We propose a method for automatic calibration of a traffic surveillance
camera with wide-angle lenses. Video footage of a few minutes is sufficient for
the entire calibration process to take place. This method takes in the height
of the camera from the ground plane as the only user input to overcome the
scale ambiguity. The calibration is performed in two stages, 1. Intrinsic
Calibration 2. Extrinsic Calibration. Intrinsic calibration is achieved by
assuming an equidistant fisheye distortion and an ideal camera model. Extrinsic
calibration is accomplished by estimating the two vanishing points, on the
ground plane, from the motion of vehicles at perpendicular intersections. The
first stage of intrinsic calibration is also valid for thermal cameras.
Experiments have been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of this
approach on visible as well as thermal cameras.
Index Terms: fish-eye, calibration, thermal camera, intelligent
transportation systems, vanishing point