Flexible Videogrammetric Technique for Three-Dimensional

Structural Vibration Measurement

C. C. Chang1 and Y. F. Ji2
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Abstract: A videogrammetric technique is proposed for measuring three-dimensional structural vibration response in the laboratory. The
technique is based on the principles of close-range digital photogrammetry and computer vision. Two commercial-grade digital video
cameras are used for image acquisition. To calibrate these cameras and to overcome potential lens distortion problems, an innovative
two-step calibration process including individual and stereo calibration is proposed. These calibrations are efficiently done using a planar
pattern arbitrarily shown at a few different orientations. This special characteristic makes it possible to perform an on-site calibration that
provides flexibility in terms of using different camera settings to suit various application conditions. To validate the proposed technique,
three tests, including sinusoidal motion of a point, wind tunnel test of a cross-section bridge model, and a three-story building model under
earthquake excitation, are performed. Results indicate that the proposed videogrammetric technique can provide fairly accurate displace-
ment measurement for all three tests. The proposed technique is shown to be a good complement to the traditional sensors for measuring
two- or three-dimensional vibration response in the low-frequency range.
DOI: 10.1061/共ASCE兲0733-9399共2007兲133:6共656兲
CE Database subject headings: Photogrammetry; Vibration; Dynamic response; Measurement; Imaging techniques.

Introduction sensors that provide displacement measurements at selected

Measuring displacements of structures under dynamic excitations
has been a difficult and challenging task. One common approach
is to perform a double integration on acceleration data that can be
easily measured using accelerometers. This integration process,
however, is not readily automated as it requires selection of filters
and baseline correction and use of judgment when anomalies exist
in the records 共Hudson 1979兲. Traditional displacement sensors,
such as linear variable differential transformers 共LVDTs兲, are ac-
curate for measuring one-dimensional 共1D兲 displacements. These
sensors, however, require a stationary platform as the measure-
ment reference. In many cases, this requirement is not desirable
especially when access to the structure is prohibited or hazardous.
Recently, the global position system 共GPS兲, which obtains the
position of a receiver using a satellite ranging method, has
emerged as a potential alternative displacement measurement
technique especially for large-scale structures 共Çelebi and Sanli
2002兲. Current GPS technology is capable of providing 10– 20 Hz
sampling rates with an accuracy of ±1 cm horizontally and ±2 cm
vertically. Note that the sensors mentioned above are all discrete
1 reinforced concrete bridge deck, deflection measurement of a rail
Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Hong Kong Univ. of
Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
E-mail: cechang@ust.hk
2 concluded that accuracy in the order of 3.2 mm can be achieved
Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Hong Kong Univ. of
Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
E-mail: toneyji@ust.hk
Note. Associate Editor: Henri P. Gavin. Discussion open until
November 1, 2007. Separate discussions must be submitted for individual
papers. To extend the closing date by one month, a written request must
be filed with the ASCE Managing Editor. The manuscript for this paper
was submitted for review and possible publication on July 26, 2005;
approved on September 13, 2006. This paper is part of the Journal of
Engineering Mechanics, Vol. 133, No. 6, June 1, 2007. ©ASCE, ISSN
0733-9399/2007/6-656–664/$25.00.
points on structures. When displacements at a large number of
locations are desired, measuring them using these sensors can be
prohibitively expensive if not impossible 共Fu and Moosa 2002兲.
Photogrammetry is a measurement technique that uses photo-
graphs to establish the geometrical relationship between a
three-dimensional 共3D兲 object and its two-dimensional 共2D兲
photographic images. When sequences of images are used to cap-
ture a spatial coordinate time history of the object, the technique
can also be referred to as a videogrammetric technique. The pho-
togrammetric technique can be classified as aerial or terrestrial
depending on the types of photographs used in the analysis
共Fraser 1998; Mikhail et al. 2001兲. Just as the name implies, the
aerial photogrammetric technique uses photographs acquired
from aircrafts, satellites, or hot air balloons. On the other hand,
the terrestrial photogrammetric technique, or the so-called close-
range photogrammetric technique, uses photographs from ground-
based cameras.
There have been a few civil engineering applications using
close-range photogrammetric techniques. Bales 共1985兲 reported
on the use of a close-range photogrammetric technique for vari-
ous bridge applications including estimation of crack sizes in a
bridge caused by thermal effects, and effect of dead load on the
girders of a three-span steel bridge under construction. It was
for measuring bridge deflections using a metric camera. Li and
Yuan 共1988兲 developed a 3D photogrammetric vision system con-
sisting of TV cameras and 3D control points for measuring bridge
deformation. A direct linear transform 共DLT兲 method 共Abdel-Aziz
and Karara 1971兲 was employed for camera calibration. It was
reported that the measurement accuracy could reach 0.32 mm,
which was 1/2,000 of the field of view. Aw and Koo 共1993兲 used
three standard frame-transfer charge coupled device 共CCD兲 cam-
eras to determine 3D coordinates of premarked targets. They were

