Multiple CCD stereo acquisition system for high-speed imaging

A high-speed digital three-dimensional (3-D) imaging system has been developed using multiple independent CCD cameras with sequentially triggered acquisition and individual field storage capability. The system described here utilizes sixteen independent cameras. A stereo alignment and triggering scheme arranges the cameras into two angularly separated banks of eight cameras each. By simultaneously triggering correlated stereo pairs, an eight-frame sequence of stereo images is captured. The delays can be individually adjusted to yield a greater number of acquired frames during more rapid segments of the event, and the individual integration periods may be adjusted to ensure adequate radiometric response while minimizing image blur. Representation of the data as a 3-D sequence introduces the issue of independent camera coordinate registration with the real scene. A discussion of the forward and inverse transform operator for the digital data is provided along with a description of the acquisition system.