Omnidirectional Video Applications

In the past decade there has been a significant increase in the use of omni-directional video — video that captures information in all directions. The bulk of this research has concentrated on the use of omni-directional video for navigation and for obstacle avoidance. This paper reviews omni-directional research at the VAST lab that address other applications; in particular, we review advances in systems to address the questions “ What is/was there?” (tele-observation), “Where am I?” (location determination), “Where have I been?” (textured-tube mosaicing), and “What is moving around me and where is it?” (surveillance). In the area of tele-observation, we briefly review recent results in both human factors studies on user interfaces for omni-directional imaging in Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT). The study clearly demonstrated the importance of omni-directional viewing in these situations. We also review recent work on the DOVE system (Dolphin Omni-directional Video Equipment) and its evaluation. In the area of location determination, we discuss a system that uses a panoramic pyramid imager and a new color histogram-oriented representation to recognize the room in which the camera is located. Addressing the question of “Where have I been?”, we introduce the idea of textured tubes and present a simple example of this mosaic computed from omni-directional video. The final area reviewed is recent advances on target detection and tracking from a stationary omni-directional camera.