Photogrammetric processing of digital 360° panoramic camera image data

Digital panoramic cameras have found growing interest in photogrammetry in the past few years. Originally primarily being used for purposes such as web-based animation or surveillance, panoramic cameras have meanwhile reached a performance, which makes them an interesting data acquisition tool for a number of applications in photogrammetry. New developments in sensor technology have enabled the acquisition of very high resolution 360° panoramic images with an image format of up to almost one Gigapixel. Advances in display technology and computer graphics allow to visualize images of this size dynamically. Fig. 3 shows an example of a panoramic image of Dresden in reduced size. Especially for recording indoor scenes, the use of panoramic cameras has proven to be beneficial. As a consequence, photogrammetrists have addressed the task of geometric modelling and calibration of digital panoramic imaging devices, allowing to use them for 3D measurement and object reconstruction purposes.