Real-Time Panoramic Viewer

Vistaller Technologies, Inc. proposes a Phase I project to carry out the research aimed at developing a novel real-time panoramic video viewer for live tele-immersive applications. The overall goal of this effort is to establish the feasibility of two different novel panoramic video viewers that can present panoramic videos in a real-time, live fashion. In our systems, the computational bottleneck is removed by replacing most of the computational procedures by optical procedures. This elimination of the computational bottleneck enables the viewer to be live, real-time, and low cost. Furthermore, the viewer has the same large FOV of the imager. Both the size of the viewing room and the focal point of the system can be varied without changing either the horizontal or the vertical FOV. This leads to quick and easy setup and low operating cost of the system. These advantages combined promise a simple, yet powerful, wireless real-time panoramic video imaging and viewing system that can be made at lost cost in compact sizes to allow deployment in the battle field, in addition to many other military and civilian applications.