Omni-directional camera with calibration and up look angle improvements
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A camera system comprising:
- an N-sided mirror located above N cameras, where N is a number of two or more, the N cameras arranged to be equally spaced around at least a portion of a circle, each camera capturing an image reflected in a different side of said N-sided mirror, wherein each camera has an up look angle from the horizontal plane achieved by horizontally mounting each camera sensor and electronically offsetting the center of each camera lens from the center of its associated sensor which in turn offsets the optical axis;
so that the image in each mirror is completely captured by the sensor and wherein a virtual center of projection C′
between adjacent cameras of the N cameras is simultaneously electronically calibrated by using a sub-region of the associated sensor.
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Abstract
Improved camera calibration techniques, including an improved up look angle and an improved method for calibrating a virtual center of projection. By using a view camera technique for the up look angle, the image sensors can be mounted flat to a Printed Circuit Board (PCB). By using a sub-region of the image sensor for the active area of the camera it is possible to calibrate the virtual center of projection (C′).
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Citations
6 Claims
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1. A camera system comprising:
an N-sided mirror located above N cameras, where N is a number of two or more, the N cameras arranged to be equally spaced around at least a portion of a circle, each camera capturing an image reflected in a different side of said N-sided mirror, wherein each camera has an up look angle from the horizontal plane achieved by horizontally mounting each camera sensor and electronically offsetting the center of each camera lens from the center of its associated sensor which in turn offsets the optical axis;
so that the image in each mirror is completely captured by the sensor and wherein a virtual center of projection C′
between adjacent cameras of the N cameras is simultaneously electronically calibrated by using a sub-region of the associated sensor.- View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
Specification