A key challenge facing space-based computer vision systems is thepresence of highly specular surfaces. Such surfaces present achallenge to conventional vision systems due to specular reflections,which may mask the true location of objects and lead to incorrectmeasurements. The problem is complicated by the fact that the useof high-powered illuminants, such as laser beams, can be problematicsince the instruments inside space structures are often sensitive tovarious forms of radiation.

This article presents a new approach to reconstructing the localsurface structure of highly specular objects. The system utilizesa commercial trinocular stereo vision system and a coded low-powertwo-dimensional illuminant to recover surface structure.The local surface structure of an object is obtained by projectinglight patterns onto the object's surface and inferring surfacestructure by examining the interaction of the illuminant and thesurface. The system recovers both specular and diffuse surface regions.Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.

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