Patent ID: 7194112

Claim:
A method for deriving a three-dimensional panorama from a plurality of images of a scene generated from a range imaging camera of the type that produces ambiguities in range information, said method comprising the steps of: acquiring a plurality of images of the scene by rotating the camera about a Y-axis (vertical axis), wherein there is an inter-overlap region and known spatial relation between adjacent images and at least two of the adjacent images are range images, said range images each having relative scene spatial information, said range images differing by said known spatial relation and an unknown relative range difference; estimating said relative range difference to provide an estimate; automatically optimizing said estimate to provide an optimized constant range offset; automatically applying said constant range offset to one of said range images to provide corrected relative scene spatial information (X,Y,Z) of one of said range images with respect to a first local XYZ coordinate system and relative scene spatial information (X,Y,Z) of the other of said range images with respect to a second local XYZ coordinate system; selecting a reference three-dimensional world coordinate system against which spatial information of the scene can be correctly presented; transforming the corrected relative scene spatial information (X,Y,Z) from each of the local three-dimensional coordinate systems of each of the images to the selected reference three-dimensional world coordinate system, thereby providing transformed (X,Y,Z) images; warping the transformed (X,Y,Z) images onto a cylindrical surface, and forming a plurality of warped (X,Y,Z) images; registering adjacent warped (X,Y,Z) images; and forming a three-dimensional (X,Y,Z) panorama using the warped (X,Y,Z) images.