Hough transform for feature detection in panoramic images
Omni-directional sensors are useful in obtaining a 360 field-of-view. With a radially symmetric mirror and conventional lens system this can be achieved with a single camera. There are several proposed profiles for the mirror, but most violate the single viewpoint (SVP) criteria necessary to allow functional equivalence to the standard perspective projection, posing challenges that have not yet been addressed in the literature. Such a imaging system with a non-SVP optical system do not benefit from the affine quality of straight line features being represented as collinear points in the image plane. To utilize these non-SVP mirrors, a new method to recognize such features is required. This work describes an approach to detecting features in panoramic non-SVP images using a modified Hough transform. A mathematical model for this feature extraction process is given. Experimental results are presented to validate this model and show robust performance in identifying line features with only estimated calibration.
omni-directional sensors panoramic hough transform line segment detection