Depth consistency and vertical disparities in stereoscopic panoramas

Abstract

In recent years, the problem of acquiring omnidirectional stereoscopic imagery of dynamic scenes has gained commercial interest and, consequently, new techniques have been proposed to address this problem. The goal of many of these novel panoramic methods is to provide practical solutions for acquiring real-time omnidirectional stereoscopic imagery for human viewing. However, there are problems related to mosaicking partially overlapped stereoscopic snapshots of the scene that need to be addressed. Among these issues are the conditions to provide a consistent depth illusion over the whole scene and the appearance of undesired vertical disparities. In this paper, we develop a camera model suitable to describe a variety of omnistereoscopic camera configurations and usable to determine the constraints relevant to the design of omnistereoscopic acquisition systems. Based on this geometric model, we compare different camera configurations based on mosaicking partial stereoscopic views in terms of parameters such as the depth continuity and vertical disparities. This work complements and extends our previous work in stereoscopic panorama acquisition by proposing a mathematical framework to contrast different omnistereoscopic image acquisition strategies.