Foveated wide-angle imaging system and method for capturing and viewing wide-angle images in real time

1. A foveated wide-angle imaging system for capturing and viewing a wide-angle image of a scene, comprising:

a foveated wide-angle camera system having a plurality of cameras that outputs raw output images, the plurality of cameras having a center camera located at a center of a foveated wide-angle camera system having a first field-of-view, wherein the foveated wide-angle camera system is approximately a hemispherical shape;

a foveated wide-angle image stitching system that processes the raw output images to generate a stitch table;

wherein the stitch table includes pixel coordinates for a preliminary foveated wide-angle image produced by stitching together the raw output image

wherein the plurality of cameras further comprises:

a left set of N cameras located on a left of the center camera;

a right set of N right cameras located on a right of the center camera;

wherein the left set of N cameras and the right set of N cameras have an increasing field-of-view that is wider than the first field-of-view as referenced moving away from the center camera along the hemispherical shape.

2. The foveated wide-angle imaging system as set forth in claim 1 , wherein N equals three.

3. A foveated wide-angle camera system for capturing a wide-angle image of a scene, comprising:

a plurality of cameras arranged in a hemispherical arrangement, comprising:

a center camera located at a center of the hemispherical arrangement having a first field-of-view;

a set of left cameras located on a left side of the center camera;

a set of right cameras located on a right side of the center camera;

wherein the left and right sets of cameras have an increasingly wider field-of-view such that cameras nearest the center camera have narrower fields-of-view and camera furthest from the center camera have wider fields-of-view.

4. The foveated wide-angle camera system as set forth in claim 3 , wherein the first field-of-view is narrower than any of the cameras in the left set of cameras or the right set of cameras.

5. The foveated wide-angle camera system as set forth in claim 4 , wherein the first field-of-view is equal to approximately twenty degrees.

6. A foveated wide-angle camera system for generating a preliminary foveated wide-angle image, comprising:

a center camera disposed near a center of the system for capturing a center raw output image;

a second camera disposed on a left side of the center camera for capturing a first left raw output image;

a third camera disposed on a right side of the center camera for capturing a first right raw output image;

a fourth camera disposed on a left side of the second camera for capturing a second left raw output image; and

a fifth camera disposed on a right side of the third camera for capturing a second right raw output image;

wherein the center camera has a field-of view that is narrower than the second, third, fourth and fifth cameras.

7. The foveated wide-angle camera system as set forth in claim 6 , wherein the center camera field-of-view is approximately twenty degrees.

8. The foveated wide-angle camera system as set forth in claim 6 , wherein the second camera has a field-of-view that is narrower than the fourth camera and the third camera has a field-of-view that is narrower than the fifth camera.

9. The foveated wide-angle camera system as set forth in claim 8 , wherein the second camera field-of-view is approximately identical to the third camera field-of view and the fourth camera field-of-view is approximately identical to the fifth camera field-of-view.

10. The foveated wide-angle camera system as set forth in claim 9 , wherein the second and third camera field-of-views are approximately equal to forty-five degrees and the fourth and fifth camera fields-of-view are approximately equal to sixty-four degrees.

11. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for capturing a wide-angle image of a scene, comprising:

directing a foveated wide-angle camera at the scene, the foveated wide-angle camera containing a plurality of cameras with at least a portion of the plurality of cameras having different fields-of-view;

producing a raw image from each of the plurality of cameras of the foveated wide-angle camera to generate raw output images; and

creating a stitch table from the raw output images, the stitch table mapping pixels in the raw output images to pixels in a preliminary foveated wide-angle image

wherein a center camera of the plurality of cameras has a narrower field-of-view than the others of the plurality of cameras.