Construction of perspectively correct images from panoramic views

We have been developing tools that enable the acquisition of perspectively correct images from panoramic views. The developed tools assume a panoramic camera that consists of a hyperboloid mirror on top of a perspective camera. The input to the application can be either a sequence of images (saved on the disk in bitmap or windows metafile format), or live input from an actual panoramic camera. The virtual perspective camera can be at any position and look at any direction in the world, within the visual field of the panoramic camera. Multiple different views can be opened simultaneously and the number of views is constrained only by the host machine's speed. There are five predefined views (front view, back view, right view, left view and bird's-eye view) and two special operations (half and double size) to enable quick resizing of an already defined view. Besides the predefined views, the user is also able to define custom views, by defining a number of parameters related to the position, looking direction, resolution, field of view of the virtual perspective camera as well as the parameters of the panoramic camera (CCD, lens and parameters of the mirror). In that sense, the system is able to deliver any possible perspective view and take input from any panoramic camera. The parameters of any user-defined view can be saved on the disk for later retrieval and use. A view can be paused at any moment. Moreover, a view can be displayed in full-screen mode at any time. The resulting image sequences can be saved on the disk as bitmap files.

  • Contributions: George Akoumianakis, Antonis Argyros
  • Work funded by the EU IST PRIME project
  • Current status: Method already developed under Win NT.
  • Sample results

Fig 7(a): Lefkos, the robotic platform of CVRL
with a panoramic camera mounted on it.


Fig 7(b): A panoramic image acquired in our lab.

 

 


Fig 7(c): Perspectively correct view.
Virtual camera placed at a direction of 80o on the panorama.

Fig 7(d): The part of the panoramic image that has been used for
the production of image of Fig 7(c) (non-green points).

 

 


Fig 7(e): Birds eye view produced from
the panoramic image of Fig. 7 (b)

Fig 7(f): The part of the panoramic image that has been used
for the production of image of Fig 7(e) (non-green points).

 

More results (VIDEOS)

 


Original panoramic video.
Click on the above image to see the video.


Reconstructed front view. Click on the above image to see the video.

 

 


Reconstructed left view. Click on the above image to see the video.


Reconstructed bird-eye view. Click on the above image to see the video.

 

 


Reconstructed right view. Click on the above image to see the video.

Reconstructed back view. Click on the above image to see the video