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J. Eng. Mech. 2007.133:656-664.

 able to achieve an average accuracy of 2.24 mm by the bundle
adjustment method. A two-video camera system was used by
Whiteman et al. 共2002兲 to measure vertical deflections of concrete
beams during destructive testing. The cameras were calibrated
using 16 images of a 3D retroreflective target field. Results
showed that an accuracy of 0.25 mm could be achieved. Nied-
eröst and Maas 共1997兲 reported an application of a digital video
camera on the measurement of deformation accuracy during the
dehydration process of concrete parts over several months. The
camera was calibrated for each epoch individually by photogram-
metric self-calibration techniques. It was shown that a precision
of 3 ␮m could be achieved over an object space with a largest
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dimension of 80 cm. The multiepoch deformation monitoring of a
series of hot steel beams by digital close-range photogrammetry
was conducted byFraser and Riedel 共2000兲. Three CCD cameras
were used to measure both stable reference points and targets.
Results from several beams showed that a dimensional tolerance
of about 1 mm could be achieved. Fu and Moosa 共2002兲 used
monochrome images acquired from a CCD camera to measure
static deformation profile of a simply supported beam. A subpixel
edge detection technique was used together with curve fitting to
locate damage in the beam. Jáuregui et al. 共2003兲 used a semi-
metric digital camera to measure vertical static deflection of
bridges. A set of control points with precise 3D coordinates was
used to establish the geometrical relationship between targets and
their images.
For dynamic displacement measurement, Olaszek 共1999兲
developed a method that incorporated the photogrammetric prin-
ciple with the computer vision technique to investigate the
dynamic characteristics of bridges. A sophisticated CCD camera
system equipped with a telephotolens was used to acquire sequen-
tial images that were digitalized at 512⫻ 512 8-bit pixels. The
accuracy of the method depended on factors such as system cali-
bration, pattern form, and distortion of images caused by the op-
tical and electronic systems. Results of two field tests revealed
that the method was reliable with an accuracy of 0.1– 1 mm for
camera-pattern distance ranges between 10 and 100 m and vibra-
tion frequency under 5 Hz. Patsias and Staszewski 共2002兲 used a
videogrammetric technique to measure mode shapes of a cantile-
ver beam. A wavelet edge detection technique was adopted to
detect the presence of damage in the beam. A high-speed profes-
sional camera system equipped with a maximum sampling rate of
600 frames per second 共fps兲 was used to capture the beam vibra-
tion. The system, however, was limited to 2D planar vibration
measurement since only one camera was used. Yoshida et al.
共2003兲 used a videogrammetric technique to capture 3D dynamic
behavior of a membrane. Their measurement system consisted of
three progressive CCD cameras with 1.3 million pixels and
30 fps. The cameras were calibrated using a calibration plate
anchored on a linear guide system with accurate positioning ca-
pability. Chung et al. 共2004兲 used digital image techniques for
identifying nonlinear characteristics in systems. Applications
showed that digital image processing could identify the Coulomb
friction coefficient of a pendulum as well as the nonlinear behav-
ior of a base-isolated model structure.
In the earlier development of photogrammetric techniques,
researchers used high-precision industrial grade metric cameras
for image acquisition. These metric cameras are designed for
accurate measurement and need to satisfy stringent optical and
geometrical requirements. These metric cameras, however, are
quite expensive and require elaborate factory calibration. After
calibration, the principle distance of these metric cameras cannot
be changed, which limits the distance range of these cameras
JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING MECHANICS © ASCE / JUNE 2007 / 657
J. Eng. Mech. 2007.133:656-664.
for application. With recent advances in electronic and optical
technologies, commercial digital video cameras with high pixel
resolution have become popular. These commercial digital
cameras are low cost but are semimetric or even nonmetric and
might suffer from a few problems such as lens distortion. To
use these commercial cameras for photogrammetric applications,
it is necessary to perform an accurate calibration to obtain their
intrinsic and extrinsic parameters preferably on-site prior to the
application.
In this study, a videogrammetric technique is proposed for
measuring 3D structural vibration response in the laboratory.
The technique is based on the principles of close-range digital
photogrammetry and computer vision. Two commercial-grade
nonmetric digital video cameras are used for image acquisition.
To calibrate these nonmetric cameras and overcome potential lens
distortion problems, an innovative two-step calibration process
including individual calibration and stereo calibration is pro-
posed. These calibrations are efficiently done using a planar pat-
tern arbitrarily shown at a few different orientations. This special
characteristic makes it possible to perform an on-site calibration,
which provides flexibility in terms of using different camera set-
tings to suit for various application conditions. To validate the
proposed technique, three laboratory tests, including sinusoidal
motion of a point, wind tunnel test of a model bridge cross sec-
tion, and a three-story building model under earthquake excita-
tion, are performed.
Videogrammetric Measurement System
The proposed videogrammetric system consists of two commer-
cial video cameras, a planar pattern for camera calibration, and a
few targets to be attached on test objects. Steps to realize this
system include a two-step camera calibration, target point track-
ing, and 3D point reconstruction. Details of these tasks are briefly
discussed in the following.
Two-Step Camera Calibration
Individual Camera Calibration with Lens Distortion
Camera calibration is a process to determine a set of camera
parameters that relate a 3D object to its 2D images. Camera
parameters can be classified into two groups: intrinsic and extrin-
sic parameters. Intrinsic parameters define the geometric and the
optical characteristics of the camera while extrinsic parameters
describe the rotational and the translational information of an
image coordinate system with respect to a predefined global co-
ordinate system. A general projective camera such as the one
equipped with CCD sensors can be described using a pinhole
model 共see Fig. 1兲 as 共Hartley and Zisserman 2003兲
␭m = PM 共1兲
where m = 共u , v , 1兲T⫽homogeneous vector of a 2D point
in the image coordinate uv system defined by pixels;
M = 共X , Y , Z , 1兲T⫽homogeneous vector of a 3D real point in
the global coordinate XYZ system; and ␭⫽scale factor. For a finite
projective CCD camera, the 3 ⫻ 4 homogeneous camera projec-
tion matrix P contains the intrinsic parameters of the camera as
well as relates the translational and the rotational relations
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Fig. 1. Pinhole camera model

