Artificial Texture-Free Measurement: A Graph Cuts-Based Stereo Vision for 3D Wave Reconstruction in Laboratory

A novel method for three-dimensional (3D) wave reconstruction based on stereo vision is proposed to overcome the challenges of measuring water surfaces under laboratory conditions. Traditional methods, such as adding seed particles or projecting artificial textures, can solve the image problem caused by the optical properties of the water surface. However, these methods can be costly and complicated to operate. In this paper, the proposed method uses affine consistency as matching invariants, bypassing the need for artificial textures. The method presents new data and smoothness terms within the graph cuts framework to achieve robust wave reconstruction. In a laboratory tank experiment, the wave point clouds were successfully reconstructed using a binocular camera. The accuracy of the method was verified by comparing the reconstruction with theoretical values and the sequences of the wave probe.