Rigorous model of panoramic cameras

Establishing a rigorous model for non-frame dynamic imaging system requires incorporating the complex geometry of perspective center into the transformation function that connects image space to object space. This research addresses an appropriate transformation method by extending traditional collinearity equations for the sophisticated descriptions of the relationship between the panoramic image space and object space in order to achieve the robustness of reconstructing the object space. Generally, the crucial requirement of the rigorous model for the non-frame satellite sensor is to have the direct measurements of the CPS/INS for determining the satellite trajectory for the image acquisition periods. However, since there were no measurements of Global Positioning System (CPS) and Inertial Navigation System (INS) for the satellite trajectory of panoramic image data used in this research, we unavoidably applied the indirect method for recovering Exterior Orientation Parameters (EOPs) of the panoramic imagery. This indirect method is a suitable method because it is less sensitive to the errors, caused by the incorrect interior orientation parameters, for obtaining less uncertain results of the reconstructing 3D object space. This research proposes the a robust model for panoramic cameras. This model includes extended collinearity equations, space intersection algorithm based on the coplanarity condition, and object reconstructing modules for generating Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and ortho-rectified image. The proposed model is analyzed in terms of its capabilities for the recovery of the EOPs and the performance of the space intersection by inspecting the statistics of the output. The model is also tested for proving the validity by comparing it with the generic sensor models such as affine transformation, Direct Linear Transformation (DLT), and Rational Function Model (RFM). Experiments performed in this research show that the proposed model is a suitable representation of the panoramic imagery and can produce useful input for the GIS applications.