between the global coordinate XYZ system and the camera coor-
dinate xyz system. This projection matrix can be expressed as
P = KR关I t兴 共2兲
The camera calibration matrix K is of the form

冤 冥
␣x s u0
K = 0 ␣ y v0 共3兲
0 0 1
where ␣x and ␣y⫽focal lengths of the camera in terms of pixel
dimensions in the u and v-directions, respectively; s⫽skew pa-
rameter; and u0 and v0⫽coordinates of the principal point in Fig. 2. 共a兲 Plane pattern used in camera calibration; 共b兲 plane-based
terms of pixel dimensions. In Eq. 共2兲, I = 3 ⫻ 3 unity matrix; camera calibration
R = 3 ⫻ 3 rotation matrix; and t = 3 ⫻ 1 translation vector repre-
senting the orientation and the translation between the camera
coordinate system and the global coordinate system, respectively.
ing the global coordinate system is fixed on and rotated with the
In total, there are five intrinsic parameters 共␣x, ␣y, s, u0, and v0兲
pattern, these l corner points would have the same coordinates on
and six extrinsic parameters 共three Euler rotation angles and
the n images, Mj = 共X j , Y j , 0 , 1兲T, j = 1 , 2 , . . . , l. Also, since the
three translation parameters兲. To determine these 11 parameters, it
focal length of the camera is fixed during the image acquisition,
is necessary to provide at least six pairs of correspondence be-
the intrinsic matrix K is a constant matrix. The projected image
tween nonplanar 3D points and their 2D images 共Hartley and
coordinates of the jth corner point on the ith image from the
Zisserman 2003兲.
pinhole model, mij = 共uij , vij , 1兲T, can be obtained from
For metric cameras, off-site calibration methods using special
equipment such as multicollimator or geniometer are popular but ␭mij = KRi关I ti兴Mj 共4兲
time-consuming and expensive 共Mikhail et al. 2001兲. For modern
close-range photogrammetry using nonmetric cameras, on-site The camera parameters can then be obtained through the follow-
calibration becomes attractive since some comprehensive and ing optimization function:
easy-to-use analytic techniques have been developed 共Gruen and n l

