Autocalibration with the Minimum Number of Cameras with Known Pixel Shape

In 3D reconstruction, the recovery of the calibration parameters of the cameras is paramount since it provides metric information about the observed scene, e.g., measures of angles and ratios of distances. Autocalibration enables the estimation of the camera parameters without using a calibration device, but by enforcing simple constraints on the camera parameters. In the absence of information about the internal camera parameters such as the focal length and the principal point, the knowledge of the camera pixel shape is usually the only available constraint. Given a projective reconstruction of a rigid scene, we address the problem of the autocalibration of a minimal set of cameras with known pixel shape and otherwise arbitrarily varying intrinsic and extrinsic parameters. We propose an algorithm that only requires 5 cameras (the theoretical minimum), thus halving the number of cameras required by previous algorithms based on the same constraint. To this purpose, we introduce as our basic geometric tool the six-line conic variety (SLCV), consisting in the set of planes intersecting six given lines of 3D space in points of a conic. We show that the set of solutions of the Euclidean upgrading problem for three cameras with known pixel shape can be parameterized in a computationally efficient way. This parameterization is then used to solve autocalibration from five or more cameras, reducing the three-dimensional search space to a two-dimensional one. We provide experiments with real images showing the good performance of the technique.Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, 7 tables, J. Math. Imaging Vi

3D Reconstruction with Uncalibrated Cameras Using the Six-Line Conic Variety

We present new algorithms for the recovery of the Euclidean structure from a projective calibration of a set of cameras with square pixels but otherwise arbitrarily varying intrinsic and extrinsic parameters. Our results, based on a novel geometric approach, include a closed-form solution for the case of three cameras and two known vanishing points and an efficient one-dimensional search algorithm for the case of four cameras and one known vanishing point. In addition, an algorithm for a reliable automatic detection of vanishing points on the images is presented. These techniques fit in a 3D reconstruction scheme oriented to urban scenes reconstruction. The satisfactory performance of the techniques is demonstrated with tests on synthetic and real data

Linear Camera Autocalibration with Varying Parameters

We provide a new technique for the Euclidean upgrading of a projective calibration for a set of ten or more cameras with known skew angle and aspect ratio and arbitrary varying focal length and principal point. The proposed algorithm, which is purely linear and thus of very low computational cost and not suffering from initialization problems, is based on the geometric object given by the set of lines incident with the absolute conic. We include experiments which show the good performance of the technique

A Self-Calibration Method of Zooming Camera

In this article we proposed a novel approach to self- calibrate a camera with variable focal length. We show that the estimation of camera’s intrinsic parameters is possible from only two points of an unknown planar scene. The projection of these points by using the projection matrices in two images only permit us to obtain a system of equations according to the camera’s intrinsic parameters . From this system we formulated a nonlinear cost function which its minimization allows us to estimate the camera’s intrinsic parameters in each view. The results on synthetic and real data justify the robustness of our method in term of reliability and convergence

Line geometry and camera autocalibration

We provide a completely new rigorous matrix formulation of the absolute quadratic complex (AQC), given by the set of lines intersecting the absolute conic. The new results include closed-form expressions for the camera intrinsic parameters in terms of the AQC, an algorithm to obtain the dual absolute quadric from the AQC using straightforward matrix operations, and an equally direct computation of a Euclidean-upgrading homography from the AQC. We also completely characterize the 6×6 matrices acting on lines which are induced by a spatial homography. Several algorithmic possibilities arising from the AQC are systematically explored and analyzed in terms of efficiency and computational cost. Experiments include 3D reconstruction from real images

Towards A Self-calibrating Video Camera Network For Content Analysis And Forensics

