Adaptive optimal exposure selection based on time cost function for 3D reconstruction of high dynamic range surfaces

Abstract High dynamic range surfaces are prone to overexposure and underexposure in the camera imaging process, which poses a challenging issue for three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction. Capturing multiple images of high dynamic range surfaces at different exposure times is widely used for 3D reconstruction, and the exposure sequence can significantly affect reconstruction performance. However, most existing methods select the exposure sequence based on the overall performance of the image or groups of image pixels, without considering individual pixels in the image. To circumvent the problem, this paper presents the adaptive optimal exposure sequence selection based on time cost function for the 3D reconstruction of high dynamic range surfaces. Different from existing methods that use the overall performance, the acceptable exposure time range for each pixel in the image is determined independently. Furthermore, the time cost function is established to evaluate the priority of each exposure time and used to select the optimal exposure sequence iteratively. Experimental results verify both the reconstruction performance and suitability of the proposed method.