Patent ID: 7386188

Claim:
A system comprising: a user interface device; and one or more computers operable to interact with the user interface device and to perform operations to: receive a first image representing a first segment of the view and a second image representing a second segment of the view; determine the position of the second segment of the view relative to the first segment of the view without the aid of positioning information provided by a human operator; and blend the first image with the second image based solely on the content of the images and the determined position of the second segment relative to the first segment to merge the first image and the second image into a panoramic image of the view, wherein the operations to blend comprise operations to: divide the second image into a first portion and a second portion based on the position of the second segment relative to the first segment; and composite the first portion of the second image on the first image at a relative position of the second segment relative to the first segment to produce the panoramic image, the compositing of the first portion of the second image causing the first portion to mask out a part of the first image.