Non-Single Viewpoint Catadioptric Cameras: Geometry and Analysis

Conventional vision systems and algorithms assume the imaging system to have a single viewpoint. However, these imaging systems need not always maintain a single viewpoint. For instance, an incorrectly aligned catadioptric system could cause non-single viewpoints. Moreover, a lot of flexibility in imaging system design can be achieved by relaxing the need for imaging systems to have a single viewpoint. Thus, imaging systems with non-single viewpoints can be designed for specific imaging tasks, or image characteristics such as field of view and resolution. The viewpoint locus of such imaging systems is called a caustic. In this paper, we present an in-depth analysis of caustics of catadioptric cameras with conic reflectors. We use a simple parametric model for both, the reflector and the imaging system, to derive an analytic solution for the caustic surface. This model completely describes the imaging system and provides a map from pixels in the image to their corresponding viewpoints a...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2006
• Where: IJCV
• Authors: Rahul Swaminathan, Michael D. Grossberg, Shree K. Nayar
• Keywords: IJCV 2006, Imaging System, Single Viewpoint, Viewpoints