A Multi-imager Camera for Variable-Definition Video (XDTV)

The enabling technologies of increasing PC bus bandwidth, multicore processors, and advanced graphics processors combined with a high-perform-ance multi-image camera system are leading to new ways of considering video. We describe scalable varied-resolution video capture, presenting a novel method of generating multi-resolution dialable-shape panoramas, a line-based calibration method that achieves optimal multi-imager global registration across possibly disjoint views, and a technique for recasting mosaicking homographies for arbitrary planes. Results show synthesis of a 7.5 megapixel (MP) video stream from 22 synchronized uncompressed imagers operating at 30 Hz on a single PC.