Huang 2001兲. These techniques can be roughly classified into two
categories: photogrammetric calibration and self-calibration. For
photogrammetric calibration, a calibration object with precisely
known geometry in the 3D space is required. For self-calibration,
bundle triangulation is performed using a network of highly
convergent overlapping images. In this study, a plane-based cam-
era calibration method 共Tsai 1987兲 that requires only 2D control
information is adopted. This technique is more flexible than the
photogrammetric calibration and more robust when compared to
self-calibration 共Zhang 1998兲. The technique uses a planar cali-
bration pattern such as the one shown in Fig. 2共a兲. The pattern
consists of 30 mm⫻ 30 mm black and white squares printed from
a laser printer with a resolution of 1,200 dots per in.
Assume that n images of the pattern shown at different orien-
tations are acquired under a fixed focal length 关Fig. 2共b兲兴. The
rotation matrix and the translation vectors for these n images are
expressed as Ri and ti, i = 1 , 2 , . . . , n, respectively. On each of
these images, l corner points are selected for calibration. Assum-
兺
Minimize 兺
i=1 j=1
储m̂ij − mij储2 共5兲
where m̂ij⫽actual observed image coordinates for the jth control
point on the ith image. The objective of optimization is to deter-
mine a total of 5 + 6n parameters 共including five intrinsic param-
eters and six extrinsic parameters for each image兲 that minimize
the sum of distances between the projected image points mij and
the actual observed image points m̂ij. This optimization problem
can be initialized at the algebraic solution suggested by Zhang
共1998兲 for fast convergence.
Comparing to metric cameras, commercial cameras might suf-
fer from a few problems that could affect their accuracy when
used for photogrammetric applications. One notable problem is
associated with lens distortion. Denote the distorted image coor-
dinates of a point as 共ũ , ṽ , 1兲. The corresponding ideal 共or
distortion-free兲 image coordinates 共u , v , 1兲 can be expressed as
共Sturm and Maybank 1999兲

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J. Eng. Mech. 2007.133:656-664.

