Omnidirectional cameras that give a 360degrees panoramic view of the surroundings have recently been used in many applications such as robotics, navigation, and surveillance. This paper describes the application of parametric ego-motion estimation for vehicle detection to perform surround analysis using an automobile-mounted camera. For this purpose, the parametric planar motion model is integrated with the transformations to compensate distortion in omnidirectional images. The framework is used to detect objects with independent motion or height above the road. Camera calibration as well as the approximate vehicle speed obtained from a CAN bus are integrated with the motion information from spatial and temporal gradients using a Bayesian approach. The approach is tested for various configurations of an automobile-mounted omni camera as well as a rectilinear camera. Successful detection and tracking of moving vehicles and generation of a surround map are demonstrated for application to intelligent driver support.

A mobile platform mounted with omnidirectional vision sensor (ODVS) can be used to monitor large areas and detect interesting events such as independently moving persons and vehicles. To avoid false alarms due to extraneous features, the image motion induced by the moving platform should be compensated. This paper describes a formulation and application of parametric egomotion compensation for an ODVS. Omni images give 360. view of surroundings but undergo considerable image distortion. To account for these distortions, the parametric planar motion model is integrated with the transformations into omni image space. Prior knowledge of approximate camera calibration and camera speed is integrated with the estimation process using a Bayesian approach. Iterative, coarse-to-fine, gradient-based estimation is used to correct the motion parameters for vibrations and other inaccuracies in prior knowledge. Experiments with a camera mounted on various types of mobile platforms demonstrate successful detection of moving persons and vehicles.