Ewout van Bekkum Chris Gurley Suha Kayum Nate Klein

Ewout van Bekkum Chris Gurley Suha Kayum Nate Klein

Brief Summary • Purpose of project • Automated Gigapixel Panorama Acquisition • Create a platform to • Adjust the camera’s direction for every picture • Take the photograph automatically • Make the photographs available via FTP

Design Changes • Pan-tilt Tripod Head • OEM instead of custom design • Center of rotation not at the nodal point • parallax error • Control camera movement with no feedback • Control position based on rotational velocity and time • Positional error due to non-linear velocity • Relay box to control movement and shutter • Modified OEM switch box to be triggered by relays • Custom switch created to control shutter

Hardware Used • ICOP Technology eBox-2300 • Xenarc 705TSV Touchscreen LCD • PhidgetTextLCD • Custom Relay Box • Nikon D80 dSLR with modified wired remote shutter release • Outdoor Pan Tilt Drive unit w/ Controller CCTV-75AV

Hardware Implementation • The user uses the Touch Screen as the main interface • The touch screen is connected to the eBox via VGA and USB

Hardware Implementation • The software controls the digital outputs on the PhidgetsTextLCD • PhidgetsTextLCD is connected to the eBox via USB

Hardware Implementation • Relay Control Box • 4 micromini relays and 1 faster reed relay for the shutter • Each relay channel is wired as seen below:

Hardware Implementation • In the relay control box, digital output channels: • 1 - 4 trigger movement relays • 0 triggers the reed relay for the shutter release • The relay control box is powered via USB

Hardware Implementation • The relays simulate the movement buttons on the pan/tilt controller and the shutter release on the wired shutter release • This way we can control the shutter release and movement of the platform

Software Used • Visual Studio 2005 • Development • Testing • Windows Embedded CE • SphereFTP • FTP Server for Windows CE • Share Camera as Flash Drive • Custom user interface • Set Camera and Lens parameters • Define Bounds and Direction of Panorama • Display approximate field of view and gigapixels of the panorama and number of images required

Software Implementation • Custom Windows CE 6.0 Build • WiFi integrated • PhidgetsKit drivers included • On startup starts the interface and FTP server

Software Implementation • SphereFTP • Runs as an NT Serivice in the background • Our custom C# interface starts as a fullscreen GUI

Software Implementation • GUI starts and allows entry for: • Camera and Lens Parameters • The amount of overlap between images

Software Implementation • On startup and when the parameters are changed, the following are calculated: • Vertical and Horizontal field of view and megapixels per image • Degrees required between images

Software Implementation • The directional movement buttons can now be used to move to the bottom right of the panorama • To start a movement a digital out on the Phidget board is driven high • To stop it’s pulled down

Software Implementation • Once the platform is pointing the camera to the bottom right of the panorama the user clicks the “Set End” to confirm the location

Software Implementation • Now the platform is set so it can only move left and up • The user can now move the platform to the top left corner of the panorama

Software Implementation • When the movement in either direction stops the following are calculated by multiplying the time the relay was open by the platform’s speed in that direction: • The Panorama’s horizontal and vertical Field of View • Shots per row and column and the total shots • Approximate resulting gigapixels

Software Implementation • When the platform is located at the top left, the user clicks Set Start • The start button becomes enabled • all movement is disabled

Software Implementation • Start is pressed • The algorithm moves the platform: left to right, down, right to left, down, etc.

Software Implementation • Start is pressed • The algorithm calculates how long the relays have to be open by dividing the degrees movement needed by the platform’s speed in that direction

Software Implementation • Start is pressed • Waits at each location for the exposure period times the amount of exposures required

Software Implementation • Finished • The user can now return to the initial screen by pressing reset • All the images are now also available via FTP to be stitched on another computer

Results • Several panoramas were taken • Most are too large to view with a normal image viewer or browser • They can be viewed with Zoomify on our website

Results • To show the level of detail, here is a sample panorama...

Results • For more… www.ewoutvb.com/4180/

Ewout van Bekkum Chris Gurley Suha Kayum Nate Klein