Patent ID: 7576767

Claim:
A panoramic vision system having associated camera, display optics and geometric characteristics, said system comprising: (a) a plurality of image acquisition devices to capture image frame data from a scene and to generate image sensor inputs, said image frame data collectively covering up to a 360° field of view, said image acquisition devices having geometric and optical distortion parameters; (b) a digitizer coupled to the plurality of image acquisition devices to sample and convert the image frame data and the image sensor inputs into digital image data; (c) an image processor coupled to the digitizer comprising: (i) an image measurement device to receive the digital image data and to measure the image luminance histogram and the ambient light level associated with the digital image data; (ii) a luminance correction module coupled to the image measurement device to receive the digital image data along with the camera, display optics and geometric characteristics, the image luminance histogram and the ambient light level, and to correct for luminance and chrominance non-uniformities, by separately processing for the red, green and blue components associated with the digital image data, and to optimize the luminance range of selected regions within the digital image data; (iii) a convolution stage coupled to the luminance correction module to combine the geometric and optical distortion parameters including the image sensor inputs, the camera, display optics and geometric characteristics and imperfections associated therein to form convoluted distortion parameters; (iv) a distortion correction module coupled to the convolution stage to generate and apply a distortion correction transformation based on the convoluted distortion parameters to the digital image data to generate corrected digital image data; (v) a display controller coupled to the distortion correction module to synthesize a composite image from the corrected digital image data; and (d) a display system coupled to said image processor to display the composite image on a viewing surface for viewing, said composite image being visually distortion free.