The omnipolar camera: A new approach to stereo immersive capture

Abstract

We introduce in this paper a camera setup for stereo immersive (omnistereo) capture. An omnistereo pair of images gives stereo information up to 360 degrees around a central observer. Previous methods to produce omnistereo images assume a static scene in order to stitch together multiple images captured by a stereo camera rotating on a fixed tripod. Our omnipolar camera setup uses a minimum of 3 cameras with fisheye lenses. The multiple epipoles are used as locations to stitch the images together and produce omnistereo images with no horizontal misalignments due to parallax. We show results of using 3 cameras to capture an unconstrained dynamic scene while the camera is travelling. The produced omnistereo videos are formatted to be displayed on a cylindrical screen or dome.