Can we calibrate a camera using an image of a flat, textureless Lambertian surface?

Abstract

In this paper, we show that it is possible to calibrate a camera using just a flat, textureless Lambertian surface and constant illumination. This is done using the effects of off-axis illumination and vignetting, which result in reduction of light into the camera at off-axis angles. We use these imperfections to our advantage. The intrinsic parameters that we consider are the focal length, principal point, aspect ratio, and skew. We also consider the effect of the tilt of the camera. Preliminary results from simulated and real experiments show that the focal length can be recovered relatively robustly under certain conditions.