11: Image formation

One picture is worth a thousand words — Fred R. Barnard

This chapter discuss how images are formed and captured, the first step in robot and human perception of the world. From images we can deduce the size, shape and position of objects in the world as well as other characteristics such as color and texture.

The chapter covers:

• perspective image formation
• lens distortion models
• camera calibration: homogeneous transform approach and planar target approach
• pose estimation
• fisheye camera model
• catadioptric camera model
• spherical camera model
• unified imaging model