This invention produces large, panoramic, and high-resolution display images by electronically connecting multiple camera shots of the same subject taken from various angles. If these camera images were simply conjoined, picture incongruity would result due to the differences in the shooting conditions observable when the subject images are transposed to their projected surfaces. This system eliminates such incongruity by performing a geometric conversion of the images.
The example illustrated in the inserted figure below shows the synthesis of such a large-display panoramic scenic picture. Respective camera images are converted to a designated location on the virtual display screen by means of a perspective conversion technique (usually it is composed as if facing the front of the camera). This perspective conversion involves a formula that utilizes pan angle, tilt angle, and the camera's angle of view as parameters to convert every image pixel location to a corresponding location on a virtual display screen. Any other pixels needed on the virtual display screen are interpolated in reference to the neighboring pixels in the aforementioned display locations. This process eliminates the incongruous seams between camera images that are taken from different locations.

Invention applications
This technology can be applied to high-quality images for large screen displays. As one example, it is suitable for the large, high-quality picture display image synthesis of panoramic pictures for various advertisements, aerial surveys by monitoring satellites or aircraft, and remote sensing images.

(Inventors: Yuko YAMANOUCHI, Nobuyuki YAGI, Hideo NOGUCHI)