Patent ID: 6885392

Claim:
A device for creating a panoramic image from a plurality of images taken by a camera, the device comprising: an input for receiving a current image which is updated in real time when a digital image capture mechanism coupled to the input is repositioned; a preview generator for mathematically adjusting perspective of a portion of a stored previous image so as to generate an overlap portion for enabling optimal visual alignment by a user of the overlap portion to the current images therewith; and an output for outputting an image portion to a viewfinder; wherein the mathematically adjusting perspective includes: mapping one or more pixels of the previous image to X-Y coordinates; mapping one or more pixels of the current image to X-Y coordinates so that an X-axis is in a center of an image plane of the current image and parallel to a direction of motion defined by panning between the previous image and the current image and wherein the Y-axis is perpendicular to the X-axis and lies in the image plane; calculating a rotation angle based on a distance of overlap between the previous image and the current image; and calculating a rectilinear transformation along the X-axis based on the rotation angle.