ORIENT-CAM, A Camera That Knows Its Orientation and Some Applications

We introduce a new type of smart cameras. These cameras have an embedded orientation sensor which provides an estimate of the orientation of the camera. In this paper, we describe our prototype orientation sensor and propose some methods for the calibration of the whole camera. We then show two applications. First, the camera is used to create oriented spherical panoramas. Second, it is used for image based localization, in which only the position of the camera has to be retrieved.