Single Camera Omnidirectional Stereo Imaging System

A new method for the catadioptric omnidirectional stereo vision with single camera is presented in this paper. The proposed method uses a concave lens with a convex mirror. Since the optical part of the proposed method is simple and commercially available, the resultant omnidirectional stereo system becomes versatile and cost-effective. The closed-form solution for 3D distance computation is presented based on the simple optics including the reflection and the reflection of the convex mirror and the concave lens. The compactness of the system and the simplicity of the image processing make the omnidirectional stereo system appropriate for real-time applications such as autonomous navigation of a mobile robot or the object manipulation. In order to verify the feasibility of the proposed method, an experimental prototype is implemented.