A thermal image is acquired, and pixel coordinates of the heated point are calculated. Then, the 3D co-ordinates of the surface are computed using triangulation and the initial calibratio