Multi-user stereoscopic 3-D panoramic vision system and method

Abstract

A panoramic camera system includes a plurality of camera units mounted in a common, e.g., horizontal, plane and arranged in a circumferential array. Each camera unit includes one or more lenses for focusing light from a field of view onto an array of light-sensitive elements. A panoramic image generator combines electronic image data from the multiplicity of the fields of view to generate electronic image data representative of a first 360-degree panoramic view and a second 360-degree panoramic view, wherein the first and second panoramic views are angularly displaced. A stereographic display system is provided to retrieve operator-selectable portions of the first and second panoramic views and to display the user selectable portions in human viewable form. In a further aspect, a video display method is provided.

Having thus described the preferred embodiments, the invention is now claimed to be: 
     
       1. A panoramic camera system comprising:
 a circumferential array of camera units mounted in a common plane, each camera unit including one or more lenses focusing light from a field of view onto an array of light-sensitive elements; 
 an image processor collecting and sorting full images from each of the camera units in the circumferential array; 
 a panoramic image generator combining electronic image data from a multiplicity of the fields of view to generate electronic image data representative of a first 360-degree panoramic view and a second 360-degree panoramic view, said first and second panoramic views being angularly displaced with respect to each other; 
 a first stereographic display system retrieving operator-selectable portions of said first and second panoramic views and outputting the user selectable portions in human viewable form; and 
 said panoramic image generator fusing the full images acquired by every second camera in the circumferential array to generate the first panoramic view and fusing the full images acquired by every other camera in the circumferential array to generate the second panoramic view. 
 
     
     
       2. The panoramic camera system of  claim 1 , wherein said camera units are mounted in a generally horizontal plane. 
     
     
       3. The panoramic camera system of  claim 1 , wherein said circumferential array is selected from:
 a circular array; and 
 a plurality of partial circular arrays.