Indoor Polar Panoramas Using a Rectified Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area Projection

We present an algorithm for converting an indoor spherical panorama into a photograph with a simulated overhead view. The resulting image will have an extremely wide field of view covering 4π steradians of the spherical panorama. Our method provides the photographer the ability to shoot at the ground level and later post-process the pictures to get a fake bird’s eye view of the scene. We argue that our method complements the stereographic projection commonly used in polar panoramas. The stereographic projection works well in creating the “little planet” effect for outdoor panoramas; whereas our method is a well-suited counterpart for indoor panoramas.