Camera Array Clusters for Parallax Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current camera array configurations that capture multiple directions simultaneously suffer from significant parallax errors due to insufficient overlap and warping effects, making it difficult to stitch images into a natural and complete panorama, especially when cameras are far apart or have limited overlap.
Innovation Solution
A camera array system with outward-facing camera clusters arranged every 90 degrees around a common plate, providing substantial overlap and intersecting angles of view to ensure complete coverage and reduce distortion, including an upward-facing camera for sky-view complementarity, with a centralized trigger and leveling system for stability and ease of use.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If cameras are arranged in a rosette formation with all cameras facing out and away from each other, then multiple directions can be captured simultaneously, but parallax error increases and image overlap decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The camera array is divided into multiple clusters, each cluster containing multiple cameras arranged in specific orientations. This segmentation allows each cluster to capture specific directional views while maintaining overlap with adjacent clusters, thereby reducing parallax error while preserving simultaneous multi-directional capture capability.
Solution Approach 2:
Different clusters are assigned different orientations and viewing angles tailored to their specific positions in the array. This local optimization ensures that each camera cluster captures images with appropriate overlap with its neighbors, minimizing parallax error in each local region while maintaining overall simultaneous capture.
2Area of stationary object
If cameras are placed farther apart to increase coverage area, then more scene can be captured, but object omission increases and overlap decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from two-dimensional camera placement to three-dimensional spatial arrangement with multiple clusters at different positions and orientations. This dimensional expansion allows cameras to be spaced farther apart while maintaining overlap through vertical and angular separation, thereby increasing coverage area without losing objects.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple cameras are nested within clusters, with each cluster containing multiple cameras at different positions and angles. This nested structure allows the system to maintain dense local coverage within each cluster while spacing clusters farther apart to expand overall coverage area.
3Measurement precision
If multiple camera clusters are arranged to provide overlapping views, then parallax error is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent systematically varies key parameters such as camera orientation angles, cluster spacing distances, and focal lengths to optimize the balance between parallax reduction and system complexity. By carefully selecting these parameters, the system achieves sufficient overlap for parallax correction without excessive complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The complex camera array is segmented into modular clusters that can be independently configured and positioned. This modular segmentation simplifies the overall system design and assembly while still achieving the required overlapping views for parallax error reduction.
Data Source
AI summary
A plurality of outward-facing cameras, arranged in nodal clusters surrounding and mounted to the top plate of a plate structure, with the plate structure having an elevated platform for an additional upward-facing camera. The nodal clusters and the configuration of clusters on the top plate enable overlaps in coverage between clusters and more informationally dense coverage within each cluster.