Patent ID: 8593524

Claim:
A method of calibrating a camera system which is capable of recording at least two images simultaneously, the method comprising: processing a first pair of images, wherein the processing step comprises: transforming at least one of a first and a second image of the first pair through a projective map on a plane, the map depending on one or more parameter values, so as to align an epipolar line in the first image with a corresponding epipolar line in the second image of the first pair, resulting in a second pair of images; estimating respective values for a disparity, which values associate respective first pixels along a first epipolar line in a first image of the second pair with respective second pixels along a corresponding second epipolar line in a second image of the second pair; displacing respective pixels of the first epipolar line in the first image of the second image pair in accordance with a respective value of the disparity for the respective pixels; determining a single measure of error as the sum of squares of individual error terms, where each individual error term comprises a difference between a first window of pixels at coordinates x,y on the first epipolar line in the first image and a second window of pixels on the second epipolar line in the second image, wherein the second window of pixels are displaced in the x-direction over the value of the estimated disparity d(x,y) for the second image; determining an update for the one or more parameter values for reducing a value of the measure of error; and updating the one or more parameter values, using the update.