METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING PANORAMIC AND RECTILINEAR IMAGES USING ROTATIONALLY SYMMETRIC WIDE-ANGLE LENS

The present invention provides mathematically accurate image processing algorithms for extracting natural looking panoramic images and distortion-free rectilinear images from images acquired using a camera equipped with a wide-angle lens which is rotationally symmetric about an optical axis and devices implementing such algorithms. Imaging systems using this method can be used not only in security•surveillance applications for indoor and outdoor environments, but also in diverse areas such as video phone for apartment entrance door, rear view camera for vehicles, visual sensor for unmanned aerial vehicles and robots, camera phone, PC camera, and broadcasting camera. Also, it can be used to obtain panoramic or rectilinear photographs using a digital camera.