Surface Area from 2D Images

I am a student researcher and I need to measure the surface area of coral skeleton samples. I have heard that there is a way to calculate surface area using three images of a skeleton using MATLAB. Would anyone be able to shed some light on this?

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

You can do it with one image if you use the right instrument. Use a profilometer instead of a regular camera, and analyze the depth image. Otherwise you're going to have to try to make up some 3D model using stereoscopy or something. I'm not sure how to do that since I've never needed to - we have lots of profilometers here so we can do it right.