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Fig. 3. Epipolar condition and imperfect projection for the two
cameras
u = ũ + ū共k1r2 + k2r4兲 + k3共r2 + 2ū兲 + 2k4uv
v = ṽ + v̄共k1r2 + k2r4兲 + k4共r2 + 2v̄兲 + 2k3uv
ū = ũ − u0
v̄ = ṽ − v0
r2 = ū2 + v̄2
where k1 and k2⫽coefficients of radial lens distortion; and k3 and
k4⫽coefficients of decentering lens distortion. To account for the
lens distortion problem, the optimization function of Eq. 共5兲
should be extended to include these distortion coefficients
n l
Minimize 兺 兺 储m̂ij − m̃ij储
i=1 j=1
2
where m̃ij⫽projection of point Mj on the ith image according to
Eq. 共4兲, followed by distortion according to Eq. 共6兲.
Stereo Calibration
After the two cameras are calibrated individually, all the param-
eters of the two cameras should be simultaneously optimized
based on the epipolar geometry principle 共Hartley and Zisserman
2003兲, which is referred to herein as the stereo calibration. In the
following, Superscripts 1 and 2 are used to indicate those param-
eters associated with the first and the second cameras, respec-
tively. As illustrated in Fig. 3共a兲, the cameras are indicated by
their optical centers C1 and C2. According to the epipolar geom-
etry principle, the two optical centers of the cameras, the point M
and its image projection points m1 and m2 should lie on the
so-called epipolar plane. This condition unfortunately cannot be
guaranteed after individual camera calibration due to imperfection
of projection. As a result, the two projective rays defined by
the image points and the corresponding camera optical centers
cannot converge and meet at point M in the 3D space as shown in
J. Eng. Mech. 2007.133:656-664.
Fig. 4. Target point extraction
Fig. 3共b兲. This problem arises from errors in the estimated camera
parameters. It is possible to minimize this geometric error shown
in Fig. 3共c兲 by performing another optimization for all the camera
共6a兲 parameters 共Hartley and Zisserman 2003兲
n l 2
Minimize 兺 兺 兺 储m̂ijs − m̃ijs储2
i=1 j=1 s=1
共8兲
共6b兲
In this optimization, the geometric relationship of the two cam-
eras is established through a relative orientation matrix and a
共6c兲 relative translation vector to reduce the number of parameters for
optimization.
Target Point Tracking
Measuring displacement at a selected location on an object is
realized through the 3D tracking of a target point attached to this
共7兲 location. This target needs to be visible on every frame of the
acquired image sequences. Fig. 4共a兲 shows a target that consists
of four 30 mm⫻ 30 mm black and white squares attached on a
metal block that is then fixed on a shake table. The intersection
point of the four squares is used as a target point whose trajectory
will be tracked from the two sequences of images acquired from
the two cameras. To automatically track this target point in the
image sequences, a tracking algorithm consisting of the following
three steps is used: 共1兲 detecting candidate points from the image
sequence using an image morphology technique 共Gonzalez et al.
2004兲; 共2兲 identifying most-likely points by a correspondence
technique; and 共3兲 locating the target point using the Harris
corner detection technique 共Harris and Stephens 1988兲. Fig. 4共c兲
shows the binary image skeleton of the zoom-in target in Fig. 4共b兲
using the image morphology technique. The intersections of
the skeletons are identified as candidate points. On the first
image of the sequence, a point that is visibly close to the target
point is manually selected as a reference point. Most-likely points
on the subsequent images are then identified using a corres-
pondence technique. This technique calculates the following
correlation coefficient kab between the r ⫻ c pixel rectangular
JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING MECHANICS © ASCE / JUNE 2007 / 659
 Fig. 5. Target point tracking by a correlation-based method
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mask 共termed as Mask a in Fig. 5兲 centered at the reference point
on the reference image and the same size of rectangular masks
共termed as Mask b in Fig. 5兲 centered at the candidate points on
the subsequent images
r c
兺 兺 关f a共i, j兲 − f̄ a兴关f b共i, j兲 − f̄ b兴
冑兺 兺
i=1 j=1
kab = r c r c
i=1 j=1
关f a共i, j兲 − f̄ a兴 ⫻
2
兺 兺 关f b共i, j兲 − f̄ b兴
i=1 j=1
2
where f a共i , j兲 and f b共i , j兲⫽gray level for the pixel 共i , j兲 in Mask a
and Mask b, respectively; and f̄ a and f̄ b denote the mean gray
level of Mask a and Mask b, respectively. Among the candidate
points on a subsequent image, the most-likely point is the one that
gives the largest correlation coefficient. After all most-likely
points are identified from the image sequence, the Harris corner
detection technique 共Harris and Stephens 1988兲 is applied on the
image sequences using these most-likely points as the initial con-
ditions. The Harris corner detection technique can locate corner
points in an image with subpixel accuracy as shown in Fig. 4共d兲.
Reconstruction of 3D Point
After all the camera parameters and the target points on the two
image sequences are determined, the next task is to reconstruct
the 3D coordinates of the target points from the two image se-
quences captured by the two cameras. This coordinate reconstruc-
tion is done using a nonlinear triangulation method 共Hartley and
Zisserman 2003兲. For the 3D point M = 共X , Y , Z , 1兲T, its undis-
torted image coordinates from Cameras 1 and 2 can be estimated
from the observed distorted image coordinates using Eq. 共6兲
and are expressed as 共u1 , v1 , 1兲T and 共u2 , v2 , 1兲T, respectively. The
reprojection from the two cameras can be expressed as the fol-
lowing equations:
␭1关u1, v1,1兴T = P1M
␭2关u2, v2,1兴T = P2M
Eq. 共10兲 can be rewritten as the following equations:
AM = 0
冤 冥
p11 − u1p13
p12 − v2p13
A=
p21 − u2p23
p22 − v2p23
pji
where denotes the ith row vector of the jth camera’s projective
matrix. This is a set of four homogeneous equations with only
660 / JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING MECHANICS © ASCE / JUNE 2007
J. Eng. Mech. 2007.133:656-664.
Fig. 6. Experiment setup for sinusoidal motion
three unknowns. The 3D coordinates are the least-squares solu-
tion to these homogeneous equations. This estimate is based on
共9兲 linear triangulation, which does not take into account the geo-
metric error associated with the epipolar constraint. To minimize
the geometric error, the following nonlinear optimization should
be performed:
冉 冊 冉 冊
2 2 2
p11M p12M
Minimize 兺
i=1
储mim̂i储2 = u1 −
p13M
+ v1 −
p13M
冉 冊 冉 冊
2
p21M p22M
+ u2 − + v2 − 共12兲
p23M p23M
The corrected 3D coordinates are the ones that minimize this
objective function. In the above optimization, the 3D coordinates
obtained from the linear triangulation can be used as the initial
value.
Experimental Studies
To evaluate the accuracy of the proposed videogrammetric tech-
nique, three dynamic experiments were performed. Two digital
video cameras were used for image sequence acquisition. The
cameras came with a 1 / 3 in. 1.18 million-pixel progressive CCD
and could record high-definition images with a pixel resolution
of 1,280⫻ 720 at 29.97 fps. They were equipped with 10⫻ opti-
cal and 200⫻ digital zoom with a lens of F1.8 and focal length
ranging between 5.2 and 52 mm. The two cameras were cali-
brated prior to each experiment using the planar pattern as shown
in Fig. 2共a兲. A laser pointer was used to synchronize the two
cameras during the experiments. The two sequences of images
recorded by the two cameras were manually synchronized at the
共10兲 images on which the laser dot was first observed.
Experiment 1: Measurement of Harmonic Motion
共11a兲
In this experiment, one target was fixed on a shake table that
could be programmed to move in one or two directions with an
arbitrary amplitude and frequency. The two cameras were placed
at about 1.8 m away from the target and stood at about 1.5 m
共11b兲
above the ground 共see Fig. 6兲. The angle between the two cameras
was about 30°. For individual and stereo calibration, the calibra-
tion pattern was placed in front of the target. Seven pairs of im-
ages were recorded by the two cameras under a fixed focal length.
Each image pair corresponded to a different orientation of the
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Fig. 8. Displacement time histories and power spectral densities for

