A simplified rasterstereography measuring technique with application to biomedical engineering

Noncontact measurements of the topography of irregular biological surfaces are important needs for biological investigators. Direct measurements with a mechanical probe are not recommended or are not feasible, especially when the biological surface interacts with another physical medium. Existing stereophotogrammetric techniques are usually designed for static measurements and are based on complex optical systems, or require lengthy computations to produce accuracies which are beyond the practical biomedical needs. This work presents a novel noncontact technique for dynamic visualization and measurement of three-dimensional surfaces of moving boundaries for applications to biomedical studies. The system is similar to rasterstereography, but involves advanced methods of image processing and linearizations that simplify the geometry reconstruction procedure. The accuracy of the measured three-dimensional geometry is better than most practical applications in biomedical engineering. Measurements of the geometry of a collapsible tube under static and dynamic conditions are presented.