Town Digitizing for Building an Image-Based Cyber Space

This paper proposes a town digitizing for building an image-based cyber space. The cyber space consists of omnidirectional cameras and a large number of omnidirectional images connecting them. We discuss on details of the town digitizing technique and possibilities of the cyber space in this paper. The technique is divided into three steps: omnidirectional image acquisition, parameter estimation among omnidirectional images, and smooth interpolation among them. The omnidirectional images are taken using the powerwheel or the tripod with the omnidirectional camera. Then the parameters among omnidirectional images are estimated by Hough transform and template matching. Based on the estimated parameters, the system smoothly interpolates the omnidirectional images and generates continuous virtual views. That is, the system allows users to move in the virtual space like a previous 3-D graphics system. This paper also shows the validity of the town digitizing by building a model of Kyoto city.