Method and system for forming a panoramic image of a scene having minimal aspect distortion

摘要

A panoramic image is generated from a sequence of input frames captured by a camera that translates relative to a scene having at least two points at different distances from the camera. A processor (13) is responsive to optical flow between corresponding points in temporally different input frames for computing flow statistics for at least portions of some of the input frames and for computing respective stitching costs between some of the portions and respective neighboring portions thereof. A selection unit (18) selects a sequence of portions and respective neighboring portions that minimizes a cost function that is a function of the flow statistics and stitching costs. A stitching unit (21) stitches the selected portions and respective neighboring portions so as to form a panoramic image of the scene, which may then be displayed or post-processed.