Central Panoramic Cameras: Design and Geometry

In proceedings of the 3rd Computer Vision Winter Workshop, Gozd-Martuljek, Slovenia, February 1998.

Tomas Svoboda , Tomas Pajdla and Vaclav Hlavac

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Abstract: This paper gives the foundations of panoramic stereo vision by presenting the analysis of epipolar geometry for panoramic cameras. We show that the panoramic cameras with convex hyperbolic or parabolic mirrors, so called central panoramic cameras, allow the same epipolar geometry as perspective cameras. We work out the model of image formation by a central panoramic camera. It is shown that the epipolar curves in central panoramic images are conics and their equation is derived. The approach how to design a perspective camera--hyperbolic mirror system is also presented. We propose a simple adjustment procedure of a perspective camera and a hyperbolic mirror in order to form a proper central panoramic camera. The theory is demonstrated by a simulated experiment which corroborates the conclusions drawn from the theory.