One of the goals of planetary exploration is to cache rock samples for subsequent return to Earth in the future Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. This paper presents a method of binocular camera calibration. Robotic vision has become a very popular field in recent years due to the numerous promising applications it may enhance. However, errors within the cameras and in their perception of their...

In many multi-camera vision systems the effect of camera locations on the task-specific quality of service is ignored. Researchers in Computational Geometry have proposed elegant solutions for some sensor location problem classes. Unfortunately, these solutions use unrealistic assumptions about the cameras’ capabilities that make these algorithms unsuitable for many real world computer vision a...

Most of the existing panoramic cameras have cylindrical field of view (FOV) which has a 360 width in azimuth, but a limited height in elevation. However, a hemispherical (or near spherical) FOV is highly desirable in many applications such as robot navigation and surveillance. This paper presents a planarmirror-based panoramic camera (HEM) which is capable of acquiring nearly hemispherical FOV ...

Traditional three-dimensional gait analyses require the skilled palpation of anatomical landmarks to identify joint parameters and produce reliable joint kinematics. Functional methods have been developed to help improve the reliability and validity of identifying joint kinematic parameters. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a functional method could improve the between-day r...

In this work we design a tool for creators of interactive stories to explore the effect of applying camera patterns to achieve high level communicative goals in a 3D animated scenario. We design a pattern language to specify high level communicative goals that are translated into simple or complex camera techniques and transitions, and then flexibly applied over a sequence of character actions....

[Abstract] Single Cycle Instrument Placement (SCIP), the ability to autonomously approach rocks and place contact instruments within 1cm of selected features, has been identified as a high priority for increasing the efficiency and science return for planetary rover surface operations. Because of imprecise localization, it is necessary for a rover to visually keep track of targets, using images...

Generating content for third person games and machinima requires knowledge in cinematography (camera placement, framing, lighting) and editing (cutting between cameras). In existing systems, such knowledge either comes from the final user (machinima) or from a database of precompiled solutions (third person games). In this paper, we present a system that can make decisions about editing and aut...

A vision system to gauge two types of automotive parts has been developed. One of the part types is a power steering connector in which the depth and width of the groove, and the distance between the start of the groove and the end of the power steering line are gauged. For the second type of part, a crimped connector attached to a brake hose, measurements of interest are the two diameters of t...

Camera trapping has become an increasingly widespread tool for wildlife ecologists, with large numbers of studies relying on photo capture rates or presence/absence information. It is increasingly clear that camera placement can directly impact this kind of data, yet these biases are poorly understood. We used a paired camera design to investigate the effect of small-scale habitat features on s...