Geometric Modelling and Calibration of a High Resolution Panoramic Camera

In photogrammetric applications the use of a digital panoramic camera with 360° field of view may provide an interesting alternative to conventional methods. As the image geometry does not obey a central perspective it was necessary to establish a geometric model for digital panoramic cameras. This model was tested using a camera prototype produced by KST (Kamera & System Technik). Several mechanical and optical characteristics of the physical camera system cause deviations from the basic model. These deviations were geometrically modeled using additional parameters. The model was implemented in a spatial resection and a spatial intersection to calculate the exterior and interior orientation, to analyse the effect of additional parameters and to verify the accuracy potential of the camera. FIG. 1. Camera EYESCAN M3 with glass-fibre illumination system and its basic parameters