Projector optical distortion calibration using Gray code patterns

A method is presented for correcting optical distortion in data projectors using a single camera and Gray coded structured light patterns. The proposed method assumes that both the camera and projector exhibit significant nonlinear optical distortion and the projection surfaces can be planar or freeform. Calibrated systems produce geometrically correct, extremely short throw projections, while maintaining or exceeding the projection size of a standard configuration. Both qualitative and quantitative tests are run to verify the accuracy of this method and we achieved a throw ratio of 0.5 with an average camera pixel distance error of 1.5.