A branch-and-bound algorithm for globally optimal camera pose and focal length

This paper considers the problem of finding the global optimum of the camera rotation, translation and the focal length given a set of 2D–3D point pairs. The global solution is obtained under the L-infinity optimality by a branch-and-bound algorithm. To obtain the goal, we firstly extend the previous branch-and-bound formulation and show that the image space error (pixel distance) may be used instead of the angular error. Then, we present that the problem of camera pose plus focal length given the rotation is a quasi-convex problem. This provides a derivation of a novel inequality for the branch-and-bound algorithm for our problem. Finally, experimental results with synthetic and real data are provided.