Shape Defined Panoramas

Abstract

Panoramic projections are often defined by the geometric surfaces used to derive the projections’ equations (e.g., spherical and cylindrical panoramas). The parameterization of these surfaces greatly affects the resulting projection equations and image properties. Problematically, unusual parameterization can reproduce panoramas associated with other shapes. In this paper, we ensure an explicit link between surface shape and projection behavior by suggesting use of projection surfaces parameterized by arc-length, binding rendering behavior to surface modeling. This allows us to create new panorama variations beyond the conventional for creating panoramas of CG environments as well as for resampling panoramas created from cameras. Further we describe an interface for composing these panoramas and show how this technique lends itself to controlling distortion and composition of panoramic projections. Additionally we provide details on rendering these projections.