Stereo panoramic viewing system

• US 6,141,145 A
• Filed: 08/28/1998
• Issued: 10/31/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: FullView, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Nalwa, Vishvjit Singh
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, THONG Q
• Application Number:
  US09/141,867
• Time in Patent Office: 795 Days
• Field of Search: 359/399-406, 359/466, 359/429, 359/471, 359/431, 359/627-628, 359/632, 359/618, 359/725-726, 359/850, 359/831, 359/462, 348/36-39, 348/384, 353/30, 353/94-99
• US Class Current: 359/403
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/20 by providing first and second parallax images to an observer's left and right eyes
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 17/17 with reflectors arranged in beam forming the photographic image, e.g. for reducing dimensions of camera
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 37/04 with cameras or projectors providing touching or overlapping fields of view
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2624 for obtaining an image which is composed of whole input images, e.g. splitscreen
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

A stereo panoramic view is provided through the use of multiple virtual optical centers. A reflective polyhedral cement, such as a pyramid, redirects the field of view of each camera in a first set of cameras to form a group of substantially co-located virtual optical centers at a first location within the pyramid. The pyramid also redirects the field of view of each camera in a second set of cameras to form a group of substantially co-located virtual optical centers at a second location within the pyramid. Panoramic images from the first and second virtual optical centers provide a stereo panoramic view when one panoramic image is provided to a user'"'"'s left eye and the other panoramic image is provided to the user'"'"'s right eye.

Claims

1. A panoramic viewing apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of first image processing devices, each having a field of view;

a plurality of second image processing devices, each having a field of view; and

a plurality of planar reflective facets facing in different directions, where each of at least two of the facets redirects the field of view of one of the first image processing devices and one of the second image processing devices, such that at least portions of the redirected fields of view of at least two of the first image processing devices are substantially contiguous, and such that at least portions of the redirected fields of view of at least two of the second image processing devices are substantially contiguous.

2. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image processing devices are cameras.

3. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image processing devices are projectors.

13. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the reflective element is solid.

4. A panoramic viewing apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of first image processing devices, each having a field of view;

a plurality of second image processing devices, each having a field of view;

a plurality of third image processing devices, each having a field of view; and

a plurality of planar reflective facets facing in different directions, where each of at least two of the facets redirects the field of view of one of the first image processing devices, one of the second image processing devices and one of the third image processing devices, such that at least portions of the redirected fields of view of at least two of the first image processing devices are substantially contiguous, such that at least portions of the redirected fields of view of at least two of the second image processing devices are substantially contiguous and such that at least portions of the redirected fields of view of at least two of the third image processing devices are substantially contiguous.

5. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 4, wherein the image processing devices are cameras.

6. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 4, wherein the image processing devices are projectors.

7. A panoramic viewing apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of first image processing devices producing a first set of image signals, each having a field of view;

a plurality of second image processing devices producing a second set of image signals, each having a field of view;

a plurality of third image processing devices producing a third set of image signals, each having a field of view;

a plurality of planar reflective facets facing in different directions, where each of at least two of the facets redirects the field of view of one of the first image processing devices, one of the second image processing devices and one of the third image processing devices, such that at least portions of the redirected fields of view of at least two of the first image processing devices are substantially contiguous, such that at least portions of the redirected fields of view of at least two of the second image processing devices are substantially contiguous and such that at least portions of the redirected fields of view of at least two of the third image processing devices are substantially contiguous;

a controller that produces a control signal that identifies pairs of image data sets from a plurality of image data sets where each image data set is representative of one of the sets of image signals; and

a switch that selects pairs of image data sets in response to the control signal.

8. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 7, wherein the switch is a multiplexer.

9. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 7, wherein the switch is a computer.

10. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 7, wherein the controller identifies pairs of image data sets based on a viewing direction.

11. A panoramic viewing apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of first image processing devices, each having an optical center and a field of view;

a plurality of second image processing devices, each having an optical center and a field of view; and

a reflective element being at least partially polyhedral having a plurality of reflective facets facing in different directions, and forming a plurality of first virtual optical centers and a plurality of second virtual optical centers, where each of at least two of the plurality of reflective facets redirects the field of view of a first image processing device belonging to the plurality of first image processing devices to create a first virtual optical center corresponding to an optical center of the first image processing device, and the field of view of a second image processing device belonging to the plurality of second image processing devices to create a second virtual optical center corresponding to an optical center of the second device, the fields of viewing being redirected such that the plurality of first virtual optical centers are substantially co-located at a first location and the plurality of second virtual optical centers are substantially co-located at a second location.

12. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 11, wherein the reflective element is hollow.

14. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 11, wherein the reflective element is at least a partial pyramid.

15. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 11, wherein the image processing devices are cameras.

16. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 11, wherein the image processing devices are image projectors.

17. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 11, wherein the reflective element has at least one non-reflective facet.

18. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a plurality of third image processing devices, each having an optical center and a field of view where the reflective element forms a plurality of third virtual optical centers and where each of at least two of the plurality of reflective facets redirects the field of view of one of the third image processing devices to create a third virtual optical center corresponding to the optical center of this device, the plurality of third virtual optical centers being substantially co-located at a third location.

19. A panoramic viewing system, comprising:

a plurality of first image processing devices producing a first set of image signals, each image processing device having an optical center and a field of view; and

a plurality of second image processing devices producing a second set of image signals, each image processing device having an optical center and a field of view;

a plurality of third image processing devices producing a third set of image signals, each image processing device having an optical center and a field of view;

a reflective element being at least partially polyhedral having a plurality of reflective facets facing in different directions, and forming a plurality of first virtual optical centers, a plurality of second virtual optical centers and a plurality of third virtual optical centers, where each of at least two of the plurality of reflective reflective facets redirects the field of view of a first image processing device belonging to the plurality of first image processing devices to create a first virtual optical center corresponding to an optical center of the first device, the field of view of a second image processing device belonging to the plurality of second image processing devices to create a second virtual optical center corresponding to an optical center of the second device, and the field of view of a third image processing device belonging to the plurality of third image processing devices to create a third virtual optical center corresponding to an optical center of the third device, the fields of view being redirected such that the plurality of the first virtual optical centers are substantially co-located at a first location, the plurality of second virtual optical centers are substantially co-located at a second location and the plurality of third virtual optical centers are substantially co-located at a third location;

a controller that produces a control signal that identifies pairs of image data sets from a plurality of image data sets where each image data set is representative of one of the sets of image signals;

and a switch that selects pairs of image data sets in response to the control signal.

20. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 19, wherein the reflective element is hollow.

21. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 19, wherein the reflective element is solid.

22. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 19, wherein the reflective element is at least a partial pyramid.

23. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 19, wherein the image processing devices are cameras.

24. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 19, wherein the image processing devices are projectors.

25. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 19, wherein the reflective element has at least one non-reflective facet.

26. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 19, wherein the switch is a multiplexer.

27. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 19, wherein the switch is a computer.

28. The panoramic viewing apparatus of claim 19, wherein the controller identifies pairs of image data sets based on a viewing direction.