A multicamera setup for generating stereo panoramic video

Traditional visual communication systems convey only two-dimensional (2-D) fixed field-of-view (FOV) video information. The viewer is presented with a series of flat, non-stereoscopic images, which fail to provide a realistic sense of depth. Furthermore, traditional video is restricted to only a small part of the scene, based on the director's discretion and the user is not allowed to "look around" in an environment. The objective of this work is to address both of these issues and develop new techniques for creating stereo panoramic video sequences. A stereo panoramic video sequence should be able to provide the viewer with stereo vision at any direction (complete 360-degree FOV) at video rates. In this paper, we propose a new technique for creating stereo panoramic video using a multicamera approach, thus creating a high-resolution output. We present a setup that is an extension of a previously known approach, developed for the generation of still stereo panoramas, and demonstrate that it is capable of creating high-resolution stereo panoramic video sequences. We further explore the limitations involved in a practical implementation of the setup, namely the limited number of cameras and the nonzero physical size of real cameras. The relevant tradeoffs are identified and studied.