Multi-Camera Imager Mounting for Low Parallax Panoramic Capture
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing panoramic multi-camera devices struggle to capture complete 360-degree panoramic images with high resolution and low parallax, due to mechanical variations, large seams between cameras, and resulting parallax errors and image overlap.
Innovation Solution
The development of an improved multi-camera panoramic capture device with a systemic range of design strategies for both optical and opto-mechanical lens design, and device design and fabrication, aiming to reduce parallax errors and seam widths, and enhance image quality and processing efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If cameras are sparsely populated on the outer surface of the device, then device complexity is reduced, but image quality deteriorates due to gaps or seams between adjacent cameras requiring widened FOV overlap
Solution Approach 1:
The device outer surface is divided into multiple polygonal regions, with each region assigned to a separate camera. The cameras are arranged to abut along shared edges, creating a segmented coverage pattern that eliminates gaps while maintaining manageable individual camera FOVs. This segmentation allows complete spherical coverage without requiring excessive overlap between cameras.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from traditional sparse camera arrangements to a polyhedral geometry where cameras are positioned at vertices or faces of a polygonal structure. This dimensional reorganization allows cameras to abut along edges in three-dimensional space, achieving complete coverage without the need for widened FOV overlap that would be required in planar arrangements.
2Reliability
If cameras are arranged with widened FOV to capture gaps between adjacent cameras, then complete 360-degree panoramic coverage is achieved, but parallax differences increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The spherical field of view is segmented into multiple discrete polygonal regions, each captured by an individual camera. By assigning specific angular ranges to each camera rather than using widened overlapping FOVs, the system reduces parallax differences while maintaining complete 360-degree coverage through the segmented polyhedral arrangement.
3Manufacturing precision
If adjacent cameras abut along shared edges, then seam widths are minimized, but mechanical variations cause FOV and alignment inconsistencies
Solution Approach 1:
The polyhedral camera arrangement is designed and pre-aligned during manufacturing to establish precise geometric relationships between adjacent cameras before deployment. The shared edges of the polygonal structure provide predetermined alignment references that compensate for mechanical variations, ensuring consistent FOV overlap and seam positioning across all camera pairs.
4Reliability
If excess image overlap is used to compensate for mechanical errors, then image stitching reliability is improved, but image processing complexity and time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements controlled, minimal overlap regions specifically at the shared edges of the polyhedral camera arrangement. Rather than using excessive overlap throughout the entire FOV, the design provides localized overlap only where mechanically necessary to compensate for alignment variations, significantly reducing the total volume of redundant image data that requires processing while maintaining stitching reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
A low parallax imaging device includes a plurality of imaging lens elements arranged to capture adjacent fields of view. In some examples, adjacent imaging lens elements may contact at datum features to maintain a desired spacing. The spacing may allow for partial overlapping of low-parallax volumes associated with the respective imaging lens elements.