High-Speed Surface Reconstruction of Flying Birds Using Structured Light


Meeting Abstract

83-4  Saturday, Jan. 7 11:00 – 11:15  High-Speed Surface Reconstruction of Flying Birds Using Structured Light DEETJEN, M.E.*; BIEWENER, A.A.; LENTINK, D.; Stanford University; Harvard University; Stanford University mdeetjen@stanford.edu http://lentinklab.stanford.edu

Birds fly effectively through complex environments, and in order to understand the strategies that enable them to do so, we need to determine the shape and movement of their wings. Previous studies show that even small perturbations in wing shape have dramatic aerodynamic effects, but these shape changes have not been quantified automatically at high temporal and spatial resolutions. Hence, we developed a custom 3D surface mapping method which uses a high-speed camera to identify binary, spatially encoded striped patterns that are projected onto a flying bird. This structured light method allows automated, non-invasive 3D reconstruction of a sequence of stand-alone frames and is capable of measuring volume by simultaneously reconstructing from multiple views. We use this technique to reconstruct the 3D shape of the dorsal surface of a parrotlet wing during flapping flight at 3200 fps. From this shape we can analyze key parameters such as wing twist and angle of attack. While this novel system is designed to quantify bird wing shape and motion, it is adaptable for tracking other objects such as quickly deforming animals, especially those which are difficult to reconstruct using other 3D tracking methods.

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