Violating rotating camera geometry: The effect of radial distortion on self-calibration

Conference item

In this paper we show that radial distortion of images invalidates the geometric constraint on which self-calibration of a rotating camera is based - that 3D lines drawn between matched features all intersect at the rotation centre. We develop a geometric picture showing how radial distortion violates this constraint and discuss the implications for self-calibration of a rotating camera. In particular we show that the behaviour of self-calibration is markedly different for pin-cushion and barrelling distortion, the latter causing self-calibration to be unreliable or to fail completely. A method is presented for automatically estimating the radial distortion over a sequence of images, when both distortion and camera internal parameters vary. We discuss when such an approach will work and whether accurate automatic calibration of a rotating camera is really possible. Keywords: self-calibration, radial distortion © 2000 IEEE.

Authors: Tordoff, B; Murray, D

• Publication status: Published
• Host title: 15TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PATTERN RECOGNITION, VOL 1, PROCEEDINGS
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 423-427
• Publication date: 2000-01-01
• ISSN: 1051-4651
• ISBN: 0769507514
• Keywords: self-calibration; radial distortion