Calibration of a parametric model of an optical microscope

In micro-domain applications, such as assembly of hybrid mi- croelectromechanical systems, optical microscopes form a critical com- ponent of visually based microassembly systems. In order to effectively use vision feedback to guide manipulation strategies using a broad range of optical microscope configurations, accurately calibrated para- metric models of optical microscopes are required. Although many cali- bration techniques exist for macroscopic camera-lens systems, there is a dearth of literature on calibration of parametric microscope models. Op- tical microscope calibration has unique characteristics that are quite dif- ferent from normal camera calibration, including (1) unique calibration parameters; (2) calibration patterns that must be parallel to the image plane, and (3) restriction to single-plane calibration. In this paper, we propose a parametric microscope model and calibration algorithm spe- cifically for optical microscopes. Our approach extends existing camera calibration techniques to include the unique parameters of optical micro- scopes and also allows the use of a single calibration plane perpendicu- lar to the optical axis. The validity and accuracy of our proposed micro- scope calibration method are tested by experiments.