Improved Mirror Ball Projection for More Accurate Merging of Multiple Camera Outputs and Process Monitoring

Using spherical mirrors in place of wide-angle cameras allows for cost-effective monitoring of manufacturing processes in hazardous environment, where a camera would normally not operate. This includes environments of high heat, vacuum, and strong electromagnetic fields. Moreover, it allows the layering of multiple camera types (e.g., color image, near-infrared, long-wavelength infrared, ultraviolet) into a single wide-angle output, whilst accounting for the different camera placements and lenses used. Normally, the different camera positions introduce a parallax shift between the images, but with a spherical projection as produced by a spherical mirror, this parallax shift is reduced, depending on mirror size and distance to the monitoring target. This paper introduces a variation of the ‘mirror ball projection,’ that accounts for distortion produced by a perspective camera at the pole of the projection. Finally, the efficacy of process monitoring via a mirror ball is evaluated.