An omnidirectional stereoscopic sensor: spherical color image acquisition

This paper describes an original stereoscopic sensor acquisition of color spherical images derived from panoramic images taken at different 3D space positions. The sensor principle is based on the rotation, under the control of two stepping motors, of two monochromatic linear CCD cameras around two perpendicular axes. The first axis, horizontal gets through the optical centers of the two cameras and allows acquiring color stereo-panoramas. The second axis, vertical gets through the middle of the optical centers. It extends the acquisition to the whole scene. The mechanical sensor architecture allows us to obtain cylindrical stereoscopic images along a ring path. A specific orthographic projection from the color panoramic images provides a couple of color spherical images. Experimental results show the high precision of the acquisition and high quality of the color spherical pictures. This sensor is particularly well adapted for the acquisition of scenes over 360×360 degrees for multimedia and motion pictures.