Omnidirectional Depth Estimation by a Single Perspective Camera

Omnidirectional depth recovery in a novel omnidirectional stereo vision system was addressed. The stereo vision based on a common perspective camera coupled with two hyperbolic mirrors. Given two images of a same point acquired the system, the depth is calculated by means of triangulation. The calculation process aims at having corresponding incident rays intersecting at the same 3D point. As the hyperbolic mirrors ensure a single viewpoint (SVP) the incident light rays are easily found from the points of the image. The two hyperbolic mirrors are aligned coaxially and separately, share one focus that coincides with the camera center. So the geometry of the system naturally ensures matched epipolar lines in the two images of the scene. The separation between the two mirrors provides a large baseline and eventually leads to a precise result. The geometrical properties are derived and the experiments with real images are presented