Using Many Cameras as One

Robert Pless

Abstract: We illustrate how to consider a network of cameras as a single generalized camera in a framework proposed by Nayar (2001). We derive the discrete structure from motion equations for generalized cameras, and illustrate the corollaries to epipolar geometry. This formal mechanism allows one to use a network of cameras as if they were a single imaging device, even when they do not share a common center of projection. Furthermore, an analysis of structure from motion algorithms for this imaging model gives constraints on the optimal design of panoramic imaging systems constructed from multiple cameras.