Patent ID: 7852376

Claim:
A method comprising: determining a number of circles of latitude on the basis of a focal length of a camera system, a dimension of pictures associated with the camera system, and an overlapping ratio between contiguous ones of the pictures; receiving a plurality of contiguous pictures associated with each circle of latitude; and building, with one or more processors, a spherical panorama from the plurality of contiguous pictures, wherein determining the number of circles of latitude is performed in accordance with the following equation: NumCircles = [ 180 ⁢ ° ( 100 - k ) ⁢ % * [ 2 ⁢ tan - 1 ⁡ ( a 2 ⁢ f ) ] - 1 ] where: a is a height of the pictures associated with the camera system; f is the focal length of the camera system; and k is the overlapping ratio between contiguous pictures.