COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHOD FOR TRANSFORMING A PROJECTION OF A SCENE IN THREE-DIMENSIONAL SPACE INTO A COMPOSITE IMAGE

1 . A computer-implemented method for transforming a projection of a scene in three-dimensional space into a composite image by a camera system comprising a plurality of cameras, comprising:

subsequently projecting the scene onto a plurality of camera unit spheres and a compositing unit sphere and;

wherein each camera unit sphere of the plurality of camera unit spheres represents one camera of the plurality of cameras, respectively;

wherein the compositing unit sphere unifies the plurality of camera unit spheres wherein a compositing unit sphere centre of the compositing unit sphere is equally distanced by a unified offset to each camera unit sphere centre of the plurality of camera unit spheres;

wherein a radius of the camera unit spheres, and the compositing unit sphere corresponds to an alignment distance, wherein the alignment distance relates to an extrinsic distance between the camera system and a point of interest.

2 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 ,

wherein subsequently projecting the scene onto a plurality of camera unit spheres and a compositing unit sphere comprises:

transforming camera images of the scene from each of the plurality of cameras from image coordinates into camera coordinates; and

transforming the scene from the camera coordinates into extrinsic coordinates, wherein the compositing unit sphere centre defines a coordinate system centre of the camera coordinate system.

3 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , comprising:

before subsequently projecting the scene onto a plurality of camera unit spheres and a compositing unit sphere, the method comprises:

acquiring the alignment distance;

determining a common origin for the compositing unit sphere where extrinsic camera distances amongst cameras in the plurality of cameras are used; determining the unified offset using the alignment distance and common origin for the compositing unit sphere.

4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 3 ,

wherein the alignment distance is input by a user;

wherein the extrinsic camera distance is known from the properties of the camera system.

5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 ,

wherein each camera unit sphere of the plurality of camera unit spheres are each represented by a camera model.

6 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 ,

wherein the camera model comprises a pinhole camera model, a unified camera model, an extended unified camera model, a Kannala-Brandt camera model, a field-of-view camera model or a double sphere camera model.

7 . The computer-implemented method of claim 2 ,

wherein the alignment distance relates to an extrinsic distance between the coordinate system centre of the camera coordinate system and a point of interest, where parallax is minimized.

8 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 ,

wherein the composite image is a panorama image.

9 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 ,

wherein a field-of-view used from each of the plurality of cameras for the composite image is dependent on the alignment distance.

10 . The computer-implemented method of claim 9 ,

wherein a lower alignment distance leads to a bigger field-of-view used from each of the plurality of cameras for the composite image.

11 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 ,

wherein the plurality of cameras are large field-of-view cameras.

12 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 ,

wherein the large field-of-view cameras comprise a field-of-view that is larger than 180 degrees.

13 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 ,

wherein the large field-of-view cameras comprise a camera with a fish-eye lens.

14 . A computer-implemented method of providing a composite image of a scene using a camera system having a plurality of cameras, comprising:

determining a representation of the camera system comprising a plurality of camera unit spheres and a compositing unit sphere;

creating a composite image from individual camera images of the plurality of cameras by:

subsequently projecting the scene onto a plurality of camera unit spheres and a compositing unit sphere and;

wherein each camera unit sphere of the plurality of camera unit spheres represents one camera of the plurality of cameras, respectively;

wherein the compositing unit sphere unifies the plurality of camera unit spheres, wherein a compositing unit sphere centre of the compositing unit sphere is equally distanced by a unified offset to each camera unit sphere centre of the plurality of camera unit spheres;

wherein a radius of the camera unit spheres and the compositing unit sphere corresponds to an alignment distance, wherein the alignment distance relates to an extrinsic distance between the camera system and a point of interest;

applying auxiliary distortion correction or optimizing parallax correction to the composite image.

15 . The computer-implemented method of claim 14 , wherein determining the representation of the camera system comprises:

calibrating the representation of the camera system;

performing image registration methods.

16 . The computer-implemented method of claim 14 ,

wherein creating the composite image from individual camera images of the plurality of cameras further includes:

finding seam lines amongst camera images that are viewing similar parts of the scene; and

blending a content, i.e. a number of pixels, of each of the camera images that share a seam line.

17 . An apparatus comprising

at least one processor operable for transforming a projection of a scene in three-dimensional space into a composite image by a camera system comprising a plurality of cameras and to:

subsequently project the scene onto a plurality of camera unit spheres and a compositing unit sphere;

wherein each camera unit sphere of the plurality of camera unit spheres represents one camera of the plurality of cameras, respectively;

wherein the compositing unit sphere-unifies the plurality of camera unit spheres, wherein a compositing unit sphere centre of the compositing unit sphere is equally distanced by a unified offset to each camera unit sphere centre of the plurality of camera unit spheres;

wherein a radius of the camera unit spheres and the compositing unit sphere corresponds to an alignment distance, wherein the alignment distance relates to an extrinsic distance between the camera system and a point of interest.

18 . An apparatus comprising

at least one processor operable to provide a composite image of scene using a camera system having a plurality of cameras and to:

subsequently project the scene onto a plurality of camera unit spheres and a compositing unit sphere and;

wherein each camera unit sphere of the plurality of camera unit spheres represents one camera of the plurality of cameras, respectively;

wherein the compositing unit sphere unifies the plurality of camera unit spheres, wherein a compositing unit sphere centre of the compositing unit sphere is equally distanced by a unified offset to each camera unit sphere centre of the plurality of camera unit spheres;

wherein a radius of the camera unit spheres and the compositing unit sphere corresponds to an alignment distance, wherein the alignment distance relates to an extrinsic distance between the camera system and a point of interest;

apply auxiliary distortion correction or optimizing parallax correction to the composite image.

19 . A non-transient computer readable medium having instructions which, when running on at least one processor of at least one computer, causes the computer to:

transform a projection of a scene in three-dimensional space into a composite image by a camera system comprising a plurality of cameras, by:

subsequently projecting the scene onto a plurality of camera unit spheres and a compositing unit sphere and;

wherein each camera unit sphere of the plurality of camera unit spheres represents one camera of the plurality of cameras, respectively;

wherein the compositing unit sphere unifies the plurality of camera unit spheres, wherein a compositing unit sphere centre of the compositing unit sphere is equally distanced by a unified offset to each camera unit sphere centre of the plurality of camera unit spheres:

wherein a radius of the camera unit spheres and the compositing unit sphere corresponds to an aliment distance, wherein the alignment distance relates to an extrinsic distance between the camera system and a point of interest.

20 . A non-transient computer readable medium having instructions which, when running on at least one processor of at least one computer, causes the computer to:

providing a composite image of a scene using a camera system having a plurality of cameras;

determine a representation of the camera system, comprising a plurality of camera unit spheres and a compositing unit sphere;

create a composite image from individual camera images of the plurality of cameras by:

subsequently projecting the scene onto a plurality of camera unit spheres and a compositing unit sphere and;

wherein each camera unit sphere of the plurality of camera unit spheres represents one camera of the plurality of cameras, respectively;

wherein the compositing unit sphere unifies the plurality of camera unit spheres, wherein a compositing unit sphere centre of the compositing unit sphere is equally distanced by a unfiled offset to each camera unit sphere centre of the plurality of camera unit spheres;

wherein a radius of the camera unit spheres and the compositing unit sphere corresponds to an alignment distance, wherein the alignment distance relates to an extrinsic distance between the camera system and a point of interest;

applying auxiliary distortion correction or optimizing parallax correction to the composite image.