A new 3D imaging system using a portable two-camera omni-imaging device for construction and browsing of human-reachable environments

Abstract

As an improvement on existing street view systems which cannot be moved to certain environments to acquire images, a new 3D imaging system using a portable two-camera omni-imaging device is proposed. The device can be carried on one's back and moved on foot to any indoor and outdoor scene spot to acquire omni-images which cover the entire spherical view of the scene with an overlapping image band. By a space-mapping technique, the two omni-images are transformed into panoramic images, and the overlapping band is utilized to stitch them to form a single total panoramic image using a dynamic programming technique. Browsing of an environment with a series of scene spots can be conducted to see the perspective-view image of any spot in any direction by changing the viewpoint via the uses of four tools - the current perspective-view image, the total panoramic image, a walking path, and a three-view diagram. Experimental results show the feasibility of the system. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.