A Review and Comparative Study of Close-Range Geometric Camera Calibration Tools

In many camera-based applications, it is necessary to find the geometric relationship between incoming rays and image pixels, i.e., the projection model, through the geometric camera calibration (GCC). Aiming to provide practical calibration guidelines, this work surveys and evaluates the existing GCC tools. The survey covers camera models, calibration targets, and algorithms used in these tools, highlighting their properties and the trends in GCC development. The evaluation compares six target-based GCC tools, namely, BabelCalib, Basalt, Camodocal, Kalibr, the MATLAB calibrator, and the OpenCV-based ROS calibrator, with simulated and real data for cameras of wide-angle and fisheye lenses described by three traditional projection models. These tests reveal the strengths and weaknesses of these camera models, as well as the repeatability of these GCC tools. In view of the survey and evaluation, future research directions of GCC are also discussed.