sinusoidal motion

reprojected corner points calculated from the obtained camera

parameters for the three focal lengths. It is seen that the means of
the reprojection errors are all smaller than 1 pixel, which indicates
that subpixel accuracy is obtained after the calibration. It is noted
that both the mean and the standard deviation of the reprojection
error increase as the focal length increases. This is because the
pattern becomes larger on the image and covers more pixels as
Fig. 7. Images acquired by Camera 1 using three different focal the focal length increases as seen from Fig. 7. Table 1 also shows
lengths the average errors in the global coordinates between the actual
corner points and the reconstructed corner points obtained from
Eq. 共12兲 for the three focal lengths. It is seen that the error de-
pattern. Note that as long as the corner points on the pattern could
creases as the focal length increases due to the decrease of the
be clearly recorded on the images, precise locations and rotation
physical size of a pixel. These results suggest that the focal length
angles of the pattern were not important to the calibration. Three
should be set as large as possible to increase the measurement
different focal lengths, 5.2, 15.6, and 20.8 mm, were used to il-
accuracy.
lustrate the accuracy of videogrammetric measurement. Note that
After the calibration, the shake table was programmed to move
different focal lengths would result in different physical dimen-
along the X- and Y-directions, respectively, in sinusoidal motion
sions for the field of view as illustrated in Fig. 7. As a result, the
of 20-mm amplitude. Five frequencies were tested, 0.5, 1, 2, 3,
physical size corresponding to a pixel obtained under one focal
and 5 Hz under the three different focal lengths. Fig. 8 shows the
length would be different from that of a pixel obtained under a
results obtained with focal length of 20.8 mm under frequencies
different focal length.
of 1, 2, and 5 Hz, respectively. It is seen that the proposed video-
The two cameras were first individually calibrated before
grammetric measurement technique is able to track the sinusoidal
being subjected to the stereo calibration as outlined previously.
motion of the target quite closely. Also shown in Fig. 8 are the
Table 1 shows the average pixel errors obtained from Eq. 共8兲
power spectral densities 共PSDs兲 of these three measured results.
between the actual observed corner points on the images and the
The PSDs of the displacement time history output directly from
the shake table are also plotted in Fig. 8 for comparison. Results
Table 1. Reprojection and Reconstruction Errors after Camera show that the PSDs obtained from the videogrammetric technique
match quite well with those obtained from the shake table output.
Reprojection error 共pixel兲 Reconstruction error 共mm兲 It is seen that the vibration frequencies can be accurately deter-
Focal length Standard Standard mined from the peaks of the PSDs. Table 2 further shows the
共mm兲 Mean deviation Mean deviation means and the standard deviations of videogrammetric measure-
5.2 0.09 0.10 0.45 0.25
ment errors for the 1D sinusoidal motion. While the means of
measurement errors show the accuracy of the proposed technique,
15.6 0.12 0.16 0.24 0.12
the standard deviations provide indication on the minimally re-
20.8 0.14 0.19 0.15 0.07
solved displacement. It is seen that the means of measurement
5.2 0.09 0.10 0.45 0.25
errors are rather constant and range between 0.12 and 0.29 mm

