A prism-based single-lens stereovision system: From trinocular to multi-ocular

This paper investigates a passive stereovision system which employs one single CCD camera and one pyramid-like glass prism. Its trinocular variety is first presented: each image captured by this system can be split into three sub-images and these sub-images are taken as the images simultaneously captured by three virtual cameras which are generated by the prism. Two different approaches are developed to model this system: one bases on a conventional camera calibration technique and the other bases on geometrical analysis of ray sketching. The second approach is a relatively simpler but is sufficiently accurate as compared to the calibration based approach. Then the knowledge on this trinocular system is extended to build a single-lens multi-ocular stereovision system. Experiments are conducted to validate this system. The ideas presented in this paper are believed novel.