Epipolar Geometry and the Essential Matrix

The world point P and the centers of projection of the two cameras identify a plane in space, the epipolar plane of point P. The Figure shows a triangle of this plane, delimited by the two projection rays and by the baseline of the camera pair, that is, the line segment that connects the two centers of projection.1 If the image planes are thought of extending indefinitely, the baseline intersects the two image planes at two points called the epipoles of the two images. In particular, if the cameras are arranged so that the baseline is parallel to an image plane, then the corresponding epipole is a point at infinity. The epipoles are fixed points for a given camera pair configuration. With cameras somewhat tilted towards each other, and with a sufficiently wide field of view, the epipoles would be inside the image. We use the term “baseline” for the line segment. However, this term is also often used for the length of this segment, or even for the entire line through the two centers of projection.