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J. Eng. Mech. 2007.133:656-664.

 Table 2. Means and Standard Deviations of Videogrammetric Measurement Errors for One-Dimensional 20-mm Sinusoidal Motion
Frequency 共Hz兲
0.5 1.0 2.0 3.0 5.0
Direction Focal length
of motion 共mm兲 Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD
X 5.2 −0.29 0.48 −0.26 0.56 0.25 0.62 −0.32 0.90 0.31 1.44
15.6 −0.21 0.40 0.24 0.52 −0.26 0.63 0.30 0.84 0.32 1.30
20.8 −0.14 0.38 −0.18 0.42 0.24 0.59 −0.26 0.71 0.30 1.26
Y 5.2 −0.28 0.38 −0.29 0.50 0.18 0.61 −0.21 0.94 0.29 1.47
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15.6 −0.18 0.33 −0.25 0.46 −0.21 0.58 −0.26 0.61 0.27 1.24
20.8 −0.12 0.31 −0.19 0.36 −0.22 0.51 0.18 0.62 0.26 1.29
Note: SD⫽standard deviation.

for a vibration frequency of 0.5 Hz and between 0.26 and
0.31 mm for a vibration frequency of 5.0 Hz. The standard de-
viations of measurement errors, however, increase from about
0.4 mm for 0.5 Hz to about 1.4 mm for 5.0 Hz. The increase
of standard deviations is possibly due to the following two rea-
sons: 共1兲 increasing vibration frequency implies a higher target
speed that results in more blurry images and larger measurement
variation and 共2兲 increasing vibration frequency leads to more
pronounced frame correspondence error from the image synchro-
nization. These standard deviations provide an indication on the
resolution of this videogrammetric measurement technique for the
frequency range of 0.5– 5.0 Hz.
Next, the shake table was programmed to move in a 2D cir-
cular motion with amplitude of 100 mm and frequency of 1 Hz.
Fig. 9 shows the results of videogrammetric measurement as
compared to the shake table output. It is seen that the videogram-
metric technique is able to track this circular motion quite closely.
The largest discrepancy is less than 1 mm on the X – Y plane and
less than 0.5 mm along the vertical direction.
The results obtained above were calculated using a Pentium-4
2.6 GHz personal computer with 1.5 GB RAM. The processing
time for the two-step calibration of the two cameras using seven
pairs of planar pattern images was about 4 min. The time for
tracking a target point was about 0.6 s per image frame per cam-
era. The time required for coordinate reconstruction of a 3D point
was in the order of 1 ms. These computational time requirements
indicate that the proposed videogrammetric technique still cannot
be used for real-time measurement.
Experiment 2: Measurement of Bridge Section Model
in Wind Tunnel
Fig. 10共a兲 shows a wind tunnel setup for a bridge sectional model
test. The sectional model consisted of two wooden box girders
connected by cross bars. The model was rigidly connected to
circular rotatable shafts. The shafts were then attached to rigid
rectangular bars that were supported by four linear springs to

Fig. 10. 共a兲 Wind tunnel test for a bridge section model; 共b兲 layout of
Fig. 9. Videogrammetric tracking of a 2D circular motion targets and LVDTs

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J. Eng. Mech. 2007.133:656-664.

