Omnistereo: Panoramic stereo imaging

An Omnistereo panorama consists of a pair of panoramic images, where one panorama is for the left eye and another panorama is for the right eye. The panoramic stereo pair provides a stereo sensation up to a full 360 degrees. Omnistereo panoramas cannot be photographed by two omnidirectional cameras from two viewpoints, but can be constructed by mosaicing together images from a rotating stereo pair. A more convenient approach to generate omnistereo panoramas is by mosaicing images from a single rotating camera. This approach also enables the control of stereo disparity, giving larger baselines for faraway scenes, and a smaller baseline for closer scenes. Capturing panoramic omnistereo images with a rotating camera makes it impossible to capture dynamic scenes at video rates and limits omnistereo imaging to stationary scenes. We, therefore, present two possibilities for capturing omnistereo panoramas using optics without any moving parts. A special mirror is introduced such that viewing the scene through this mirror creates the same rays as those used with the rotating cameras. A lens for omnistereo panorama is also introduced. The designs of the mirror and of the lens are based on curves whose caustic is a circle. Omnistereo panoramas can also be rendered by computer graphics methods to represent virtual environments.