Calibration-free augmented reality in perspective

This paper deals with video-based augmented reality and proposes an algorithm for augmenting a real video sequence with views of graphics objects without metric calibration of the video camera by representing the motion of the video camera in projective space. A virtual camera, by which views of graphics objects are generated, is attached to a real camera by specifying image locations of the world coordinate system of the virtual world. The virtual camera is decomposed into calibration and motion components in order to make full use of graphics tools. The projective motion of the real camera recovered from image matches has the function of transferring the virtual camera and makes the virtual camera move according to the motion of the real camera. The virtual camera also follows the change of the internal parameters of the real camera. This paper shows the theoretical and experimental results of our application of nonmetric vision to augmented reality.