Omnidirectional Camera Stabilization via Sensor Fusion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional omnidirectional cameras capture spherical video but playback often results in erratic movements due to user head movements, causing valuable footage to be out of view unless manually panned, leading to incomplete viewing experiences.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a location-determining component and sensor array to generate data correlating geographic location and orientation with each spherical video frame, allowing a processor unit to reorient the video to align with the direction of travel, stabilize, and lock the focal direction, thereby maintaining a consistent field of view during playback.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the focal direction is locked to the user's head movements, then the playback reflects the first-person perspective, but the field of view deviates from the direction of travel causing valuable footage to be out of view
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the focal direction during playback by computing a reoriented focal direction that combines the original head-mounted camera orientation with the direction of travel derived from GPS and sensor data. This dynamic reorientation allows the playback to adapt between first-person perspective and direction-of-travel alignment, preventing valuable footage from being out of view while maintaining the immersive first-person experience.
2Ease of operation
If the spherical video is presented with a single focal direction, then the playback is simplified, but the field of view is narrower than the overall spherical video requiring manual panning
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary computation of the reoriented focal direction and corresponding focal axis before playback begins. By pre-processing the spherical video frames to establish the corrected focal direction based on direction of travel data, the system eliminates the need for manual panning during playback, allowing users to view all captured footage continuously without time loss.
3Measurement precision
If the focal direction is aligned with head movements, then the camera captures what the user sees, but the playback exhibits erratic movements that destabilize the video
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces an intermediary computational step that processes the raw head movement data through sensor fusion algorithms combining GPS location, accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer data. This intermediary processing layer filters and stabilizes the focal direction calculations, removing erratic movements while preserving the essential head-tracking functionality, thus achieving both precise head movement tracking and video stability.
Data Source
AI summary
An omnidirectional camera is disclosed that records spherical video associated with a particular focal direction while in motion. The omnidirectional camera may implement one or more sensors and location-determining components to facilitate the recorded spherical video being subsequently correlated to an orientation and location of the omnidirectional camera during recording in a time-wise fashion to provide several enhancements during playback. These enhancements include reorienting the spherical video to a new focal direction. Data derived from the one or more sensors and location-determining components may be further utilized to overlay graphical objects onto the spherical video during playback to provide additional feedback.