Hemispheric vision with resolution enhancement

• Main Author: Anderson, Dean M.H.
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/8887

Representing the whole world around a given point is an important goal in computer vision and many other applications. Most camera lens systems have been designed and optimized to provide excellent perspective images; however, this leaves out all the information behind and around the camera. Previous methods of obtaining a hemispheric (half-world) and omnidirectional (full-world) view of the world have involved fisheye lenses as well as pan and tilt cameras. In this thesis, an omnidirectional vision system using two parabolic reflectors is described along with a technique and apparatus to obtain a higher resolution from an imaging system. The system has two parabolic mirrors for imaging. It allows a substantially hemispheric or half omnidirectional view of the world. Two of these sensors placed back to back would provide an omnidirectional view of the world from a single viewpoint. The results from the hemispheric, double parabolic mirror system that we built are shown in the thesis. The main disadvantage of mapping such a large field of view onto a single sensor is the loss of resolution. We therefore describe a method to obtain better resolution using several image frames with control over the displacement of these frames. This involves meshing together several image frames displaced from each other by known amounts. The images are obtained from a variable angle prism normally used for image stabilization in camcorders. The results are promising.