Short baseline line matching for central imaging systems

We develop a generic line matching method especially applicable to omnidirectional images taken from constructed scenes with short baseline motion where the motion of the imaging system between two views is mainly an arbitrary rotation and the translation of the camera between two views with respect to its distance to the imaged scene is negligible. We start by studying the relationship between images of lines on unitary sphere followed by proposing a simple algorithm for simultaneously matching vanishing points and lines. The developed algorithm is very simple, yet it works on images captured by all types of central imaging systems, including perspective, fish-eye and catadioptric images. Various experimental results on both synthetic and real images taken by different central cameras as well as an application of the algorithm for creating high resolution panoramic images from several high resolution perspective images are also presented.

► A generic line matching method for constructed scenes. ► For two calibrated omnidirectional images (perspective, fish-eye and catadioptric). ► The motion is short baseline mainly consisting of a rotation. ► The rotation is estimated by matching vanishing points. ► Unitary sphere is used for simultaneously matching vanishing points and lines.