Exciting images can be obtained by positioning miniature cameras on people, for example to give a referee’s or jockey’s view of an event. However, the images obtained are generally very unsteady, and the shot framing may fall a long way short of that which a cameraman would have chosen.
We have developed a solution to these problems, by using a combination of a fisheye lens and specialised image stabilisation. The fisheye lens gives the camera a very wide field of view, allowing a suitable portion to be extracted even in the presence of significant camera rotation. A real-time image stabilisation method has been developed, adapted to the unusual geometry of a fisheye lens, and including a way of removing this lens distortion from the stabilised output image. This could be extended to automate the framing of the output image, for example by detecting the focus of expansion to frame the shot in the direction of travel.
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