Wide range image sensing using a thrown-up camera

In this paper, we propose a wide-range image sensing method using a camera thrown up into the air. By using camera thrown up in this way, we can get images that are otherwise difficult to obtain, such as those taken from overhead. As an example of wide-range image sensing, we integrated video images captured by a thrown-up camera using an image mosaicing technique. When rotation about the optical axis of the camera can be ignored, we can integrate images by mosaicing using a translational approximation, which preferentially pastes pixels around the image center. To obtain the information about the camera direction, a rotational approximation using the angles of incident light rays is required. We also propose use of a high-frame-rate camera (HFR camera) in order to acquire a large amount of information. A seamless large image was obtained by synthesizing the images captured by a thrown-up HFR camera. We found that high frame rates of around 1000 fps were necessary.