High-precision synchronization of video cameras using a single binary light source

Abstract

Camera synchronization is necessary for multicamera applications. We propose a simple and yet effective approach termed random on-off light source (ROOLS) to synchronize video sequences. It uses a single light source such as an LED to generate a random binary valued signal that is captured by the video cameras. The captured binary-valued sequences are then matched and the temporal offset of the cameras is computed up to subframe interval precision. We test the proposed method on synchronizing video sequences captured under a variety of illumination conditions and the results are verified against the ground truth provided by an LED array clock. The main contribution of the proposed method is that it reliably achieves high-precision synchronization at a low cost of only adding a simple light source. In addition, it is suited for synchronization in both laboratory and outdoor environments. © 2009 SPIE and IS & T.