Mosaicing New Views: The Crossed-Slits Projection

Weintroduceanewkindofmosaicing,where thepositionof the samplingstrip varies asa functionof the input camera location. The new images that are generated this way correspond to a new projection model defined by two slits, termed here the Crossed-Slits (X-Slits) projection. In this projection model, every 3D point is projected by a ray defined as the line that passes through that point and intersects the two slits. The intersection of the projection rays with the imaging surface defines the image. X-Slits mosaicing provides two benefits. First, the generated mosaics are closer to perspective images than traditional pushbroom mosaics. Second, by simple manipulationsof the strip sampling function,wecanchange the locationof oneof the virtual slits, providingavirtualwalkthroughof aX-slits camera; all this can be done without recovering any 3D geometry and without calibration. A number of examples where we translate the virtual camera and change its orientation are given; the examples demonstrate realistic changes in parallax, reflections, and occlusions.