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Fig. 11. Videogrammetric measured responses at Targets A and B
provide necessary stiffness for the section model. Two laser
LVDTs were positioned at locations as shown in Fig. 10共b兲 to
measure the displacement time histories during the test. Two
targets were placed at locations as shown to validate the appli-
cability of the videogrammetric technique for such a test. The
cameras were placed at about 1.2 m from the targets and the angle
between the two cameras was about 30°. The focal lengths of
the two cameras were both set at 15.6 mm. The model was pulled
by a string and released to vibrate under a mild and steady
wind condition. As the supporting rectangular bars were rigid, the
readings from the laser LVDTs could be linearly scaled to the
deformations at the two target locations for comparison. Fig. 11
shows the comparison between the videogrammetric measure-
Fig. 12. Setup for a three-story structural model under earthquake
excitation
JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING MECHANICS © ASCE / JUNE 2007 / 663
J. Eng. Mech. 2007.133:656-664.
Fig. 13. Displacement responses of the three-story model at Targets
A and B
ment and the LVDT measurement at the two target locations. The
close match between the two measured results indicates that the
videogrammetric technique is able to track the two targets quite
accurately.
Experiment 3: Measurement of a Three-Story Model
under Earthquake Excitation
In this test, the videogrammetric technique was used to measure
displacement time histories at a few selected points on a three-
story structural model under earthquake excitation. The model
was made out of aluminum members with a uniform story height
of 0.38 m and a total height of 1.21 m. Four targets, A, B, C, and
D were attached to the base and the three stories as shown in
Fig. 12. Four laser LVDTs were set up to measure the displace-
ment time histories for the shake table and the three stories. The
setup of the two cameras was the same as that shown in Fig. 6. To
excite the model, the NS component of the 1940 El Centro earth-
quake ground displacement record was input to the shake table.
Fig. 13 shows the displacement responses for these four targets,
respectively. It is again seen that the displacement time histories
measured by the videogrammetric technique match closely with
that measured by the LVDTs.
Concluding Remarks
This paper presents a noncontact dual-camera videogrammetric
technique for 3D structural vibration response measurement. The
technique is based on the principles of close-range digital photo-
grammetry and computer vision and consists of the following
steps: a two-step camera calibration, target point tracking, and 3D
target point reconstruction. The novelty of this technique is the
implementation of a two-step camera calibration process that in-
cludes individual and stereo calibration. These calibrations are
done efficiently using a planar pattern arbitrarily shown at a few
different orientations. The calibrations can be done on site prior
to the measurement, which provides great flexibility in terms
of using different camera settings to suit various application
conditions.
 Three experiments are conducted to verify the accuracy of this
technique. Results show that subpixel reprojection errors can be
obtained after the camera calibration. When used to track 1D
sinusoidal motion, the means of measurement errors are shown to
range between 0.1 and 0.3 mm for a vibration frequency under
5 Hz. The standard deviations of measurement errors are about
0.4 mm for 0.5 Hz frequency and increase to about 1.4 mm for
5 Hz frequency. The increase of standard deviations is possibly
due to increasing image blurriness and more pronounced frame
correspondence error associated with synchronization for higher
vibration frequencies. For all three experiments conducted, the
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tracking of targets matches quite well with those measured from
the LVDT. In this study, two commercial digital video cameras
with a pixel resolution of 1,280⫻ 720 at 29.97 fps are used in this
study. It is expected that more accurate results can be obtained if
cameras with a higher pixel resolution are used. Regarding the
computational effort required for the technique, it is found that
tracking a target point would take about 0.6 s per image frame per
camera using a Pentium-4 2.6 GHz personal computer. This time
requirement indicates that this technique still cannot be used for
real-time measurement. As such, this proposed videogrammetric
technique is better regarded as a complement to traditional sen-
sors especially for measuring two- or three-dimensional vibration
response in the low-frequency range.
Acknowledgments
This study is supported by the Hong Kong Research Grants
Council Competitive Earmarked Research Grant HKUST6294/
03E.
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
f ⫽ pixel gray level;
I ⫽ identity matrix;
K ⫽ camera intrinsic matrix;
k ⫽ camera distortion coefficient;
M ⫽ homogeneous vector of 3D real point;
m ⫽ homogeneous vector of image point;
P ⫽ camera projection matrix;
R ⫽ rotation matrix;
s ⫽ skewness factor of camera intrinsic matrix;
t ⫽ translation vector;
u ⫽ pixel coordinate in the u-direction;
v ⫽ pixel coordinate in the v-direction;
X ⫽ coordinate of 3D real point in the X-direction;
Y ⫽ coordinate of 3D real point in the Y-direction;
Z ⫽ coordinate of 3D real point in the Z-direction;
␣ ⫽ scale factor of camera intrinsic matrix; and
␭ ⫽ scale factor of pinhole model.
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