The ultimate immersive experience: Panoramic 3D video acquisition

The paper presents a new approach on an omni-directional omni-stereo multi-camera system that allows the recording of panoramic 3D video with high resolution and quality and display in stereo 3D on a cylindrical screen. It has been developed in the framework of the TiME Lab at Fraunhofer HHI, an experimental platform for immersive media and related content creation. The new system uses a mirror rig to enable a multi-camera constellation that is close to the concept of concentric mosaics. A proof of concept has shown that the systematical approximation error related to concentric mosaics is negligible in practice and parallax-free stitching of stereoscopic video panoramas can be achieved with high 3D quality and for arbitrary scenes with depth ranges from 2 meters to infinity.