Epipolar Geometry of Panoramic Cameras

Abstract

This paper presents fundamental theory and design of central panoramic cameras . Panoramic cameras combine a convex hyperbolic or parabolic mirror with a perspective camera to obtain a large field of view. We show how to design a panoramic camera with a tractable geometry and we propose a simple calibration method. We derive the image formation function for such a camera. The main contribution of the paper is the derivation of the epipolar geometry between a pair of panoramic cameras. We show that the mathematical model of a central panoramic camera can be decomposed into two central projections and therefore allows an epipolar geometry formulation. It is shown that epipolar curves are conics and their equations are derived. The theory is tested in experiments with real data.