Tobias Ehlgen, Tomas Pajdla: Blind spot elimination by combining omnidirectional images

Maneuvering large vehicles like trucks is a challenging task because their drivers often cannot see the closest surrounding of the vehicle. This paper presents a system providing the driver with a complete bird's eye view of the surrounding on a single display. The view is constructed by stitching cutouts from two omnidirectional images acquired by catadioptric cameras placed below the side mirrors. The geometry of the cameras is analyzed with respect to the formation of blind spots and it is shown how to select the cutouts to completely eliminate the blind spots in the bird's eye view.