METHOD FOR DETERMINING BIAS IN AN INERTIAL MEASUREMENT UNIT OF AN IMAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE

A method for determining bias in an inertial measurement unit of an image acquisition device comprises mapping at least one reference point within an image frame into a 3D spherical space based on a lens projection model for the image acquisition device to provide a respective anchor point in 3D space for each reference point. For reference points within a given image frame, an estimate of frame-to-frame motion at the reference point between the given frame and a previously acquired frame is obtained; a measure of device orientation for an acquisition time of the reference point in the given frame and the previously acquired frame, the measure including a bias component, is obtained from the inertial measurement unit; a corresponding anchor point is projected in 3D space according to a difference in the measure of device orientation in the given frame and the previously acquired frame to provide a 3D vector Vm; a result of the estimated frame-to-frame motion for the point from the given frame is projected into the previously acquired frame into 3D space to provide a 3D vector Ve; and a cross product Vc of the 3D vectors Vm and Ve is used to update a bias component value.