Due to growing security concerns, video surveillance and monitoring has received an immense attention from both federal agencies and private firms. The main concern is that a single camera, even if allowed to rotate or translate, is not sufficient to cover a large area for video surveillance. A more general solution with wide range of applications is to allow the deployed cameras to have a non-overlapping field of view (FoV) and to, if possible, allow these cameras to move freely in 3D space. This thesis addresses the issue of how cameras in such a network can be calibrated and how the network as a whole can be calibrated, such that each camera as a unit in the network is aware of its orientation with respect to all the other cameras in the network. Different types of cameras might be present in a multiple camera network and novel techniques are presented for efficient calibration of these cameras. Specifically: (i) For a stationary camera, we derive new constraints on the Image of the Absolute Conic (IAC). These new constraints are shown to be intrinsic to IAC; (ii) For a scene where object shadows are cast on a ground plane, we track the shadows on the ground plane cast by at least two unknown stationary points, and utilize the tracked shadow positions to compute the horizon line and hence compute the camera intrinsic and extrinsic parameters; (iii) A novel solution to a scenario where a camera is observing pedestrians is presented. The uniqueness of formulation lies in recognizing two harmonic homologies present in the geometry obtained by observing pedestrians; (iv) For a freely moving camera, a novel practical method is proposed for its self-calibration which even allows it to change its internal parameters by zooming; and (v) due to the increased application of the pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras, a technique is presented that uses only two images to estimate five camera parameters. For an automatically configurable multi-camera network, having non-overlapping field of view and possibly containing moving cameras, a practical framework is proposed that determines the geometry of such a dynamic camera network. It is shown that only one automatically computed vanishing point and a line lying on any plane orthogonal to the vertical direction is sufficient to infer the geometry of a dynamic network. Our method generalizes previous work which considers restricted camera motions. Using minimal assumptions, we are able to successfully demonstrate promising results on synthetic as well as on real data. Applications to path modeling, GPS coordinate estimation, and configuring mixed-reality environment are explored

Is Dual Linear Self-Calibration Artificially Ambiguous?

International audienceThis purely theoretical work investigates the problem of artificial singularities in camera self-calibration. Self-calibration allows one to upgrade a projective reconstruction to metric and has a concise and well-understood formulation based on the Dual Absolute Quadric (DAQ), a rank-3 quadric envelope satisfying (nonlinear) 'spectral constraints': it must be positive of rank 3. The practical scenario we consider is the one of square pixels, known principal point and varying unknown focal length, for which generic Critical Motion Sequences (CMS) have been thoroughly derived. The standard linear self-calibration algorithm uses the DAQ paradigm but ignores the spectral constraints. It thus has artificial CMSs, which have barely been studied so far. We propose an algebraic model of singularities based on the confocal quadric theory. It allows to easily derive all types of CMSs. We first review the already known generic CMSs, for which any self-calibration algorithm fails. We then describe all CMSs for the standard linear self-calibration algorithm; among those are artificial CMSs caused by the above spectral constraints being neglected. We then show how to detect CMSs. If this is the case it is actually possible to uniquely identify the correct self-calibration solution, based on a notion of signature of quadrics. The main conclusion of this paper is that a posteriori enforcing the spectral constraints in linear self-calibration is discriminant enough to resolve all artificial CMSs

Autocalibration of Cameras with Known Pixel Shape

We present new algorithms for the recovery of the Euclidean structure from a projective calibration of a set of cameras of known pixel shape but otherwise arbitrarily varying intrinsic and extrinsic parameters. The algorithms have a geometrical motivation based on the properties of the set of lines intersecting the absolute conic. The theoretical part of the paper contributes with theoretical results that establish the relationship between the geometrical object corresponding to this set of lines and other equivalent objects as the absolute quadric. Finally, the satisfactory performance of the techniques is demonstrated with synthetic and real data

Camera calibration from surfaces of revolution

This paper addresses the problem of calibrating a pinhole camera from images of a surface of revolution. Camera calibration is the process of determining the intrinsic or internal parameters (i.e., aspect ratio, focal length, and principal point) of a camera, and it is important for both motion estimation and metric reconstruction of 3D models. In this paper, a novel and simple calibration technique is introduced, which is based on exploiting the symmetry of images of surfaces of revolution. Traditional techniques for camera calibration involve taking images of some precisely machined calibration pattern (such as a calibration grid). The use of surfaces of revolution, which are commonly found in daily life (e.g., bowls and vases), makes the process easier as a result of the reduced cost and increased accessibility of the calibration objects. In this paper, it is shown that two images of a surface of revolution will provide enough information for determining the aspect ratio, focal length, and principal point of a camera with fixed intrinsic parameters. The algorithms presented in this paper have been implemented and tested with both synthetic and real data. Experimental results show that the camera calibration method presented here is both practical and accurate.published_or_final_versio

Methods and Geometry for Plane-Based Self-Calibration

International audienceWe consider the problem of camera self-calibration from images of a planar object with unknown Euclidean structure. The general case of possibly varying focal length is addressed. This problem is nonlinear in general. One of our contributions is a nonlinear approach that makes abstraction of the (possibly varying) focal length, resulting in a computationally efficient algorithm. In addition, it does not require a good initial estimate of the focal length, unlike previous approaches. As for the initialization of other parameters, we propose a practical approach that simply requires taking one image in roughly fronto-parallel position. Closed-form solutions for various configurations of unknown intrinsic parameters are provided. Our methods are evaluated and compared to previous approaches using simulated and real images. Besides our practical contributions, we also provide a detailed geometrical interpretation of the principles underlying our approach