Method and system for projector calibration

A system for calibrating a laser projector with non-uniform distortion characteristics comprising:

• a laser projector, wherein the laser projector projects a first calibration pattern onto a three-dimensional projection surface;
• a camera, wherein the camera captures a first calibration image of the first calibration pattern projected onto the three-dimensional projection surface;
• and
• a computing device, in electrical communication with the camera and having at least one processing element, performs the following operations:
• generates a perspective projection matrix by modeling the laser projector as a pinhole device with a pinhole approximation to provide a first calibration approximation based on the first calibration image;
• and
• determines a distortion map for the laser projector that maps two-dimensional positions on a virtual image plane of the laser projector to three-dimensional positions on the three-dimensional projection surface by comparing the first calibration approximation to the first calibration image and the first calibration pattern to correct inaccuracies in the first calibration approximation resulting from the pinhole approximation, wherein the distortion map determines distortion inherent to the laser projector.

A projection system comprising:

• a video projector projecting a first image onto a projection surface;
• and
• a laser projector projecting a second image onto the projection surface, wherein the laser projector is calibrated using a perspective projection matrix by modeling the laser projector as a pinhole device with a pinhole approximation to provide a first calibration approximation based on the first image and a non-linear mapping function to correct inaccuracies in the first calibration approximation resulting from the pinhole approximation and determine a distortion map to adjust for distortion intrinsic to the laser projector;
• wherein the second image overlays the first image on the projection surface.