An Efficient Error-Bounded General Camera Model

Camera models are essential infrastructure in computer vision, computer graphics, and visualization. The most frequently used camera models are based on the single- viewpoint constraint. Removing this constraint brings the advantage of improved flexibility in camera design. However, prior camera models that eliminate the single- viewpoint constraint are inefficient. We describe an approximate model for coherent general cameras, which projects efficiently with user chosen accuracy. The rays of the general camera are partitioned into simple cameras that approximate the camera locally. The simple cameras are modeled with k- ray cameras, a novel class of non-pinhole cameras. The rays of a k-ray camera interpolate between k construction rays. We analyze several variants of k-ray cameras. The resulting compound camera model is efficient because the number of simple cameras is orders of magnitude lower than the original number of rays camera, and because each simple camera offers closed-form projection.