Abstract
A new compact large field of view (FOV) multi-camera system is introduced. The camera is based on seven tiny complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor sensor modules covering over 160° × 160° FOV. Although image stitching has been studied extensively, sensor and lens differences have not been considered in previous multi-camera devices. In this study, we have calibrated the photometric characteristics of the multi-camera device. Lenses were not mounted on the sensor in the process of radiometric response calibration to eliminate the influence of the focusing effect of uniform light from an integrating sphere. Linearity range of the radiometric response, non-linearity response characteristics, sensitivity, and dark current of the camera response function are presented. The R, G, and B channels have different responses for the same illuminance. Vignetting artifact patterns have been tested. The actual luminance of the object is retrieved by sensor calibration results, and is used to blend images to make panoramas reflect the objective luminance more objectively. This compensates for the limitation of stitching images that are more realistic only through the smoothing method. The dynamic range limitation of can be resolved by using multiple cameras that cover a large field of view instead of a single image sensor with a wide-angle lens. The dynamic range is expanded by 48-fold in this system. We can obtain seven images in one shot with this multi-camera system, at 13 frames per second.
Highlights
The omnidirectional camera is a type of ideal imaging device that has been increasingly used in recent years
The major advantage is its wide field of view (FOV), which allows it to capture a view of the entire scene
A polycamera is a kind of non-central omnidirectional camera, comprising a cluster of conventional cameras pointing to different directions in a particular configuration
Summary
The omnidirectional camera is a type of ideal imaging device that has been increasingly used in recent years. The major advantage is its wide field of view (FOV), which allows it to capture a view of the entire scene. The synthesis of small patches into a large field of view has other advantages, such as reducing lens design difficulties. The dynamic range of a single sensor with a certain exposure setting has difficulties in meeting an extremely high dynamic range with wide FOV. Recent attempts have been made to develop this type of camera. The PANOPTIC [1] is a hemispherical multiple camera system that uses 44 cameras covering 360 ̋ ˆ 180 ̋ FOV. It uses hundreds of image sensors to address the conflict between FOV and resolution. In [6], a cylindrical distributed
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