Resampling of scanned imagery for rectification and registration

Spacecraft, aircraft, and seacraft are common free-moving platforms for the scanning of visible-light, radar, and sonar imagery. The motion of these platforms during scanning dictates image interior geometry. Hence such imagery is significantly different to that of the conventional frame-camera. It is explained why knowledge of platform motion is essential in scanned image resampling for rectification of geometric distortion. An unusual parameterization of motion is used to model scanner trajectory efficiently as a kinematic chain. Using this parameterisation, a new technique is proposed for determining whether a 3-D scene point lies within the frustum of a geometrically distorted image pixel. This inclusion test is important if the inverse mapping approach to image transformation is used for rectification