The VISTA project is exploring means of producing very wide angled
(panoramic) views of the environment. Some of these methods are
suitable for robot perception in that they provide detailed shape and
image information to the robot at a very low cost, with no moving
parts. Other methods we are investigating provide extremely high
resolution panoramic images for VR puproses. Applications of this
technology range from surveillance, remote tele-operation to
three-dimensional model building, and estimation of egomotion.
Below are some images taken from a camera that is pointed at a curved
mirror. These images are unwarped to produce panoramic views.
Dewarping can now be done with inexpensive hardware resident on a
desktop PC.
The images are obtained from an upward looking camera that is pointed
at a curved (hyperbolic) mirror. Here is an image of our new camera.
We are building a 1/2 scale version of this camera at the moment.
