Panoramic camera using a mirror rotation mechanism and a fast image mosaicing

We describe a new panoramic camera that incorporates a 2-axis mirror rotation mechanism and a fast image mosaicing method. The mirror is positioned in front of the camera to move the camera's view. Partial images are taken during the mirror rotation. The image mosaicing method projects each partial image onto a projection surface around the rotation center of the mirror to produce a panoramic image. In this process, the projection center is shifted from the original viewpoint of the lens to the mirror rotation center to reduce discontinuity caused by motion parallax from the panoramic image. Our panoramic camera can provide accurate, continuous, high-resolution, large and endless (360 degrees wide) panoramic images with a short panoramic image acquisition time.