IP Library Granted Patent US 12,243,269
Granted Patent B2
US 12,243,269 · App. 16/869,177 · Granted Mar 4, 2025

Method and apparatus for automatic intrinsic camera calibration using images of a planar calibration pattern

Inventors: Charles Xavier Quentin Dubout (Ecublens, CH); Horesh Beny Ben Shitrit (Echichens, CH)
Assignee: Genius Sports SS, LLC
G06T7/80G06V10/44G06V10/757G06T2207/10016G06T2207/30208
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,243,269
App. No.
16/869,177
Granted
Mar 4, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a high precision method, model, and apparatus for calibrating the intrinsic camera parameter values of one or more intrinsic parameters of a camera. The intrinsic parameters include focal lengths, skew, optical center, and radial distortion coefficients. The practical implementation of the solution consists of a camera capturing several images of a planar calibration pattern from different viewpoints, and a computer implemented processing pipeline. The solution does not require additional human input and is robust to misdetection of the calibration pattern in some of the images.

Claims (25)

1. A method comprising:

for each image of a plurality of images taken by an image capture device of a calibration pattern, reconstructing a lattice graph corresponding to the calibration pattern;

determining two-and three-dimensional correspondences for the plurality of images, based on the reconstructed lattice graphs;

randomly selecting a plurality of sets of images from the plurality of images;

for each set of images in said plurality of sets of images:

determining a set of estimated values for a plurality of intrinsic parameters for the image capture device, based on the determined two-and three-dimensional correspondences for the images in the set of images, and

based on said set of estimated intrinsic parameter values, calculating a reprojection error for each of the plurality of images;

determining a measure of quality for each set of estimated intrinsic parameter values, based on the reprojection errors calculated for that set of estimated intrinsic parameter values;

selecting one of the sets of estimated intrinsic parameter values, based on the measures of quality for the sets of estimated intrinsic parameter values;

selecting a subset of images from the plurality of images with respective reprojection errors that are based on the selected set of estimated intrinsic parameter values and are lower than a reprojection error threshold; and

determining a set of re-estimated intrinsic parameter values, based on the subset of images and the two-and three-dimensional correspondences corresponding to the subset of images.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a measure of quality for each set of estimated values for the plurality of intrinsic image capture device parameters comprises determining a median of the reprojection errors corresponding to the set of estimated values.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the reprojection error threshold is derived from the median of the reprojection errors corresponding to the set of estimated values.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising updating current intrinsic parameter values of the image capture device, based on the set of re-estimated intrinsic parameter values.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of intrinsic parameters are selected from the group consisting of: focal length, skew, optical center, and radial distortion coefficients.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein each lattice graph includes a plurality of nodes, each of which corresponds to at least a portion of a respective one of a plurality of features of the calibration pattern.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising obtaining the plurality of images from frames in a video.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of images is a series of still images.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining of the two-and three-dimensional correspondences for the plurality of images uses an arbitrarily selected node of each lattice graph as the origin.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a measure of quality for each set of estimated values for the plurality of intrinsic image capture device parameters comprises determining a measure of central tendency that is robust to outliers.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reprojection error threshold is derived from the median of the reprojection errors corresponding to the set of estimated values.

12. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, on which is stored computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the method of claim 1 .

13. A computing unit comprising:

at least one processor; and

memory storing a plurality of computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the method of claim 1 .

