Rapid omnidirectional vision acquisition using an intelligent linear scanning technique

Many computer vision applications can benefit from omnidirectional vision sensing, rather than depending solely on conventional cameras that have constrained fields of view. For example, mobile robots often require a full 360 view of their environment in order to perform navigational tasks such identifying landmarks, localizing within the environment, and determining free paths in which to move. There has been much research interest in omnidirectional vision in the past decade and many techniques have been developed. These techniques include: (i) catadioptric methods which can provide rapid image acquisition, but lack image resolution; and (ii) mosaicing and linear scanning techniques which have high image resolution but typically have slow image acquisition speed. In this paper, we introduce a novel linear scanning panoramic vision system that can acquire panoramic images quickly with little loss of image resolution. The system makes use of a fast line-scan camera, instead of a slower, conventional area-scan camera. In addition, a unique coarse-to-fine panoramic imaging technique has been developed that is based on smart sensing principles. Using the active vision paradigm, we control the motion of the rotating camera using feedback from the images. This results in high acquisition speeds and proportionally low storage requirements. Experimentation has been carried out, and results are given. Correspondence to: M.J. Barth (e-mail: barth@ee.ucr.edu)