Real-Time Virtual Viewpoint Generation on the GPU for Scene Navigation

In this paper we present a method for achieving real-time view interpolation in a virtual navigation application that uses a collection of pre-captured panoramic views as a representation of the environment. In this context, viewpoint interpolation is essential to achieve smooth and realistic viewpoint transition while the user is moving from one panorama to another. In this proposed approach, view interpolation is achieved by first computing the optical flow field between a pair of adjacent panoramas. This flow field can then be used by the view morphing algorithm to generate, on-the-fly, virtual viewpoints in-between existing views. Realistic interpolation is obtained by taking into account both scene geometry and color information. To achieve real-time viewpoint interpolation, a GPU implementation of the viewpoint interpolation algorithm has been developed. We ran our algorithm on multiple interior and exterior scenes and we were able to produce smooth and realistic viewpoint transitions by generating virtual views at a rate of more than 300 panoramas per second.