Assignments (5)
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded May 1, 2026
From: GENIUS SPORTS SS, LLC
To: U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 074544/0266 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded May 1, 2026
From: CITIBANK, N.A.
To: GENIUS SPORTS SS, LLC
Reel/Frame 074544/0683 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded May 1, 2024
From: GENIUS SPORTS SS, LLC
To: CITIBANK, N.A.
Reel/Frame 067281/0470 →
MERGER Recorded Sep 17, 2021
From: SECOND SPECTRUM, INC.
To: GENIUS SPORTS SS, LLC
Reel/Frame 057509/0582 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 21, 2020
From: DUBOUT, CHARLES XAVIER QUENTIN; BEN SHITRIT, HORESH BENY
To: SECOND SPECTRUM, INC.
Reel/Frame 053564/0016 →
Continuity (5)
Continuation 16448871 · Jun 21, 2019
Continuation 16294484 · Mar 6, 2019
Continuation 15970965 · May 4, 2018
Provisional Application 62501579 · May 4, 2017
Related Publication 20200265610A1 · Aug 20, 2020
References Cited (60)
US 7085322B2 · Ngai et al. · 2006 [cited by applicant]
US 7143083B2 · Carlbom et al. · 2006 [cited by applicant]
US 7796155B1 · Neely et al. · 2010 [cited by applicant]
US 7932923B2 · Lipton et al. · 2011 [cited by applicant]
US 8620077B1 · Kwatra et al. · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 9740977B1 · Moon et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 10269140B2 · Dubout · 2019 [cited by examiner]
US 10380766B2 · Dubout · 2019 [cited by examiner]
US 10600210B1 · Citraro · 2020 [cited by examiner]
US 10706588B2 · Dubout · 2020 [cited by examiner]
US 10991125B2 · Citraro · 2021 [cited by examiner]
US 11295477B1 · Wang · 2022 [cited by examiner]
US 20030093810A1 · Taniguchi et al. · 2003 [cited by applicant]
US 20080193016A1 · Lim et al. · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 20080312010A1 · Marty et al. · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 20100201798A1 · Ren · 2010 [cited by examiner]
US 20100202666A1 · Ren · 2010 [cited by examiner]
US 20120133780A1 · Zhang et al. · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 20130147948A1 · Higuchi et al. · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 20130169822A1 · Zhu et al. · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 20130182119A1 · Eledath et al. · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 20130243250A1 · France et al. · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 20130266180A1 · Jin · 2013 [cited by examiner]
US 20140037140A1 · Benhimane et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20140058992A1 · Lucey et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20140135959A1 · Thurman et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20140168378A1 · Hall · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20150103147A1 · Ho et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20150248917A1 · Chang · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20150288951A1 · Mallet et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20160007912A1 · Hu et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 20160042515A1 · Sorgi · 2016 [cited by examiner]
US 20170221226A1 · Shen · 2017 [cited by examiner]
US 20170238055A1 · Chang et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170255826A1 · Chang et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170255827A1 · Chang et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170255828A1 · Chang et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170255829A1 · Chang et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170287166A1 · Claveau · 2017 [cited by examiner]
US 20180322657A1 · Dubout · 2018 [cited by examiner]
US 20190096091A1 · Bao · 2019 [cited by examiner]
US 20190197732A1 · Dubout et al. · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190311495A1 · Dubout · 2019 [cited by examiner]
US 20200265610A1 · Dubout · 2020 [cited by examiner]
KR 20160118183A · 2016 [cited by applicant]
WO 2013166456A2 · 2013 [cited by applicant]
WO 2015060691A1 · 2015 [cited by applicant]
WO 2015131084A1 · 2015 [cited by applicant]
WO 2018053257A1 · 2018 [cited by applicant]
WO 2018204746A1 · 2018 [cited by applicant]
15754985.8, “European Application Serial No. 15754985.8, Extended European Search Report Received mailed Nov. 15, 2017”, Second Spectrum, Inc., 10 Pages. [cited by applicant]
Kang, et al., “Detection of Calibration Patterns for Camera Calibration with Irregular Lighting and Complicated Backgrounds”, International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems 6.5 (2008), Oct. 2008, pp. 746-754. [cited by applicant]
Kim, “Automatic Classification of Offensive Patterns for Soccer Game Highlights Using Neural Networks”, Malaysian Journal of Computer Science, XP055422797, Retrieved from the Internet: URL:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edujv… [cited by applicant]
PCT/US18/31025, “International Application Serial No. PCT/US18/31025, International Preliminary Report on Patentability mailed Nov. 14, 2019”, Second Spectrum, Inc., 7 pages. [cited by applicant]
PCT/US18/31025, “International Application Serial No. PCT/US18/31025, International Search Report and Written Opinion mailed Sep. 10, 2018”, Second Spectrum, Inc., 10 pages. [cited by applicant]
PCT/US2015/018077, “International Application Serial No. PCT/US2015/018077, International Preliminary Report on Patentability and Written Opinion mailed Sep. 15, 2016”, Second Spectrum, Inc., 9 Pages. [cited by applicant]
PCT/US2015/018077, “International Application Serial No. PCT/US2015/018077, International Search Report and Written Opinion mailed May 27, 2015”, Second Spectrum, Inc., 13 pages. [cited by applicant]
PCT/US2017/051768, “International Application Serial No. PCT/US2017/051768, International Search Report and Written Opinion mailed Feb. 28, 2018”, Second Spectrum, Inc., 33 Pages. [cited by applicant]
PCT/US2017/051768, “International Application Serial No. PCT/US2017/051768, Invitation to Pay Additional Fees and, Where Applicable, Protest Fee mailed Nov. 29, 2017”, Second Spectrum, Inc., 7 Pages. [cited by applicant]
Zhang, “A flexible New Technique for Camera Calibration”, (2008) MSR-TR-98-71, Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA, 2008, pp. 1-21. [cited by applicant]